Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers
Dear SCI members, In our last meeting on 08 October Ron Andruff suggested it would be helpful to frame the two new issues the GNSO Council has asked the SCI to study email voting and procedural waivers -- in the format of the questions listed in the charter. In addition, for future requests as Mikey O'Conner suggested staff will create an online form that requesters can complete when they have issues to bring to the SCI. The format in the charter is: 1. Which group do you represent? (E.g. Council, WG.) 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? 3. Please outline the problems 4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? 5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? In particular, the GNSO Council requested that the SCI should take up these two new issues in its Wrap Up meeting in Durban on 17 July. Accordingly, I've reviewed the transcript from that meeting and pulled out the relevant information from the brief discussion of these topics. I've put that information into the form of the questions from the charter. Please see the information below and also on the wiki at: https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/16+November+2013. These issues are on the agenda for the SCI's next meeting, which will be held face-to-face in Buenos Aires on Saturday, 16 November from 0700-0845 local time. The GNSO Secretariat will send out a notice and reminders for the meeting. Best Regards, Julie Julie Hedlund, Policy Director Email voting: 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Voting 3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to conduct votes outside of a meeting. 4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the Council transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "So I wanted - an issue I wanted us to consider maybe giving to the SCI and then to the group or to a committee to look at is I¹d like to rethink about whether potentially voting by email or something like that is a possibility? I know we¹ve looked at it on and off over the years.And if that would help speed things along it would be great to just look at that issue in just maybe we can¹t do it first time around obviously but for future..." He raised this issue because the Council was in the process of scheduling a special meeting in August to conduct a vote. 5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? Voting by email could in some circumstances enable the Council to avoid having to schedule a special meeting for a vote that has to occur quickly. Waivers and/or Exceptions to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Submitting a motion and possibly other procedures 3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to waive or invoke an exception to and of its operating procedures. An example is whether the deadline for submitting motions could be waived in certain circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "And essentially I wasn¹t empowered as chair by our rulebook to allow that motion to be put on the table even if technically although we have done it by precedent and prior practice, even if no one objected from the council I didn¹t really - there isn¹t really device in the rulebook to allow that to take place. So I personally I think that¹s an area we should look at is the - when and under what circumstances - formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council?" 4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. 5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? A waiver mechanism could allow the Council to consider a motion or document after the deadline of notice/submission to the Council has passed.
Thanks Julie. I will be coming in over Adobe from Miami Beach (INTA Leadership) on November 16. ( For some reason I had an SCI call on my calendar yesterday, but nobody was there so my mistake.) Regarding the two new items, can you provide us with the EXISTING rules on (1)Voting and (2) Waiving requirements in the Operating Procedures? Thanks and congrats to the Charter team on the approval of the new Charter! Anne [cid:image001.gif@01CED634.10C0D740] Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 AAikman@LRRLaw.com<mailto:AAikman@LRRLaw.com> | www.LRRLaw.com<http://www.lrrlaw.com/> [cid:image002.jpg@01CED634.10C0D740] Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP. From: owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org [mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org] On Behalf Of Julie Hedlund Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 11:48 AM To: gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org Subject: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Dear SCI members, In our last meeting on 08 October Ron Andruff suggested it would be helpful to frame the two new issues the GNSO Council has asked the SCI to study — email voting and procedural waivers -- in the format of the questions listed in the charter. In addition, for future requests as Mikey O'Conner suggested staff will create an online form that requesters can complete when they have issues to bring to the SCI. The format in the charter is: 1. Which group do you represent? (E.g. Council, WG.) 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? 3. Please outline the problems 4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? 5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? In particular, the GNSO Council requested that the SCI should take up these two new issues in its Wrap Up meeting in Durban on 17 July. Accordingly, I've reviewed the transcript from that meeting and pulled out the relevant information from the brief discussion of these topics. I've put that information into the form of the questions from the charter. Please see the information below and also on the wiki at: https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/16+November+2013. These issues are on the agenda for the SCI's next meeting, which will be held face-to-face in Buenos Aires on Saturday, 16 November from 0700-0845 local time. The GNSO Secretariat will send out a notice and reminders for the meeting. Best Regards, Julie Julie Hedlund, Policy Director Email voting: 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Voting 3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to conduct votes outside of a meeting. 1. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the Council transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "So I wanted - an issue I wanted us to consider maybe giving to the SCI and then to the group or to a committee to look at is I’d like to rethink about whether potentially voting by email or something like that is a possibility? I know we’ve looked at it on and off over the years.…And if that would help speed things along it would be great to just look at that issue in just maybe we can’t do it first time around obviously but for future..." He raised this issue because the Council was in the process of scheduling a special meeting in August to conduct a vote. 2. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? Voting by email could in some circumstances enable the Council to avoid having to schedule a special meeting for a vote that has to occur quickly. Waivers and/or Exceptions to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Submitting a motion and possibly other procedures 1. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to waive or invoke an exception to and of its operating procedures. An example is whether the deadline for submitting motions could be waived in certain circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "And essentially I wasn’t empowered as chair by our rulebook to allow that motion to be put on the table even if technically although we have done it by precedent and prior practice, even if no one objected from the council I didn’t really - there isn’t really device in the rulebook to allow that to take place. So I personally I think that’s an area we should look at is the - when and under what circumstances - formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council?" 2. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. 3. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? A waiver mechanism could allow the Council to consider a motion or document after the deadline of notice/submission to the Council has passed. ________________________________ This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If the reader of this message or an attachment is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message or attachment to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the sender. The information transmitted in this message and any attachments may be privileged, is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the intended recipients, and is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §2510-2521. In accordance with Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we advise you that if this message or any attachments contains any tax advice, such tax advice was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer.
