WG Members, Below, you will find an extract of the Working Group Guidelines about participation in a GNSO Working Group. Participation is an essential element to the success of Working Groups, but we recognize some that have volunteered may choose to only be an observer. We welcome all volunteers. If you intend to only be an observer for this effort, please notify me directly. It will not preclude from attending a future meeting if you choose to join, but it will assist us in maintaining accuracy with our attendance records. For those members that do intend to participate regularly, we recognize that some may have scheduling conflicts with other activities preventing them from joining a meeting. In such cases, we ask that an apology of absence be sent to the WG mailing list. This will assist staff and Chair(s) in planning for the upcoming meeting. On rare occasions, a meeting might be rescheduled/cancelled if the Chair believes there will not be sufficient participation to complete the proposed agenda. ---- 3.1 Participation Members of a WG are expected to be active participants, either on the WG mailing lists and/or in the WG meetings, although some might opt to take an observer approach (monitor mailing lists and/or meetings). The WG Chair is expected to make an assessment at the start of every meeting whether a sufficient number of WG members are present to proceed with the meeting and discussions. A sufficient number has not been defined in exact numbers in this context, but should be understood as having a representative number of WG members present. For example, the Chair may decide that there is not a sufficient number of WG present to make decisions, but that there is a sufficient number of WG members to have initial discussions on a certain issue and following those initial discussions encourage members on the mailing list to share their views before a decision is made at a subsequent meeting. An attendance record will be kept of every WG meeting. If there is lack of participation resulting in meetings being cancelled and/or decisions being postponed, the Chair is expected to explore the reasons (e.g. issues with the schedule of meetings, conflict with other activities or priorities) and attempt to address them (e.g. review meeting schedule). If there is no obvious way to address the situation, the Chair should approach the Chartering Organization, Stakeholder Groups, or Constituencies for assistance (e.g. request for additional volunteers to the WG) on whether there is sufficient interest from the community to continue or whether the work should be delayed. ---- If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Thank you. B Berry A. Cobb Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers 720.839.5735 mail@berrycobb.com @berrycobb