Summary: Staff to create a GNSO-only mailing list for GNSO members on the CIP.

Dear GNSO Participants of the CIP-CCG,

Within the Policy Development Support function, our Strategic Policy Management Team is responsible for serving as internal org liaisons with the SOACs for cross-community non-policy activities, such as work related to Reviews or implementation of Work Stream 2 recommendations. As such, we are currently assisting with the Continuous Improvement Program Framework and the Principles, Criteria, and Indicators that comprise the framework for which you are currently working on. We are writing to offer Policy staff support to help facilitate more focused collaboration across the GNSO community for this CIP work. 

As you’ll recall, ICANN Organizational Reviews of the GNSO (see GNSO1, GNSO2) have historically included assessment and surveying of the SG/Cs. There are community-perceived shortcomings of Organizational Reviews, which led to the development of the ATRT3 Recommendation 3.6. The perceived shortcomings included the lack of understanding and familiarity of the Independent Examiners that have conducted Organizational Reviews and subsequently the quality of the Independent Examiner recommendations has been debated by the community. The down-stream volume of previous review recommendations has led to a large backlog to implement.

ATRT3 Recommendation 3.6 calls for the evolution of Organizational Reviews conducted by an Independent Examiner into a Continuous Improvement Program (CIP) led by the ICANN community. ICANN org previously received broad support from the community to defer the next scheduled Organizational Reviews, and the Board deferred upcoming Organizational Reviews until 2025 so that this recommendation and others from ATRT3 could be implemented.

Although the SGs/Cs within the GNSO are more diverse than other community groups, there is nevertheless a need, at the same time, for the GNSO to operate cohesively as part of the larger ICANN multistakeholder model. To assist with this collaboration, staff would like to propose: (1) creating a mailing list for you that will allow you to exchange views and coordinate on all the different SG/Cs’ views of the work within the CIP-CCG; (2) organizing, if appropriate and needed, meetings for participants from across the GNSO to discuss positions and progress. We hope these suggestions are timely as we anticipate the need for enhanced coordination now that the CIP has pivoted to developing the Criteria and Indicators mapped back to the five draft Principles.

Additionally, we note that the GNSO Council has tasked the Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) to revise its charter to become a permanent standing committee, with expectations of executing continuous improvement projects for the GNSO. One of this standing committee’s responsibilities will be to coordinate and possibly implement results from future continuous improvement assessment periods, which will be defined by this CIP-CCG.

With that in mind, staff would like to also suggest that the GNSO community consider the need for a concrete mechanism that can be the forum where the SG/Cs can collaborate on future Reviews-related activities beyond 2024 and after the CIP-CCG concludes its current work. Such a forum can also provide a more convenient and predictable way for ICANN Org to interact with the GNSO community on Reviews and other non-policy work by the community. While there is currently a mailing list for the GNSO SG/C leaders, it is not widely used. It may be helpful to broaden that mailing list, to include the CCOICI, as well as the current (at the time) GNSO members and representatives to the relevant Review-related activity. Unless there are objections, we’d like to forward this note and our suggestions to your SG/C leadership for further discussion on this potential need. 

The following timelines and activities are examples of work that point toward the need for greater GNSO-wide collaboration on Reviews-related projects over the next few years and likely beyond:

• The Pilot Holistic Review will begin in September 2024 (we note that the GNSO has just selected its candidates for this work).
• The CCOICI is expected to complete its revised charter work by November 2024. 
• The CIP-CCG is anticipated to conclude its work at the end of 2024 for Board consideration in early 2025, following which the first CIP Assessment Period for 2025-2028 is expected to begin.
• Concurrently with the continuous improvement work, work on ATRT4 is expected to begin in April 2025, following the end of the current deferral period.
• The FY26-FY30 Five Year Strategic Plan will begin July 2025; and the current draft expressly incorporates a focus on continuous improvements as part of the Strategic Objectives and Goals.

Please let us know if you have objections to our proposal for a GNSO mailing list for you as the CIP-CCG participants. If not, staff will proceed to set up the mailing list and will follow up with you in the next few weeks. We will also contact the GNSO SG/C leaders about the further proposal for a more concrete way to ensure regular GNSO-wide coordination on Reviews-related work and other non-policy activities in the future.

Thank you for your time and attention.

The Strategic Policy Management Team