Dear Anne, As the Council noted in Durban during its wrap up meeting, the current procedures do not include a process for the Council to hold a vote outside of a meeting, although they do allow absentee voting for certain votes and under certain conditions, but only follow a meeting during which a vote was taken. Please see Section 4.0 Voting in the GNSO Council Operating Procedures (page 11) at: http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13jun13-en.pdf. Also, the language in this section presumes that a vote is taking place at a meeting. For example, Section 4.1 Quorum says, "In order for the GNSO Council to initiate a vote, a quorum must be present." The word "present" implies presence at a meeting. Section 4.2 Voting Thresholds says, "For all votes taken, the number of eligible voters in each House shall be fixed to the number of seats allocated in the Bylaws (a.k.a. the denominator) and is not affected by the number of members present or absent at the meeting [emphasis added] in which the motion or other action is initiated." With respect to waiving requirements, as the Council noted there are no provisions in the procedures. One of the issues noted by the Council in Durban, for example, was that it could not consider a motion that was submitted after the deadline for submitting reports and motions. Section 3.3 Notice of Meetings states, "Reports and motions should be submitted to the GNSO Council for inclusion on the agenda as soon as possible, but no later than 23h59 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on the day, 10 calendar days before the GNSO Council meeting." There is no language in this section that allows the Council to make an exception to this notice requirement. Moreover, there is no general statement in the procedures that allows the Council to waive its procedures or as Jonathan noted below under which "formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council." I hope this is helpful, but please let me know if you have additional questions. Best regards, Julie From: <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne <AAikman@lrrlaw.com> Date: Thursday, October 31, 2013 3:23 PM To: Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org>, "gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org" <gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> Cc: "Cover, Cynthia" <CCover@lrrlaw.com> Subject: RE: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Thanks Julie. I will be coming in over Adobe from Miami Beach (INTA Leadership) on November 16. ( For some reason I had an SCI call on my calendar yesterday, but nobody was there so my mistake.) Regarding the two new items, can you provide us with the EXISTING rules on (1)Voting and (2) Waiving requirements in the Operating Procedures? Thanks and congrats to the Charter team on the approval of the new Charter! Anne Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 AAikman@LRRLaw.com | www.LRRLaw.com <http://www.lrrlaw.com/> Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP. From: owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org [mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org] On Behalf Of Julie Hedlund Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 11:48 AM To: gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org Subject: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Dear SCI members, In our last meeting on 08 October Ron Andruff suggested it would be helpful to frame the two new issues the GNSO Council has asked the SCI to study email voting and procedural waivers -- in the format of the questions listed in the charter. In addition, for future requests as Mikey O'Conner suggested staff will create an online form that requesters can complete when they have issues to bring to the SCI. The format in the charter is: 1. Which group do you represent? (E.g. Council, WG.) 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? 3. Please outline the problems 4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? 5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? In particular, the GNSO Council requested that the SCI should take up these two new issues in its Wrap Up meeting in Durban on 17 July. Accordingly, I've reviewed the transcript from that meeting and pulled out the relevant information from the brief discussion of these topics. I've put that information into the form of the questions from the charter. Please see the information below and also on the wiki at: https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/16+November+2013. These issues are on the agenda for the SCI's next meeting, which will be held face-to-face in Buenos Aires on Saturday, 16 November from 0700-0845 local time. The GNSO Secretariat will send out a notice and reminders for the meeting. Best Regards, Julie Julie Hedlund, Policy Director Email voting: 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Voting 3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to conduct votes outside of a meeting. 1. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the Council transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "So I wanted - an issue I wanted us to consider maybe giving to the SCI and then to the group or to a committee to look at is I¹d like to rethink about whether potentially voting by email or something like that is a possibility? I know we¹ve looked at it on and off over the years.And if that would help speed things along it would be great to just look at that issue in just maybe we can¹t do it first time around obviously but for future..." He raised this issue because the Council was in the process of scheduling a special meeting in August to conduct a vote. 2. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? Voting by email could in some circumstances enable the Council to avoid having to schedule a special meeting for a vote that has to occur quickly. Waivers and/or Exceptions to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Submitting a motion and possibly other procedures 1. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to waive or invoke an exception to and of its operating procedures. An example is whether the deadline for submitting motions could be waived in certain circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "And essentially I wasn¹t empowered as chair by our rulebook to allow that motion to be put on the table even if technically although we have done it by precedent and prior practice, even if no one objected from the council I didn¹t really - there isn¹t really device in the rulebook to allow that to take place. So I personally I think that¹s an area we should look at is the - when and under what circumstances - formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council?" 2. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. 3. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? A waiver mechanism could allow the Council to consider a motion or document after the deadline of notice/submission to the Council has passed. This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If the reader of this message or an attachment is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message or attachment to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the sender. The information transmitted in this message and any attachments may be privileged, is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the intended recipients, and is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §2510-2521. In accordance with Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we advise you that if this message or any attachments contains any tax advice, such tax advice was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer.
