Motion Requesting Issues report on vertical Integration and Registry/Registrar cross-ownership

Motion by: Mary Wong
Second: Philip Sheppard

Whereas, Recommendation 19 of the GNSO policy authorizing the new gTLD process states: "Registries must use only ICANN accredited registrars in registering domain names and may not discriminate among such accredited registrars;"

Whereas, opening up the market to many new TLD operators may call into question some of the assumptions on which the separation of registry and registrar functions is based;

Whereas, economic research commissioned by ICANN staff also suggests that changes in these assumptions might be justified;

Whereas, the new gTLD policies passed by the Council do not provide any guidance regarding the proper approach to cross ownership and vertical integration, but instead implicitly suggest that the status quo be left in place;

Resolved: the GNSO Council hereby requests the preparation of an Issues Report for delivery within 45 days on future changes in vertical integration and cross-ownership between gTLD registrars and registries, to assist in determining whether a PDP should be initiated regarding what policies would best serve to promote competition and to protect users and registrants.

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GNSO Council Motion to approve Internationalized Registration Data Working Group Charter

Motion by Chuck Gomes on 15 Sep 09

Second:

Whereas:

• There have been increasing community concerns that the current WHOIS service is deficient in a number of ways, including technical areas as noted in recent SSAC reports, such as accessibility and readability of WHOIS contact information in an internationalized domain name (IDN) environment.
• On 21 April 2009, the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) published a report titled SAC037 "Display and usage of Internationalized Registration Data" (SAC037) located at http://www.icann.org/committees/security/sac037.pdf.
• On 26 June 2009 the ICANN Board approved a resolutionrequesting that the GNSO and SSAC, in consultation with staff, convene an Internationalized Registration Data Working Group (IRD WG) comprised of individuals with knowledge, expertise, and experience in these areas to study the feasibility and suitability of introducing display specifications to deal with the internationalization of Registration Data.
• In the 26 June resolution, the Board directs the Internationalized Registration Data Working Group to solicit input from interested constituencies including ccTLD operators and the ccNSO during its discussions to ensure broad community input.
• ICANN Staff in cooperation with members of the GNSO Council and SSAC developed a draft charter for said working group as attached.

The GNSO Council:

• Approves the IRD WG draft charter, and
• Encourages GNSO constituencies, stakeholder groups and other GNSO participants to identify possible participants of the IRD WG with knowledge, expertise, and experience in these areas to study the feasibility and suitability of introducing display specifications to deal with the internationalization of Registration Data.

Internationalized Data Registration WG Draft Charter 15 Sep 09.doc

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Amendment to Motion to Approve Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition

Motion made by Chuck Gomes on 23 September 2009

Second:

In the following Motion to Approve Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition originally submitted on 15 September and amended on 17 September, add the following to step 9 of the Plan: "As the first substantial item on the agenda of 28 October, the new council members will discuss and vote on the updated Council Operating Procedures. Approval of the Procedures will require a majority of the voting members of each house for approval. Any amendment that results from comments submitted, will need to be voted on prior to the vote on the Procedures and will also require a majority of the voting members of each house."

Motion to Approve Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition

Orignial Motion by Chuck Gomes on 15 September 2009; revised on 17 September 2009

Second:

Amended Motion to Approve Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition

17 September 2009

Whereas:

