Dear fellow Councilors and ICANN POLICY STAFF A few questions for both staff and fellow Councilors: I note that I haven't seen the minutes of our last two meetings. Can you repost, Glen, if the minutes are already available? I also ask whether the staff have been directed to forward the Council's resolution to the Board chair/Board? If not, can that be done shortly? I am concerned that our resolution related to the .com settlement may not be before the Board. I will be driving and on a cell phone during the call, and have given a proxy to Grant Forsyth, then to Philip Sheppard, should I be off the call. Finally, I offer the following proposal for fellow Councilors to consider regarding the gTLDS policy process: The Council should invite all constituencies to prepare their statements for contribution, BUT in ADDITION, and in parallel, other mechanism should be used to inform the policy development process. I describe a recommendation below that I've previously mentioned in less detail. 1) Given that we are losing about two weeks due to holiday, I propose that Council formally announce an extension in the initial comment process to extend it to the end of January. This would give more time to the Constituency statements, and also allow the following process to take place for more input into the policy development process. 2) I propose that Council direct the staff director, Olof Nordling, to manage a process on behalf of Council that would be structured consultation and input into the process. All of our constituencies and the broader community could undoubtedly benefit from the opportunity to hear from experts, rather than just gather opinions or make statements. Thus, I would suggest that the following guidelines be followed [or some modified version developed] 3) The Council should host two phone conferences with the following structure/format. a) Organizations, individuals, and interested parties should be invited to make presentations related to the questions that are contained in the ToR, and provide any other statements that they consider relevant. 20 minute slots would be reserved for anyone who submits a "white paper/PowerPoint" to the Staff Director. NOTE: This would NOT be a place for the Constituency Statements, since those will come into the process anyway, but offers a way to get unique contributions. For instance, outreach to the SSAC, to OECD, etc. might be useful to suggest that they may want to make a "presentation". b) the calls should be transcribed via a conference call transcription service and the transcripts would be posted c) all white papers or PowerPoint presentations would be made available and posted d) Do others think that there should also be 3 - 4 three minute slots at the end of each of the conference calls for "open mike" statements from those who don't bother to submit a white paper/PowerPoint? I would suggest that the presentations be limited to 15 minutes and a 5 minute clarification q and a be allowed. Given the time between here and Wellington, I would suggest that two calls be held, broken into two segments of 2 hours each. It is important to remember the constituencies and the ALAC will have their own consultation process to undertake as well, and thus, if we can do these calls in the early part of January, that would be most helpful. Again, I am proposing that we also recognize that the PDP time frames do not work, especially taking into account the holiday period and we formally extend the time frame now for the preparation of the initial submission of information to the Staff Manager. I also think that Council needs to be very realistic about the need to take extensive input; we may find that we need to have more than one round of input and discussion of the inputs to the questions, for instance. Finally, we need to discuss how best to establish a mechanism to have consultation with the other SOs, and with the GAC and SSAC. As I recall, that is part of our responsibility. We may want to schedule discussion sessions of 1-2 hours in Wellington, for instance. I hope to be on much of the call, but will be driving home and there may be transmission problems. My apologies for any interruption. Marilyn -------------------------------------------------------------------- Item 1: Approval of minutes of 28 Nov 2005 Item 2: Election of GNSO Council chair for period 4 Jan 06 to 3 Dec 2006 - nominations close on Friday 16 Dec 2005 - election to be held during the meeting Item 3: Next steps on new TLD policy development process - public comment period opened on 6 Dec 2005 http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-06dec05.htm ICANN bylaws section 8: "Procedure if No Task Force is Formed http://www.icann.org/general/archive-bylaws/bylaws-08apr05.htm#AnnexA a. If the Council decides not to convene a task force, the Council will request that, within ten (10) calendar days thereafter, each constituency appoint a representative to solicit the constituency's views on the issue. Each such representative shall be asked to submit a Constituency Statement to the Staff Manager within thirty-five (35) calendar days after initiation of the PDP. b. The Council may also pursue other options that it deems appropriate to assist in the PDP, including appointing a particular individual or organization to gather information on the issue or scheduling meetings for deliberation or briefing. All such information shall be submitted to the Staff Manager within thirty-five (35) calendar days after initiation of the PDP. c. The Staff Manager will take all Constituency Statements, Public Comment Statements, and other information and compile (and post on the Comment Site) an Initial Report within fifty (50) calendar days after initiation of the PDP. Thereafter, the PDP shall follow the provisions of Item 9 below in creating a Final Report." Item 4: IDN issues report Item 5: Update on initial planning for Wellington meeting -- Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat - ICANN gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org