Thanks Julie - very helpful. One of the issues that is problematic in relation to the second task is that a Councilor won't know in advance of the meeting whether a requirement will be waived or not and thus may not have had time to address the issue(s) with his/her constituency or stakeholder group. Multiple late motions would present a large problem in relation to any given meeting. ( As to motions, it seems the ten calendar day advance notice has been working well in terms of the ability to brief stakeholders and receive input prior to GNSO Council meetings. ) We should likely look at several different types of situations that might make a waiver procedure desirable. Those who have been or are sitting on GNSO Council now may be good resources for suggestions as to various situations where waiver might be appropriate. Anne [cid:image001.gif@01CED64B.5185AF50] Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 AAikman@LRRLaw.com<mailto:AAikman@LRRLaw.com> | www.LRRLaw.com<http://www.lrrlaw.com/> [cid:image002.jpg@01CED64B.5185AF50] Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP. From: Julie Hedlund [mailto:julie.hedlund@icann.org] Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 2:58 PM To: Aikman-Scalese, Anne; gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org Cc: Cover, Cynthia Subject: Re: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Dear Anne, As the Council noted in Durban during its wrap up meeting, the current procedures do not include a process for the Council to hold a vote outside of a meeting, although they do allow absentee voting for certain votes and under certain conditions, but only follow a meeting during which a vote was taken. Please see Section 4.0 Voting in the GNSO Council Operating Procedures (page 11) at: http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13jun13-en.pdf. Also, the language in this section presumes that a vote is taking place at a meeting. For example, Section 4.1 Quorum says, "In order for the GNSO Council to initiate a vote, a quorum must be present." The word "present" implies presence at a meeting. Section 4.2 Voting Thresholds says, "For all votes taken, the number of eligible voters in each House shall be fixed to the number of seats allocated in the Bylaws (a.k.a. the denominator) and is not affected by the number of members present or absent at the meeting [emphasis added] in which the motion or other action is initiated." With respect to waiving requirements, as the Council noted there are no provisions in the procedures. One of the issues noted by the Council in Durban, for example, was that it could not consider a motion that was submitted after the deadline for submitting reports and motions. Section 3.3 Notice of Meetings states, "Reports and motions should be submitted to the GNSO Council for inclusion on the agenda as soon as possible, but no later than 23h59 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on the day, 10 calendar days before the GNSO Council meeting." There is no language in this section that allows the Council to make an exception to this notice requirement. Moreover, there is no general statement in the procedures that allows the Council to waive its procedures or as Jonathan noted below under which "formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council." I hope this is helpful, but please let me know if you have additional questions. Best regards, Julie From: <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne <AAikman@lrrlaw.com<mailto:AAikman@lrrlaw.com>> Date: Thursday, October 31, 2013 3:23 PM To: Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org<mailto:julie.hedlund@icann.org>>, "gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org<mailto:gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org>" <gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org<mailto:gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org>> Cc: "Cover, Cynthia" <CCover@lrrlaw.com<mailto:CCover@lrrlaw.com>> Subject: RE: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Thanks Julie. I will be coming in over Adobe from Miami Beach (INTA Leadership) on November 16. ( For some reason I had an SCI call on my calendar yesterday, but nobody was there so my mistake.) Regarding the two new items, can you provide us with the EXISTING rules on (1)Voting and (2) Waiving requirements in the Operating Procedures? Thanks and congrats to the Charter team on the approval of the new Charter! Anne [cid:image001.gif@01CED64B.5185AF50] Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 AAikman@LRRLaw.com<mailto:AAikman@LRRLaw.com> | www.LRRLaw.com<http://www.lrrlaw.com/> [cid:image002.jpg@01CED64B.5185AF50] Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP. From: owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org<mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> [mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org] On Behalf Of Julie Hedlund Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 11:48 AM To: gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org<mailto:gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> Subject: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Dear SCI members, In our last meeting on 08 October Ron Andruff suggested it would be helpful to frame the two new issues the GNSO Council has asked the SCI to study - email voting and procedural waivers -- in the format of the questions listed in the charter. In addition, for future requests as Mikey O'Conner suggested staff will create an online form that requesters can complete when they have issues to bring to the SCI. The format in the charter is: 1. Which group do you represent? (E.g. Council, WG.) 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? 3. Please outline the problems 4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? 5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? In particular, the GNSO Council requested that the SCI should take up these two new issues in its Wrap Up meeting in Durban on 17 July. Accordingly, I've reviewed the transcript from that meeting and pulled out the relevant information from the brief discussion of these topics. I've put that information into the form of the questions from the charter. Please see the information below and also on the wiki at: https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/16+November+2013. These issues are on the agenda for the SCI's next meeting, which will be held face-to-face in Buenos Aires on Saturday, 16 November from 0700-0845 local time. The GNSO Secretariat will send out a notice and reminders for the meeting. Best Regards, Julie Julie Hedlund, Policy Director Email voting: 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Voting 3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to conduct votes outside of a meeting. 1. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the Council transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "So I wanted - an issue I wanted us to consider maybe giving to the SCI and then to the group or to a committee to look at is I'd like to rethink about whether potentially voting by email or something like that is a possibility? I know we've looked at it on and off over the years....And if that would help speed things along it would be great to just look at that issue in just maybe we can't do it first time around obviously but for future..." He raised this issue because the Council was in the process of scheduling a special meeting in August to conduct a vote. 2. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? Voting by email could in some circumstances enable the Council to avoid having to schedule a special meeting for a vote that has to occur quickly. Waivers and/or Exceptions to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Submitting a motion and possibly other procedures 1. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to waive or invoke an exception to and of its operating procedures. An example is whether the deadline for submitting motions could be waived in certain circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "And essentially I wasn't empowered as chair by our rulebook to allow that motion to be put on the table even if technically although we have done it by precedent and prior practice, even if no one objected from the council I didn't really - there isn't really device in the rulebook to allow that to take place. So I personally I think that's an area we should look at is the - when and under what circumstances - formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council?" 2. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. 3. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? A waiver mechanism could allow the Council to consider a motion or document after the deadline of notice/submission to the Council has passed. ________________________________ This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If the reader of this message or an attachment is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message or attachment to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the sender. The information transmitted in this message and any attachments may be privileged, is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the intended recipients, and is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §2510-2521. In accordance with Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we advise you that if this message or any attachments contains any tax advice, such tax advice was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer. ________________________________ This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If the reader of this message or an attachment is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message or attachment to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the sender. The information transmitted in this message and any attachments may be privileged, is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the intended recipients, and is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §2510-2521. In accordance with Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we advise you that if this message or any attachments contains any tax advice, such tax advice was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer.