• On 27 August 2009 the ICANN Board approved Bylaws Amendments Related to GNSO Restructuring (http://www.icann.org/en/general/bylaws-amendments-27aug09.pdf) in support of the transition to a new GNSO Council to be seated during the ICANN annual general meetings in Seoul in October 2009.
• Article XX (Transition Article), Section 5, item 5.e of the Bylaws Amendments reads, “The three seats currently selected by the Nominating Committee shall be assigned by the Nominating Committee as follows: one voting member to the Contracted Party House, one voting member to the Non-Contracted Party House, and one non-voting member assigned to the GNSO Council at large.”
• The Bylaws Amendments were approved too late in the 2009 Nominating Committee process to allow the three Nominating Committee seats to be assigned by the Nominating Committee.
• Article XX (Transition Article), Section 5, item 6 of the Bylaws Amendments reads, “The GNSO Council, as part of its Restructure Implementation Plan, will document: (a) how vacancies, if any, will be handled during the transition period; (b) for each Stakeholder Group, how each assigned Council seat to take effect at the 2009 ICANN annual meeting will be filled, whether through a continuation of an existing term or a new election or appointment; (c) how it plans to address staggered terms such that the new GNSO Council preserves as much continuity as reasonably possible; (d) the effect of Bylaws term limits on each Council member.”
• Article XX (Transition Article), Section 5, item 11 of the Bylaws Amendments reads, “As soon as practical after the commencement of the ICANN meeting in October 2009, or another date the Board may designate by resolution, the GNSO Council shall, in accordance with Article X, Section 3(7) and its GNSO Operating Procedures, elect officers and give the ICANN Secretary written notice of its selections.”
• The GNSO Council desires to: i) Maximize continuity in the transition from the old to the new Council; ii) minimize the complexity for Stakeholder Groups in selecting Councilors; and iii) respect the rights of GNSO Stakeholder Groups to elect their Council representatives in ways that best meet their needs while complying with the ICANN Bylaws.
• The GNSO Council Operations work team prepared draft GNSO Council Operating Procedures and the Operations Steering Committee forwarded those for Council consideration on 17 September 2009.
• The charters for the GNSO Policy Process and Operations Steering Committees (PPSC and OSC) are scheduled to end at the ICANN Annual Meeting in Seoul.

The GNSO Council approves the following plan:

1. It is recommended that all Councilors who will be seated in the 28 October public GNSO Council meeting should be selected and the GNSO Secretariat provided with their contact information not later than 30 September 2009. If that is not possible, then best efforts should be made to do so as soon as possible after 30 September to facilitate travel and lodging arrangements in Seoul.

2. Each Stakeholder Group may determine the term dates for its respective Councilors provided those dates are compliant with the ICANN Bylaws and their respective charters[1|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_ftn1]; any terms that are changed from the previously defined dates strictly for the purpose of seating the bicameral Council shall be considered full terms with regard to complying with Bylaws term limit requirements.

3. Each House will elect a vice chair for the new bicameral Council:a. Nominations must be completed not later than 23 October 2009.
b. Elections must be completed not later than Tuesday, 27 October 2009.
c. Election requires a simple majority vote.
4. The new bicameral Council will be seated in the public GNSO Council meeting on 28 October 2009, at which time the service of the previous Council will end.

5. The GNSO Council Operations Work Team (GCOT) will be tasked with developing a timeline for use by Houses in the elections of vice chairs starting in 2010, which will be added to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures once appropriately approved after the meetings in Seoul.

6. The nomination procedure for GNSO Council Chair will be as follows:a. The GNSO Secretariat will call for nominations from existing Councilors for GNSO Council Chair on 7 October 2009.
b. The nomination period will end on 21 October 2009.
c. Nominees shall submit a candidacy statement in writing to the Council not later than 23 October 2009.
7. Avri Doria, current GNSO Council chair, will serve as non-voting chair of the bicameral Council meeting on 28 October until such time as a new chair is elected, at which time the new chair will assume the chair responsibilities. If an absentee ballot is required to complete the chair’s election, this will be a 24 hour ballot scheduled to end on 29 October. If no chair has been elected by the end of the Annual meeting on 30 October, the vice-chairs will assume the chair responsibilities as defined in the Bylaws

8. The existing GNSO Council will approve a draft of the GNSO Council Operating Procedures (previously called the Rules of Procedure of the GNSO Council) for public comment and ICANN Staff will post them for a 21-day public comment period as soon as possible; such draft will include a revision of those areas of the existing Rules necessary for seating the bicameral Council. The Council also notes that there are several placeholder items in the current version of the recommended Operating Rules and procedures that will need to be addressed by the GCOT after Seoul.

