Hi all, During the 23 September SO/AC Leaders call with Goran, Maarten and Leon, the concept of an "Operational Design Phase" was introduced by Goran. We had a preliminary discussion on the topic and Goran indicated that ICANN would produce a paper for community consideration and feedback. That paper is attached here for your review, and Goran's email to the SO/AC Leaders is below. I'll highlight 3 points from Goran's note and from the discussion on the call: * The objective for the design phase is to better prepare the Board by providing operational and resourcing information before making decisions on GNSO-approved policy recommendations. * While the GNSO Council is the manager of the PDP and gTLD policy development is within the GNSO's remit, consensus policy making involves all stakeholders (including ACs who give advice to the Board). * This design phase concept doesn't affect policy development or the CPIF. It recognizes that if policy issues are impacted, they rightfully go back to the GNSO for its consideration, rather than permitting ICANN Org or Board to make unilateral changes. (I made this point during the call) Please review the attached paper and work within your SGs and Cs to develop feedback. Also, Karen Lentz will touch on this during our Tuesday Council Working Session. To Goran's last point about conducting a "fuller consultation on the gTLD policy lifecycle," we'll need to ensure that the GNSO Council and our SGs and Cs are prepared to engage where appropriate and in light of our ongoing PDP 3.0 work and the upcoming GNSO Review. Thanks and regards, Keith From: soac-chairs <soac-chairs-bounces@icann.org<mailto:soac-chairs-bounces@icann.org>> On Behalf Of Goran Marby Sent: Friday, October 2, 2020 3:19 PM To: soac-chairs@icann.org<mailto:soac-chairs@icann.org> Cc: Goran Marby <goran.marby@icann.org<mailto:goran.marby@icann.org>>; David Olive <david.olive@icann.org<mailto:david.olive@icann.org>>; Cassia Oliveira <cassia.oliveira@icann.org<mailto:cassia.oliveira@icann.org>> Subject: [EXTERNAL] [soac-chairs] Draft Operational Design Phase for gTLD Policy Implementation: For Initial Feedback. Cassia Oliveira on behalf of Goran Marby Dear SOAC leaders, Thank you again for taking the time to meet with Maarten and me last week. I am writing to follow up on one of ICANN org's action items from that call, which was for me to finalize and circulate to you a proposal for a new Operational Design Phase relating to the implementation of approved gTLD policies. As we discussed, the objective for an additional design phase is to allow the Board to obtain relevant information about any operational and resourcing issues associated with certain policy implementation efforts. Accordingly, the Operational Design Phase is envisioned to take place prior to Board action on GNSO-approved policy recommendations, initiated through a Board request to ICANN org. Our expectation is that an Operational Design Phase will likely only be needed for complex, costly or other large-scale implementation efforts. I appreciate the thoughtful and substantive discussion we had on this topic during our call. While gTLD policy development work is managed by the GNSO, the other Supporting Organizations and the Advisory Committees play important roles in ensuring that ICANN consensus policies are developed through community consensus and are appropriately resourced. Thank you for the comments and suggestions you made on the call, which we have tried to address as much as possible in this initial draft paper. Please circulate the paper to your community groups for their review and further discussion. As I mentioned on our call, ICANN org will continue to refine the paper and welcome your feedback as part of this iterative process. After ICANN69, we plan to conduct a fuller community consultation on the gTLD policy lifecycle, to include an updated version of this paper and to gather community feedback on any updates we can make to improve the efficacy and efficiency of the policy making process. Best regards, Göran Marby President & CEO ICANN +1(310) 578 8690 Cássia Oliveira Sr. Manager, Office of the President & CEO cassia.oliveira@icann.org<mailto:cassia.oliveira@icann.org> +1(310) 578 8656