Thank you Anne. Those are all important points. I think you are right that there could be a lot of variables to consider with respect to waivers. Best regards, Julie From: <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne <AAikman@lrrlaw.com> Date: Thursday, October 31, 2013 6:18 PM To: Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org>, "gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org" <gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> Cc: "Cover, Cynthia" <CCover@lrrlaw.com> Subject: RE: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Thanks Julie very helpful. One of the issues that is problematic in relation to the second task is that a Councilor won¹t know in advance of the meeting whether a requirement will be waived or not and thus may not have had time to address the issue(s) with his/her constituency or stakeholder group. Multiple late motions would present a large problem in relation to any given meeting. ( As to motions, it seems the ten calendar day advance notice has been working well in terms of the ability to brief stakeholders and receive input prior to GNSO Council meetings. ) We should likely look at several different types of situations that might make a waiver procedure desirable. Those who have been or are sitting on GNSO Council now may be good resources for suggestions as to various situations where waiver might be appropriate. Anne Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 AAikman@LRRLaw.com <mailto:AAikman@LRRLaw.com> | www.LRRLaw.com <http://www.lrrlaw.com/> Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP. From: Julie Hedlund [mailto:julie.hedlund@icann.org] Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 2:58 PM To: Aikman-Scalese, Anne; gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org Cc: Cover, Cynthia Subject: Re: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Dear Anne, As the Council noted in Durban during its wrap up meeting, the current procedures do not include a process for the Council to hold a vote outside of a meeting, although they do allow absentee voting for certain votes and under certain conditions, but only follow a meeting during which a vote was taken. Please see Section 4.0 Voting in the GNSO Council Operating Procedures (page 11) at: http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13jun13-en.pdf <http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13jun13-en.pdf> . Also, the language in this section presumes that a vote is taking place at a meeting. For example, Section 4.1 Quorum says, "In order for the GNSO Council to initiate a vote, a quorum must be present." The word "present" implies presence at a meeting. Section 4.2 Voting Thresholds says, "For all votes taken, the number of eligible voters in each House shall be fixed to the number of seats allocated in the Bylaws (a.k.a. the denominator) and is not affected by the number of members present or absent at the meeting [emphasis added] in which the motion or other action is initiated." With respect to waiving requirements, as the Council noted there are no provisions in the procedures. One of the issues noted by the Council in Durban, for example, was that it could not consider a motion that was submitted after the deadline for submitting reports and motions. Section 3.3 Notice of Meetings states, "Reports and motions should be submitted to the GNSO Council for inclusion on the agenda as soon as possible, but no later than 23h59 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on the day, 10 calendardays before the GNSO Council meeting." There is no language in this section that allows the Council to make an exception to this notice requirement. Moreover, there is no general statement in the procedures that allows the Council to waive its procedures or as Jonathan noted below under which "formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council." I hope this is helpful, but please let me know if you have additional questions. Best regards, Julie From: <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne <AAikman@lrrlaw.com> Date: Thursday, October 31, 2013 3:23 PM To: Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org>, "gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org" <gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> Cc: "Cover, Cynthia" <CCover@lrrlaw.com> Subject: RE: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Thanks Julie. I will be coming in over Adobe from Miami Beach (INTA Leadership) on November 16. ( For some reason I had an SCI call on my calendar yesterday, but nobody was there so my mistake.) Regarding the two new items, can you provide us with the EXISTING rules on (1)Voting and (2) Waiving requirements in the Operating Procedures? Thanks and congrats to the Charter team on the approval of the new Charter! Anne Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 AAikman@LRRLaw.com | www.LRRLaw.com <http://www.lrrlaw.com/> Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP. From:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org [mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org] On Behalf Of Julie Hedlund Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 11:48 AM To: gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org Subject: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Dear SCI members, In our last meeting on 08 October Ron Andruff suggested it would be helpful to frame the two new issues the GNSO Council has asked the SCI to study email voting and procedural waivers -- in the format of the questions listed in the charter. In addition, for future requests as Mikey O'Conner suggested staff will create an online form that requesters can complete when they have issues to bring to the SCI. The format in the charter is: 1. Which group do you represent? (E.g. Council, WG.) 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? 3. Please outline the problems 4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? 5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? In particular, the GNSO Council requested that the SCI should take up these two new issues in its Wrap Up meeting in Durban on 17 July. Accordingly, I've reviewed the transcript from that meeting and pulled out the relevant information from the brief discussion of these topics. I've put that information into the form of the questions from the charter. Please see the information below and also on the wiki at: https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/16+November+2013. These issues are on the agenda for the SCI's next meeting, which will be held face-to-face in Buenos Aires on Saturday, 16 November from 0700-0845 local time. The GNSO Secretariat will send out a notice and reminders for the meeting. Best Regards, Julie Julie Hedlund, Policy Director Email voting: 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Voting 3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to conduct votes outside of a meeting. 1. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the Council transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "So I wanted - an issue I wanted us to consider maybe giving to the SCI and then to the group or to a committee to look at is I¹d like to rethink about whether potentially voting by email or something like that is a possibility? I know we¹ve looked at it on and off over the years.And if that would help speed things along it would be great to just look at that issue in just maybe we can¹t do it first time around obviously but for future..." He raised this issue because the Council was in the process of scheduling a special meeting in August to conduct a vote. 2. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? Voting by email could in some circumstances enable the Council to avoid having to schedule a special meeting for a vote that has to occur quickly. Waivers and/or Exceptions to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Submitting a motion and possibly other procedures 1. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to waive or invoke an exception to and of its operating procedures. An example is whether the deadline for submitting motions could be waived in certain circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "And essentially I wasn¹t empowered as chair by our rulebook to allow that motion to be put on the table even if technically although we have done it by precedent and prior practice, even if no one objected from the council I didn¹t really - there isn¹t really device in the rulebook to allow that to take place. So I personally I think that¹s an area we should look at is the - when and under what circumstances - formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council?" 2. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. 3. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? A waiver mechanism could allow the Council to consider a motion or document after the deadline of notice/submission to the Council has passed. This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If the reader of this message or an attachment is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message or attachment to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the sender. The information transmitted in this message and any attachments may be privileged, is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the intended recipients, and is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §2510-2521. 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The information transmitted in this message and any attachments may be privileged, is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the intended recipients, and is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §2510-2521. In accordance with Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we advise you that if this message or any attachments contains any tax advice, such tax advice was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer.
