Colleagues:

As a result of the consultation process, a new consensus has emerged:

There is now support for a Chair and Alternate. I have taken the liberty off accommodating a minority request for co-chairs by allowing the Chair to have the Alternate play a supporting role to share the work as they see fit between themselves, but the Chair is the primary decision-maker between the two.

I have adapted the previous document to reflect that. Attached is a red line version, below is a clean text.

In the process of comment Alissa Cooper has been the only candidate for Chair spontaneously suggested. There is a request of the existing volunteers or any new volunteers to clarify their position related to what role they are interested in; please note the timeline below.

One question as to process. Online, the only humming comes from the air conditioning; therefore the process of achieving consensus is the rough consensus among those who post an opinion. To date the above reflects the consensus comments.

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Role Of The Chair-Alternate (Draft v 1.0)

Introduction

As a result of the consultation since the first meeting of the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) a new consensus has emerged among those that have commented. There will be one Chair and an Alternate.. A call for volunteers remains open among committee members for Chair and Alternate. It continues to be agreed that the roles of the Chair/Alternate, supported by the secretariat, would be mostly related to the organization and running of the coordination group – keeping the trains running on time was a description often used by analogy. The ability of Chair/Alternate to execute the needed functions and work collaboratively was seen as essential to the role. It was also suggested by some that considerations of diversity would be desirable in the choice of officers. Finally it was suggested that a more precise resume of the roles would be useful, which is the purpose of this draft.

Comment and Selection Process

This Draft, Chair-Alternate (draft 1.0) has incorporated the requested changes from commentators, with one compromise – there was a minority request for more than one chair to share the work. I have proposed that the Chair and Alternate can self-organize the work between themselves. This maintains one clear Chair, while allowing for the Alternate to support the chair as well.

The final deadline for comments and additional volunteers by 2:00PM CET Thursday July 24th to the list under the subject “Role of the Chair-Alternate draft v 1.0 for comment and volunteers”. The Role of the Chair-Alternate document and list of volunteers will be posted on Thursday evening. ICG members must make their preferences for Chair and Alternate known one week from that date (COB July 31). If ICG members are in agreement (please suggest alternative procedures to the list, if not), preferences can be manifested by sending a post to the list with your preferred candidate for each role.. We would ask that all volunteers be sure to have submitted their bios to the secretariat as requested so that they are available for review. Any volunteer wishing to provide further information may do so by e-mail to the list. To date, there have been 5 volunteers:

Russ Housley (IAB)
Alissa Cooper (IETF)
Partrik Faltstrom (SSAC)
Keith Drazek (GTLd Registries)
Jean-Jacques Subrenat (ALAC)

Since the consultation, a majority of the commentators, including some of the other volunteers, have supported Alissa Cooper to be Chair (the only person mentioned to date for the revised role), citing her exemplary work in preparing for and executing the de-facto chair role of the first meeting. Alissa has indicated her willingness to serve if that is the will of the group. Furthermore, there have been no suggestions for modification to the role description.

In light of the above, would the current volunteers please specify if they continue to be interested in one or both positions? Obviously, Alissa has been nominated for Chair and accepted, if so confirmed, so that is clarified as to her intent.

Chair/Alternate Processes and Responsibilities:

Operational Processes

· There will be a Chair and an Alternate (selected from volunteers) that will serve for the duration of this exercise. The Alternate will be able to act as chair if the Chair is unavailable and will also be able to support the Chair in related activities as needed.

· The ICG will reserve the right to change the number of the Chair/Alternate, their role or who will serve, as appropriate, through its established operating procedure of rough consensus.

· If for any reason the Chair or Alternate is no longer able or willing to serve in that capacity, they will inform the secretariat who will communicate this to the ICG and request that it seek volunteers to fill the vacancy..

· The Chair and Alternate are explicitly able to participate in ICG discussions on their own or their constituency’s behalf and are just requested to take appropriate precaution that there is no confusion related to their role in such participation.

· The operational modalities of the Chair and Alternate, who is undertaking what function, moderating the conversation for example, maintaining the que…, is left to the Chair’s self-organization. It was the view of the ICG that we did not wish to micro-manage the Chair operations, but ICG obviously reserves the right to suggest or make changes pursuant to rough consensus.

Responsibilities:

· The role of the Chair/Alternate is to assure that meetings and conference calls are properly scheduled, planned, prepared, organized and efficiently conducted including:

o finalizing this version of the timeline and other work in process

o planning for appropriate outreach and consultation

o timely developing agendas in appropriate consultation with ICG,

o organizing volunteers (for themes, discussion topics and other needed functions)

o moderating discussion and other elements of meeting function

o overseeing minutes and summaries being taken, reviewed and circulated in a timely fashion supported by the secretariat as well as the drafting, circulation and publication of other needed papers and documents, and

o assuring that action items are captured, completed or otherwise followed up; including between calls and meetings.

· Chair/Alternate will be appropriately supported by the Secretariat in the executing these functions.

· Chair/Alternate are not meant to have independent decision-making in substantive issues of the ICG on behalf of the group, but are rather the coordinators of the process elements related to the calls, meetings and related functions. Decisions must remain inclusive and collaborative. There was discussion, however, that where rough consensus does not emerge organically or cannot be recognized, the Chair/Alternate will lead the ICG in a process to finalize rough consensus.

· There is no current spokesperson or press liaison role associated to the Chair/Alternate, but the ICG may revisit that function as needed and subject to whatever conditions (only speak from agreed points, etc) it feels appropriate.

· Chair/Alternate should also recognize that by virtue of their title they are clothed with apparent authority and should make clear across all situations what their role and representative capacity is (on behalf of themselves, their consistency…)

· Chair/Alternate need to be mindful of and support the needs of transparency of this process in the planning, organization, conduct and reporting back of calls and meetings as well as the drafting of papers and other supporting documents