Hi, Thank you Denise for this response. To further clarify, since mention of the GA list has been left out of the newest Bylaws, I am also assuming that neither the GNSO council, nor its secretariat, has any responsibility for the list any longer. Is this correct? In any case, unless there is an objection from any council member, I will be dropping the item from the agenda of our next meeting today/ tomorrow. rgds, a. On 23 Sep 2009, at 23:58, Denise Michel wrote:

Dear Council Members,

I've been asked to provide some information regarding item 8 on tomorrow's Council meeting agenda ("GA List request for election support").

Under the current ICANN bylaws, there is no provision for any officers (or Secretariat) of the GA mailing list, nor any provisions regarding GNSO responsibility for the GA list. It is not an official structure within ICANN. Thus, ICANN Staff will not be “preparing a voting booth” or facilitating any election related to this list.

For those not familiar with this list, "GA" stands for "General Assembly," which was a structure within the original DNSO (predecessor to GNSO) that ceased to exist when the DNSO was restructured into the GNSO years ago. There was an expectation at the time that the new GNSO would replace the old GA email list with a substantive, cross-constituency discussion list, but that did not materialize. The list was left open, but there is no obligation by the GNSO to maintain it.

Please let me know if you have questions.

Regards, Denise

Denise Michel ICANN Vice President Policy Development denise.michel@icann.org +1.408.429.3072 mobile +1.310.578.8632 direct