All, with respect to the question of waivers, I guess there is a comparable scenario in corporate law that may be useful. Procedural requirements such as invitation periods or other formal requirements for invitations to shareholders' meetings can be waived only on condition that the waiver is supported unanimously. For our scenario that could mean that a waiver would only be possible if all Councillors unanimously support it. That would give the Council flexibility to take action on motions that are undisputed, but where i.e. the motions deadline has been missed. On the other hand, where a Councillor is not in a position to take action, e.g. because he or she could not discuss the matter sufficiently with the respective group, the Councillor would not support the waiver and then the waiver cannot be granted and the situation would remain as it is today. Thanks, Thomas ============= thomas-rickert.tel +49.228.74.898.0
Am 01.11.2013 um 14:32 schrieb Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org>:
Thank you Anne. Those are all important points. I think you are right that there could be a lot of variables to consider with respect to waivers.
Best regards, Julie
From: <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne <AAikman@lrrlaw.com> Date: Thursday, October 31, 2013 6:18 PM To: Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org>, "gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org" <gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> Cc: "Cover, Cynthia" <CCover@lrrlaw.com> Subject: RE: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers
Thanks Julie – very helpful. One of the issues that is problematic in relation to the second task is that a Councilor won’t know in advance of the meeting whether a requirement will be waived or not and thus may not have had time to address the issue(s) with his/her constituency or stakeholder group. Multiple late motions would present a large problem in relation to any given meeting. ( As to motions, it seems the ten calendar day advance notice has been working well in terms of the ability to brief stakeholders and receive input prior to GNSO Council meetings. )
We should likely look at several different types of situations that might make a waiver procedure desirable. Those who have been or are sitting on GNSO Council now may be good resources for suggestions as to various situations where waiver might be appropriate.
Anne
<image001.gif> Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 AAikman@LRRLaw.com | www.LRRLaw.com
<image002.jpg> Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP.
From: Julie Hedlund [mailto:julie.hedlund@icann.org] Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 2:58 PM To: Aikman-Scalese, Anne; gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org Cc: Cover, Cynthia Subject: Re: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers
Dear Anne,
As the Council noted in Durban during its wrap up meeting, the current procedures do not include a process for the Council to hold a vote outside of a meeting, although they do allow absentee voting for certain votes and under certain conditions, but only follow a meeting during which a vote was taken. Please see Section 4.0 Voting in the GNSO Council Operating Procedures (page 11) at: http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13jun13-en.pdf. Also, the language in this section presumes that a vote is taking place at a meeting. For example, Section 4.1 Quorum says, "In order for the GNSO Council to initiate a vote, a quorum must be present." The word "present" implies presence at a meeting. Section 4.2 Voting Thresholds says, "For all votes taken, the number of eligible voters in each House shall be fixed to the number of seats allocated in the Bylaws (a.k.a. the denominator) and is not affected by the number of members present or absent at the meeting [emphasis added] in which the motion or other action is initiated."
With respect to waiving requirements, as the Council noted there are no provisions in the procedures. One of the issues noted by the Council in Durban, for example, was that it could not consider a motion that was submitted after the deadline for submitting reports and motions. Section 3.3 Notice of Meetings states, "Reports and motions should be submitted to the GNSO Council for inclusion on the agenda as soon as possible, but no later than 23h59 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on the day, 10 calendardays before the GNSO Council meeting." There is no language in this section that allows the Council to make an exception to this notice requirement. Moreover, there is no general statement in the procedures that allows the Council to waive its procedures or as Jonathan noted below under which "formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council."
I hope this is helpful, but please let me know if you have additional questions.
Best regards, Julie
From: <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne <AAikman@lrrlaw.com> Date: Thursday, October 31, 2013 3:23 PM To: Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org>, "gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org" <gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> Cc: "Cover, Cynthia" <CCover@lrrlaw.com> Subject: RE: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers
Thanks Julie. I will be coming in over Adobe from Miami Beach (INTA Leadership) on November 16. ( For some reason I had an SCI call on my calendar yesterday, but nobody was there so my mistake.)
Regarding the two new items, can you provide us with the EXISTING rules on (1)Voting and (2) Waiving requirements in the Operating Procedures?
Thanks and congrats to the Charter team on the approval of the new Charter! Anne
<image001.gif> Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 AAikman@LRRLaw.com | www.LRRLaw.com
<image002.jpg> Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP.
From:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org [mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org] On Behalf Of Julie Hedlund Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 11:48 AM To: gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org Subject: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers
Dear SCI members,
In our last meeting on 08 October Ron Andruff suggested it would be helpful to frame the two new issues the GNSO Council has asked the SCI to study — email voting and procedural waivers -- in the format of the questions listed in the charter. In addition, for future requests as Mikey O'Conner suggested staff will create an online form that requesters can complete when they have issues to bring to the SCI. The format in the charter is: Which group do you represent? (E.g. Council, WG.) To which rules or processes do you refer? Please outline the problems What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer?
In particular, the GNSO Council requested that the SCI should take up these two new issues in its Wrap Up meeting in Durban on 17 July. Accordingly, I've reviewed the transcript from that meeting and pulled out the relevant information from the brief discussion of these topics. I've put that information into the form of the questions from the charter. Please see the information below and also on the wiki at: https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/16+November+2013. These issues are on the agenda for the SCI's next meeting, which will be held face-to-face in Buenos Aires on Saturday, 16 November from 0700-0845 local time. The GNSO Secretariat will send out a notice and reminders for the meeting.
Best Regards,
Julie
Julie Hedlund, Policy Director
Email voting: 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Voting 3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to conduct votes outside of a meeting. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the Council transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "So I wanted - an issue I wanted us to consider maybe giving to the SCI and then to the group or to a committee to look at is I’d like to rethink about whether potentially voting by email or something like that is a possibility? I know we’ve looked at it on and off over the years.…And if that would help speed things along it would be great to just look at that issue in just maybe we can’t do it first time around obviously but for future..." He raised this issue because the Council was in the process of scheduling a special meeting in August to conduct a vote. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? Voting by email could in some circumstances enable the Council to avoid having to schedule a special meeting for a vote that has to occur quickly.
