Dear Anne, Mary and SCI,
I am writing to share my thoughts with the SCI as a member of both the BC and the SCI. If any of my thoughts expressed below conflict with Mary Wong's pending response, I defer to her.
I am inclined to think that I am speaking for more than just myself when I say that the SCI recognizes, too, the importance of this issue Martin has raised, and that we would like to be able to provide answers and resolution to the potential for abuse of voting rights.
Unfortunately, the SCI's charter directs us to consider GNSO Council processes and procedures and Working Group guidelines that have been identified either by the GNSO Council or a group chartered by the GNSO Council as needing discussion (e.g. a WG). As the Business Constituency is one of the Constituencies within the Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG) referred to in Article X.5 of the ICANN bylaws, and as the BC's charter review is not at the request of the GNSO Council, Martin's request lies outside of the SCI's scope.
I am available to talk about this issue with Martin and/or with the BC Charter Review Drafting Team, and maybe determine together the optimal way forward. My suggestion is for the SCI to recommend that Martin raise this issue first inside the BC following the Drafting Team's completion of its first order of business--the charter review. In seeking BC consensus on the issue, requests for outside review will be thoroughly considered by the constituency, ideas for mitigation will be collected, and the best path forward with the issue will be determined and agreed upon by the BC membership.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
<martinsutton@hsbc.com>Date: Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 5:26 AM
Subject: RE: Request to the SCI - Vote switching
To: "Aikman-Scalese, Anne" <
AAikman@lrrlaw.com>
Cc: Angie Graves <
angie@webgroup.com>, "<
gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org>" <
gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org>, Julie Hedlund <
julie.hedlund@icann.org>, Mary Wong <
mary.wong@icann.org>, Ron Andruff <
randruff@rnapartners.com>
Dear Anne,
Thank you for your helpful response
and suggestion - all noted.
Kind regards,
Martin
Martin C SUTTON
Manager, Group Fraud Risk & Intelligence
Global Security & Fraud Risk
Level 8,1 Canada Square,Canary Wharf,London,E14 5AB,United Kingdom
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Protect our environment - please
only print this if you have to! |
From:
"Aikman-Scalese,
Anne" <AAikman@lrrlaw.com>
To:
Martin C SUTTON/HGHQ/HSBC@HSBC
Cc:
'Mary Wong' <mary.wong@icann.org>,
Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org>, "<gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org>"
<gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org>,
'Ron Andruff' <randruff@rnapartners.com>, 'Angie Graves' <angie@webgroup.com>
Date:
07/03/2015 22:20
Subject:
RE: Request
to the SCI - Vote switching
Martin,
Although SCI has not met,
there has been some discussion on the list regarding your request on behalf
of the BC Charter subteam.
Staff (Mary Wong) is drafting
a response to your request for SCI and will be circulating that response
to SCI members for purposes of developing a consensus on the recommended
approach for BC in this fact situation. At present we have no
calls scheduled. If SCI members are not in agreement with the approach
described in the draft response that staff is preparing, we will likely
need to schedule a call to discuss in more detail than achieved to date
on the list. In this regard, you may want to alert and brief the
BC members of SCI as to this particular issue since, to my knowledge, neither
one of the BC SCI appointees has commented in the discussion of this matter
on the SCI list.
Thank you,
Anne
From: martinsutton@hsbc.com [mailto:martinsutton@hsbc.com]
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 9:17 AM
To: Aikman-Scalese, Anne
Subject: Re: Request to the SCI - Vote switching
Dear Anne,
As a follow-up, could you please let me know when the SCI is next due to
meet/discuss the item raised below? I just want to manage expectations
with the BC Charter group, so an indicative time would be helpful.
Kind regards,
Martin
Martin C SUTTON
Manager, Group Fraud Risk & Intelligence
Global Security & Fraud Risk
Level 8,1 Canada Square,Canary Wharf,London,E14 5AB,United Kingdom
| __________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Protect our environment - please only print this if you have to! |
From: Martin
C SUTTON/HGHQ/HSBC
To: "Anne
Aikman-Scalese" <AAikman@LRRLaw.com>
Date: 26/02/2015
23:21
Subject: Re:
Request to the SCI - Vote switching
Thank you Anne, much appreciated.
Martin Sutton
Manager, Group Fraud Risk and Intelligence
Ph: ++44 (0)20 7991 8074
Mob: ++44 (0)777 4556680
Sent from my BlackBerry
*********************************
HSBC Holdings plc
Registered Office: 1 Canada Square, London E14 5AB, United Kingdom
Registered in England number 617987
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From: "Aikman-Scalese,
Anne" [AAikman@lrrlaw.com]
Sent: 26/02/2015 20:31 GMT
To: Martin C SUTTON
Subject: RE: Request to the SCI - Vote switching
Thanks Martin. I will bring this before SCI.
Anne
From: martinsutton@hsbc.com
[mailto:martinsutton@hsbc.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 12:30 PM
To: Aikman-Scalese, Anne
Subject: Request to the SCI - Vote switching
Dear Anne,
I am a member of the Business Constituency and currently working with the
BC Charter Review team. During our recent discussions, we identified
a potential issue that may affect GNSO Stakeholder Groups (SGs) and Constituencies
(Cs) which may warrant the attention of the SCI, which I understand you
currently chair.
With the introduction of New gTLDs, an increasing number of organisations
now meet the criteria of membership within multiple groups, even across
the contracting and non-contracting parties divide. The point in
question is in relation to the ability for a member of multiple SGs and
Cs to regularly switch their voting rights between these groups in a tactical
manner, so as to apply votes for elections/decisions where they may have
concerns with lack of representation within a specific group, at a specific
time. Whilst they may only vote in one of the SGs or Cs, there is no restriction
as to when and how frequently they may switch their voting power between
these groups. This could be too flexible and potentially allow the
system to be exploited.
I am pleased to say that there is no evidence that this is occurring but
as new members continue to increase, it seems sensible to consider preventative
measures be put in place to protect the GNSO for the future. As an
example, a multi-member organisation could be obliged to commit holding
it's voting rights within one group for a minimum term of 12 months before
switching to another group. Of course, this would need to be uniform
across all of the SGs and Cs, hence, we think it is appropriate to raise
this issue with the SCI for consideration.
I would be happy to discuss further and interested to know if you feel
this would be appropriate and worthwhile for the SCI to assess.
Kind regards,
Martin
Martin C SUTTON
Manager, Group Fraud Risk & Intelligence
Global Security & Fraud Risk
Level 8,1 Canada Square,Canary Wharf,London,E14 5AB,United Kingdom
| __________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Protect our environment - please only print this if you have to!
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