Dear Councillors The Council approved at the meeting on 11 December 2014, Voting Outside a Meeting, as described in Section 4.10 in the revised GNSO Operating Procedures<http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13nov14-en.pdf> for the Council's reply comment on the Nominating Committee Recommendations from the Board Working Group. 31 December 2014 23:59 UTC Final Council reply comment<http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg16956.html> on the Nominating Committee Recommendations from the Board Working Group submitted to the Council mailing list. The electronic ballots have been sent to all the councilors eligible to vote. All ballots will be sent to the Council mailing list because it is an open and transparent vote as are all the votes taken at a Council meeting. Voting by electronic ballot: Voting Opens Saturday, 3 January 2015 Voting Closes on Tuesday 6 January 2015 at 23:59 UTC. If you foresee any connectivity issues during this period, please let me know so that alternate arrangements can be made. The results will be tallied at the end of the vote on 7 January 2015 and if the motion carries by a simple majority it will be submitted to the to the public comment forum<https://www.icann.org/public-comments/bwg-nomcom-2014-08-21-en> on or before 9 January 2015. All Council members, except the non-voting Nominating Committee Appointee are eligible to vote. 4. 10. 2<http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13nov14-en.pdf> Determination; Notice. Voting outside a meeting may only occur when all of the following conditions are met: a. The GNSO Chair determines, after discussion with Council members, that the issue will have been adequately discussed and sufficient time given to each Stakeholder Group and Constituency to consider the issue by the time the vote is called; b. The GNSO Chair determines, after discussion with Council members, that the Council's regular meeting schedule would make it difficult to resolve the issue without scheduling an extra meeting and this would be impractical in light of the circumstances at that time; c. No Councilor objects to the vote being taken outside a regularly scheduled Council meeting; and d. The GNSO Chair provides at least seven (7) calendar days' advance notice of the vote, along with notice of the beginning and ending day and hour of the voting period (in UTC), which period shall not be less than four (4) calendar days. 4. 10.3.1<http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13nov14-en.pdf> Guidelines for Voting Outside a Meeting As with votes taken during a regularly scheduled GNSO Council meeting, all votes taken outside a meeting will: a. Be open (i.e., not by secret ballot); b. Allow for the inclusion of voting statements in accordance with Section 4.3.2 of these Operating Procedures; and c. Have their outcomes published and recorded, with accompanying voter statements, if any, as minutes for purposes of formal record keeping. These items are to be prepared and approved in accordance with Section 3.5 of these Operating Procedures, except that the relevant time period shall commence with the ending of the voting period. 4.10.3.2 Voting outside a meeting should normally be by electronic means. Methods used to transmit and record votes taken outside of meetings shall be authenticated and verifiable using the same criteria and applying the same standards as those used for absentee ballots under Section 4.4.3 of these Operating Procedures. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you. Kind regards, Glen Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org<mailto:gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org> http://gnso.icann.org<http://gnso.icann.org/>