Waivers and/or Exceptions to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Submitting a motion and possibly other procedures Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to waive or invoke an exception to and of its operating procedures. An example is whether the deadline for submitting motions could be waived in certain circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "And essentially I wasn’t empowered as chair by our rulebook to allow that motion to be put on the table even if technically although we have done it by precedent and prior practice, even if no one objected from the council I didn’t really - there isn’t really device in the rulebook to allow that to take place. So I personally I think that’s an area we should look at is the - when and under what circumstances - formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council?" What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? A waiver mechanism could allow the Council to consider a motion or document after the deadline of notice/submission to the Council has passed.
This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If the reader of this message or an attachment is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message or attachment to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the sender. The information transmitted in this message and any attachments may be privileged, is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the intended recipients, and is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §2510-2521.
In accordance with Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we advise you that if this message or any attachments contains any tax advice, such tax advice was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer.
This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If the reader of this message or an attachment is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message or attachment to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the sender. The information transmitted in this message and any attachments may be privileged, is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the intended recipients, and is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §2510-2521.
In accordance with Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we advise you that if this message or any attachments contains any tax advice, such tax advice was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer. <image001.gif> <image002.jpg>
To echo what Thomas outlines below, in the past the GNSO Council on occasion waived its rules through the mechanism of non-objection. The cases that I recall, related to the late submission of motions. In those instances there was either a sense of urgency and/or a a motion that was considered non-controversial and supported by all. In order to establish whether there would be support for doing so, the Chair would typically ask whether there would be any objections to considering the motion despite not having met the deadline. If there would be no objections, the motion could be considered. If there were objections, the motion would not be considered. However, at the meeting in Durban it was pointed out that there is actually no formal waiver included in the GNSO Operating Procedures. Most agreed that it would be helpful to consider including such a formal waiver in the GNSO Operating Procedures in order to formalise this practice. As such, I'm not really sure whether there are any variables that would need to be considered as the basic principle would be that in any case of objection / non-support the waiver would not apply. Taking into account the feedback that Thomas provided in relation to corporate law and the GNSO Council's past practice, the main question seems to be whether such a waiver would apply through unanimous support (would a vote need to be taken, or formal position need to be stated by each Councillor) or non-objection (only those objecting to the waiver are asked to indicate their non-support). Best regards, Marika From: Thomas Rickert <rickert@anwaelte.de> Date: Saturday 2 November 2013 13:04 To: Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org> Cc: "Aikman-Scalese, Anne" <AAikman@lrrlaw.com>, "gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org" <gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org>, "Cover, Cynthia" <CCover@lrrlaw.com> Subject: Re: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Re: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers All, with respect to the question of waivers, I guess there is a comparable scenario in corporate law that may be useful. Procedural requirements such as invitation periods or other formal requirements for invitations to shareholders' meetings can be waived only on condition that the waiver is supported unanimously. For our scenario that could mean that a waiver would only be possible if all Councillors unanimously support it. That would give the Council flexibility to take action on motions that are undisputed, but where i.e. the motions deadline has been missed. On the other hand, where a Councillor is not in a position to take action, e.g. because he or she could not discuss the matter sufficiently with the respective group, the Councillor would not support the waiver and then the waiver cannot be granted and the situation would remain as it is today. Thanks, Thomas ============= thomas-rickert.tel +49.228.74.898.0 Am 01.11.2013 um 14:32 schrieb Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org>:
Thank you Anne. Those are all important points. I think you are right that there could be a lot of variables to consider with respect to waivers.
Best regards, Julie
From: <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne <AAikman@lrrlaw.com> Date: Thursday, October 31, 2013 6:18 PM To: Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org>, "gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org" <gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> Cc: "Cover, Cynthia" <CCover@lrrlaw.com> Subject: RE: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers
Thanks Julie very helpful. One of the issues that is problematic in relation to the second task is that a Councilor won¹t know in advance of the meeting whether a requirement will be waived or not and thus may not have had time to address the issue(s) with his/her constituency or stakeholder group. Multiple late motions would present a large problem in relation to any given meeting. ( As to motions, it seems the ten calendar day advance notice has been working well in terms of the ability to brief stakeholders and receive input prior to GNSO Council meetings. )
We should likely look at several different types of situations that might make a waiver procedure desirable. Those who have been or are sitting on GNSO Council now may be good resources for suggestions as to various situations where waiver might be appropriate.
Anne
<image001.gif>Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 AAikman@LRRLaw.com <mailto:AAikman@LRRLaw.com> | www.LRRLaw.com <http://www.lrrlaw.com/>
<image002.jpg>Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP.
From: Julie Hedlund [mailto:julie.hedlund@icann.org] Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 2:58 PM To: Aikman-Scalese, Anne; gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org Cc: Cover, Cynthia Subject: Re: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers
Dear Anne,
As the Council noted in Durban during its wrap up meeting, the current procedures do not include a process for the Council to hold a vote outside of a meeting, although they do allow absentee voting for certain votes and under certain conditions, but only follow a meeting during which a vote was taken. Please see Section 4.0 Voting in the GNSO Council Operating Procedures (page 11) at: http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13jun13-en.pdf <http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13jun13-en.pdf> . Also, the language in this section presumes that a vote is taking place at a meeting. For example, Section 4.1 Quorum says, "In order for the GNSO Council to initiate a vote, a quorum must be present." The word "present" implies presence at a meeting. Section 4.2 Voting Thresholds says, "For all votes taken, the number of eligible voters in each House shall be fixed to the number of seats allocated in the Bylaws (a.k.a. the denominator) and is not affected by the number of members present or absent at the meeting [emphasis added] in which the motion or other action is initiated."
With respect to waiving requirements, as the Council noted there are no provisions in the procedures. One of the issues noted by the Council in Durban, for example, was that it could not consider a motion that was submitted after the deadline for submitting reports and motions. Section 3.3 Notice of Meetings states, "Reports and motions should be submitted to the GNSO Council for inclusion on the agenda as soon as possible, but no later than 23h59 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on the day, 10 calendardays before the GNSO Council meeting." There is no language in this section that allows the Council to make an exception to this notice requirement. Moreover, there is no general statement in the procedures that allows the Council to waive its procedures or as Jonathan noted below under which "formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council."
