Minutes 28Feb07

*MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE
ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL AT LARGE STRUCTURES
COMMENCING ON 28 FEBRUARY 2007 AT 9.30 A.M.
IN THE BALI INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE*

Present

(Note: * indicates certifed ALS)

Agenda

Agreed to include Officers Election with Item 7 of ALAC elections to include all elections.

Secretary

Due to difficulties with online communications with support staff, David Farrar took the minutes.

Roll Call

It was noted 12 out of the 13 ALS’s were present with only the Internet Users Society Niue absent.

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

Nick Ashton-Hart marked up changes as they were agreed to. Major changes discussed were:

There was a query on whether one can have elections before MOU approved. Nick advised one can elect ALAC reps in advance, but they will not take office until the MOU is approved. This require a public comment period and is likely to take place at the end of the Lisbon meeting.

In debating whether elections should be held at this meeting, or at a later stage Izumi noted that elections are preferred by consensus, and this is easier at face to face.

Edmon said he would like a chance to know nominees in advance so he can consult with his ALS.

There was a query on how will 1.21. work with individual user’s participation. Answer is two way consultation and communication from ALAC to RALOs to ALS to individual members.

Siavash asked how accountability works in 1.2.1. Hong said the RALO is accountable to users through ALS’s.

There was discussion on how to word the definition of the Region – decided to refer to the definition in 2.7

Change "breach" to "bridge" in 1.24

Discussion over whether 1.25 means ALS as members of RALO or natural persons. The consensus is the rules mean it must be natural persons.

Debate on whether AP RALO approves ALS applications or ALAC does. Confirmed ALAC approves, but to date they have always followed advice from the relevant regional reps.

5.4 – change "nationality" to "citizen" and keep it that one must be a member of ALS and be members of different ALS (for the two ALAC reps)

6.4 debated as to meaning. Clarified it is to allow the AGM to decide on the extent of MOU compliance for new members, in case we do not make it a requirement to agree to be bound by the MOU.

There was discussion of when MOU should be signed. It was agreed to formally do it at the AP ICANN meeting at the end of 2007, so it can be done face to face with appropriate ceremony.

It was agreed that after this meeting, the status of the MOU changes from draft, and previous changes removed.

The ALS’s present agreed to the MOU as amended, and initialed the proposed MOU.

Operating Principles

Defined Provisional Member as an organization that has applied for ALS status, and has been endorsed by APRALO to ALAC, during the period between the APRALO’s endorsement and the decision on the application by ALAC.

Decided to allow provisional members to attend and participate in 4.3 and 4.4

On question of whether ALAC reps should be Chair and Dep Chair, consensus was generally roles should be held by different people.

Deputy Chair to assist chair as well as deputise.

The meeting went through draft procedure rules to ensure there was nothing in them inconsistent with, or overlooked by, the operating principles. Changes were made as required.

It was agreed that it be a principle that RALO meetings be open.

The ALS’s present agreed to the Operating Principles as amended, and initialed them.

Elections

There was extensive discussion as to whether to conduction elections today or whether to have a formal nomination period.

It was also queried whether we need a Secretariat. Agreed to have someone in this role, even if they sub-contract most work to ICANN Staff.

Edmon said he preferred the ability to consult his ALS before voting

A compromise was agreed on to start nominations here and go as far as possible but not have a formal vote.

It was agreed to open nominations for around 10 days.

The meeting debated whether we split the elections into cycles, and elect officers first and then ALAC reps. Eventually it was decided not to.

The desirability of having an Interim Chair for the election period was also debated.

Nick suggests conf call immediately nominations end to try and gain consensus. David suggested a small modification to have the call just before nominations close, so if consensus is reached, nominations can be amended prior to their closure.

Discussion was also held on how to hold the elections. A proposal from David was accepted that the elections be held, if necessary, during a further conference call with online voting during the call.

The following key dates were agreed:

Opening of nominations – Wednesday 28 February 2007

Conf Call to discuss nominations – Thursday 8 March 2007, 1100 UCT

Closing of nominations – Friday 9 March 2007, 1800 UCT

Election Conference Call – Thursday 15 March 2007, 1100 UCT

If the election conference call is necessary, the order of elections will be:

Chair
Vice-Chair
Secretariat
ALAC Reps (2)

It was agreed that there be just one election for ALAC Reps and the first place getter be appointed for the two year term, and the second place getter to the one year term. So each person would get two votes.

Nick to work with ICANN staff to prepare a web interface for voting.

Work Programme

The following were suggested as part of the 2007 work programme:

• AP Outreach – assign each member half a dozen countries
• Target Asian users in Central Asia who are not engaged
• Work on policies – new gTLDS, xxx, registry behaviour, domain name tasting
• IPv6
• IDN
• Whois
• Geographic region policy

The meeting closed at 5.46 pm with the initialing of the MOU and Operating Principles.