I hope this is helpful, but please let me know if you have additional questions.
Best regards,
Julie
From: <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne <AAikman@lrrlaw.com> Date: Thursday, October 31, 2013 3:23 PM To: Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org>, "gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org" <gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> Cc: "Cover, Cynthia" <CCover@lrrlaw.com> Subject: RE: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers
Thanks Julie. I will be coming in over Adobe from Miami Beach (INTA Leadership) on November 16. ( For some reason I had an SCI call on my calendar yesterday, but nobody was there so my mistake.)
Regarding the two new items, can you provide us with the EXISTING rules on (1)Voting and (2) Waiving requirements in the Operating Procedures?
Thanks and congrats to the Charter team on the approval of the new Charter! Anne
<image001.gif>Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 AAikman@LRRLaw.com | www.LRRLaw.com <http://www.lrrlaw.com/>
<image002.jpg>Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP.
From:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org [mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org] On Behalf Of Julie Hedlund Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 11:48 AM To: gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org Subject: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers
Dear SCI members,
In our last meeting on 08 October Ron Andruff suggested it would be helpful to frame the two new issues the GNSO Council has asked the SCI to study email voting and procedural waivers -- in the format of the questions listed in the charter. In addition, for future requests as Mikey O'Conner suggested staff will create an online form that requesters can complete when they have issues to bring to the SCI. The format in the charter is: 1. Which group do you represent? (E.g. Council, WG.) 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? 3. Please outline the problems 4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? 5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer?
In particular, the GNSO Council requested that the SCI should take up these two new issues in its Wrap Up meeting in Durban on 17 July. Accordingly, I've reviewed the transcript from that meeting and pulled out the relevant information from the brief discussion of these topics. I've put that information into the form of the questions from the charter. Please see the information below and also on the wiki at: https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/16+November+2013. These issues are on the agenda for the SCI's next meeting, which will be held face-to-face in Buenos Aires on Saturday, 16 November from 0700-0845 local time. The GNSO Secretariat will send out a notice and reminders for the meeting.
Best Regards,
Julie
Julie Hedlund, Policy Director
Email voting:
1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Voting 3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to conduct votes outside of a meeting. 1. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the Council transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "So I wanted - an issue I wanted us to consider maybe giving to the SCI and then to the group or to a committee to look at is I¹d like to rethink about whether potentially voting by email or something like that is a possibility? I know we¹ve looked at it on and off over the years.And if that would help speed things along it would be great to just look at that issue in just maybe we can¹t do it first time around obviously but for future..." He raised this issue because the Council was in the process of scheduling a special meeting in August to conduct a vote. 2. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? Voting by email could in some circumstances enable the Council to avoid having to schedule a special meeting for a vote that has to occur quickly.
Waivers and/or Exceptions to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures
1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Submitting a motion and possibly other procedures 1. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to waive or invoke an exception to and of its operating procedures. An example is whether the deadline for submitting motions could be waived in certain circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "And essentially I wasn¹t empowered as chair by our rulebook to allow that motion to be put on the table even if technically although we have done it by precedent and prior practice, even if no one objected from the council I didn¹t really - there isn¹t really device in the rulebook to allow that to take place. So I personally I think that¹s an area we should look at is the - when and under what circumstances - formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council?" 2. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. 3. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? A waiver mechanism could allow the Council to consider a motion or document after the deadline of notice/submission to the Council has passed.
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Thanks to Thomas, Anne and others for fleshing this issue out in advance of our meeting 9 days from now in BA. I would ask all members to give this matter some thought and bring their comments to the list as well. Looking forward to seeing you all in BA shortly. Kind regards, RA Ron Andruff RNA Partners <http://www.rnapartners.com> www.rnapartners.com From: owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org [mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Rickert Sent: Saturday, November 2, 2013 07:04 To: Julie Hedlund Cc: Aikman-Scalese, Anne; gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org; Cover, Cynthia Subject: Re: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Re: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers All, with respect to the question of waivers, I guess there is a comparable scenario in corporate law that may be useful. Procedural requirements such as invitation periods or other formal requirements for invitations to shareholders' meetings can be waived only on condition that the waiver is supported unanimously. For our scenario that could mean that a waiver would only be possible if all Councillors unanimously support it. That would give the Council flexibility to take action on motions that are undisputed, but where i.e. the motions deadline has been missed. On the other hand, where a Councillor is not in a position to take action, e.g. because he or she could not discuss the matter sufficiently with the respective group, the Councillor would not support the waiver and then the waiver cannot be granted and the situation would remain as it is today. Thanks, Thomas ============= thomas-rickert.tel +49.228.74.898.0 Am 01.11.2013 um 14:32 schrieb Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org <mailto:julie.hedlund@icann.org> >: Thank you Anne. Those are all important points. I think you are right that there could be a lot of variables to consider with respect to waivers. Best regards, Julie From: <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne < <mailto:AAikman@lrrlaw.com> AAikman@lrrlaw.com> Date: Thursday, October 31, 2013 6:18 PM To: Julie Hedlund < <mailto:julie.hedlund@icann.org> julie.hedlund@icann.org>, " <mailto:gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org" < <mailto:gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> Cc: "Cover, Cynthia" < <mailto:CCover@lrrlaw.com> CCover@lrrlaw.com> Subject: RE: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Thanks Julie – very helpful. One of the issues that is problematic in relation to the second task is that a Councilor won’t know in advance of the meeting whether a requirement will be waived or not and thus may not have had time to address the issue(s) with his/her constituency or stakeholder group. Multiple late motions would present a large problem in relation to any given meeting. ( As to motions, it seems the ten calendar day advance notice has been working well in terms of the ability to brief stakeholders and receive input prior to GNSO Council meetings. ) We should likely look at several different types of situations that might make a waiver procedure desirable. Those who have been or are sitting on GNSO Council now may be good resources for suggestions as to various situations where waiver might be appropriate. Anne <image001.gif> Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 <mailto:AAikman@LRRLaw.com> AAikman@LRRLaw.com | <http://www.lrrlaw.com/> www.LRRLaw.com <image002.jpg> Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP. From: Julie Hedlund [ <mailto:julie.hedlund@icann.org> mailto:julie.hedlund@icann.org] Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 2:58 PM To: Aikman-Scalese, Anne; <mailto:gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org Cc: Cover, Cynthia Subject: Re: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Dear Anne, As the Council noted in Durban during its wrap up meeting, the current procedures do not include a process for the Council to hold a vote outside of a meeting, although they do allow absentee voting for certain votes and under certain conditions, but only follow a meeting during which a vote was taken. Please see Section 4.0 Voting in the GNSO Council Operating Procedures (page 11) at: <http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13jun13-en.pdf> http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13jun13-en.pdf. Also, the language in this section presumes that a vote is taking place at a meeting. For example, Section 4.1 Quorum says, "In order for the GNSO Council to initiate a vote, a quorum must be present." The word "present" implies presence at a meeting. Section 4.2 Voting Thresholds says, "For all votes taken, the number of eligible voters in each House shall be fixed to the number of seats allocated in the Bylaws (a.k.a. the denominator) and is not affected by the number of members present or absent at the meeting [emphasis added] in which the motion or other action is initiated." With respect to waiving requirements, as the Council noted there are no provisions in the procedures. One of the issues noted by the Council in Durban, for example, was that it could not consider a motion that was submitted after the deadline for submitting reports and motions. Section 3.3 Notice of Meetings states, "Reports and motions should be submitted to the GNSO Council for inclusion on the agenda as soon as possible, but no later than 23h59 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on the day, 10 calendardays before the GNSO Council meeting." There is no language in this section that allows the Council to make an exception to this notice requirement. Moreover, there is no general statement in the procedures that allows the Council to waive its procedures or as Jonathan noted below under which "formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council." I hope this is helpful, but please let me know if you have additional questions. Best regards, Julie From: <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne < <mailto:AAikman@lrrlaw.com> AAikman@lrrlaw.com> Date: Thursday, October 31, 2013 3:23 PM To: Julie Hedlund < <mailto:julie.hedlund@icann.org> julie.hedlund@icann.org>, " <mailto:gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org" < <mailto:gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> Cc: "Cover, Cynthia" < <mailto:CCover@lrrlaw.com> CCover@lrrlaw.com> Subject: RE: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Thanks Julie. I will be coming in over Adobe from Miami Beach (INTA Leadership) on November 16. ( For some reason I had an SCI call on my calendar yesterday, but nobody was there so my mistake.) Regarding the two new items, can you provide us with the EXISTING rules on (1)Voting and (2) Waiving requirements in the Operating Procedures? Thanks and congrats to the Charter team on the approval of the new Charter! Anne <image001.gif> Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700 One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611 (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725 <mailto:AAikman@LRRLaw.com> AAikman@LRRLaw.com | <http://www.lrrlaw.com/> www.LRRLaw.com <image002.jpg> Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP. From: <mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org [ <mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org] On Behalf Of Julie Hedlund Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 11:48 AM To: <mailto:gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org> gnso-improvem-impl-sc@icann.org Subject: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers Dear SCI members, In our last meeting on 08 October Ron Andruff suggested it would be helpful to frame the two new issues the GNSO Council has asked the SCI to study — email voting and procedural waivers -- in the format of the questions listed in the charter. In addition, for future requests as Mikey O'Conner suggested staff will create an online form that requesters can complete when they have issues to bring to the SCI. The format in the charter is: 1. Which group do you represent? (E.g. Council, WG.) 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? 3. Please outline the problems 4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? 5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? In particular, the GNSO Council requested that the SCI should take up these two new issues in its Wrap Up meeting in Durban on 17 July. Accordingly, I've reviewed the transcript from that meeting and pulled out the relevant information from the brief discussion of these topics. I've put that information into the form of the questions from the charter. Please see the information below and also on the wiki at: <https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/16+November+2013> https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/16+November+2013. These issues are on the agenda for the SCI's next meeting, which will be held face-to-face in Buenos Aires on Saturday, 16 November from 0700-0845 local time. The GNSO Secretariat will send out a notice and reminders for the meeting. Best Regards, Julie Julie Hedlund, Policy Director Email voting: 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Voting 3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to conduct votes outside of a meeting. 4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the Council transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "So I wanted - an issue I wanted us to consider maybe giving to the SCI and then to the group or to a committee to look at is I’d like to rethink about whether potentially voting by email or something like that is a possibility? I know we’ve looked at it on and off over the years.…And if that would help speed things along it would be great to just look at that issue in just maybe we can’t do it first time around obviously but for future..." He raised this issue because the Council was in the process of scheduling a special meeting in August to conduct a vote. 5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? Voting by email could in some circumstances enable the Council to avoid having to schedule a special meeting for a vote that has to occur quickly. Waivers and/or Exceptions to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures 1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council 2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Submitting a motion and possibly other procedures 3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to waive or invoke an exception to and of its operating procedures. An example is whether the deadline for submitting motions could be waived in certain circumstances. Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "And essentially I wasn’t empowered as chair by our rulebook to allow that motion to be put on the table even if technically although we have done it by precedent and prior practice, even if no one objected from the council I didn’t really - there isn’t really device in the rulebook to allow that to take place. So I personally I think that’s an area we should look at is the - when and under what circumstances - formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council?" 4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems? The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances. 5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? A waiver mechanism could allow the Council to consider a motion or document after the deadline of notice/submission to the Council has passed. _____ This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If the reader of this message or an attachment is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message or attachment to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the sender. The information transmitted in this message and any attachments may be privileged, is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the intended recipients, and is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §2510-2521. In accordance with Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we advise you that if this message or any attachments contains any tax advice, such tax advice was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer. _____ This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If the reader of this message or an attachment is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message or attachment to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or any attachment is strictly prohibited. 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participants (5)
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Aikman-Scalese, Anne -
Julie Hedlund -
Marika Konings -
Ron Andruff -
Thomas Rickert