9. As much in advance of the meeting as possible, the agenda for the 28 October 2009 Council meeting will be prepared by the existing Council under the leadership of Avri Doria as chair and shall include but not be limited to the following two action items: 1) Approval of the Council Operating Procedures necessary for seating the bicameral Council; 2) Election of chair.

10. The Council requests that the Nominating Committee be tasked with assigning all three Nominating Committee Appointees (NCAs) to Council seats beginning after the 2010 ICANN Annual Meeting. For the period starting on 28 October 2009 and continuing only through the 2010 ICANN Annual Meeting, the following procedure will be used to assign NCAs to Council seats:a. ICANN Staff should ensure that a Statement of Interest is received from Andrey Kolesnikov and sent to the Council not later than 30 September 2009.
b. Not later than 30 September 2009, new and existing NCAs will make best efforts to collaborate and provide their input to the GNSO Council regarding their recommendations for assigning NCA Council seats. Such input should include any seating assignments that any of the NCAs would individually be uncomfortable taking along with their reasons.
c. Taking into consideration the input from the NCAs, if any, both GNSO Council Houses and/or their respective Stakeholder Groups should attempt to reach agreement on the seating for each of the three NCAs for the first year of the new bicameral Council and communicate the results to the Council not later than 7 October 2009.
d. If the GNSO Council Houses and/or their respective Stakeholder Groups are unable to reach agreement, then thenew, inexperienced NCA will take the non-voting Council seat and random selection will be used to assign the other two NCAs to Houses before the Council meeting on 8 October 2009.
e. In the meeting scheduled for 8 October 2009, the Council will acknowledge the results of this process and confirm that it was properly conducted.
11. The Council requests ICANN Staff support to fulfill this plan, including but not limited to scheduling and arranging for any needed teleconference calls.

12. The charters for the GNSO Policy Process and Operations Steering Committees (PPSC and OSC) are extended until the end of ICANN’s first general meeting in 2010.

Attachment: Table 1

GNSO COUNCIL RESTRUCTURE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Notes:

(1) Those individuals who are term-limited are marked with an asterisk.

(2) This column reflects Staff-suggested dispositions only. Subject to certain structural realities (see Notes 4 and 5 below), the decisions regarding which seats and representatives continue, become vacant or are otherwise subject to re-election are completely in the hands of the individual Stakeholder Groups or Constituencies.

__

_(3) All election/allocation results must be communicated to the GNSO Secretariat no later than 30 September 2009.___

(4) Three seats from the Commercial Stakeholder Group are being eliminated in this new structure. The three seats indicated as possible eliminations are for illustration purposes only. That final determination of which seats are impacted by the change should be made by the CSG Executive Committee.

__

(5) Under the terms of the Transitional NCSG Charter, the NCUC leadership will make the determination regarding the upcoming NCSG seat vacancy and the Board has the responsibility to appoint the individuals to Councilor positions 4, 5 and 6.

__

(6) After the Board’s decision on the Bylaws amendments package currently scheduled for its 27 August meeting, it is hoped that the Nominating Committee will be in a position to recommend which Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA) should be assigned to each of three specific positions on the Council; one NCA serving as a voting member of the Contract Party House; one NCA serving as a voting member of the Non Contract Party House; and one NCA serving in a non-voting capacityto “preserve the independent presence on the Council.”

__

(7) Tony Holmes advised Council on 27 August that Maggie Mansoukia would be filling Greg Ruth’s seat on the Council until Seoul.
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[1|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_ftnref1] See attached Table 1

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Amendment to Motion to Approve Draft GNSO Council Operating Procedures for Public Comment

Motion by Chuck Gomes 23 September 2009

Second:

^

The following motion to approve the Draft GNSO Council Operating Procedures for Public Comment shall be amended to replace the attached Operating Procedures referenced in the motion below with the file attached immediately below titled "GNSO Council Operating Procedures-Reorganized 23 Sep 09".

GNSO Council Operating Procedures-Reorganized 23 Sep 09.doc

Motion to Approve Draft GNSO Council Operating Procedures for Public Comment

Motion by Chuck Gomes on 17 September 2009

Second:

Whereas:

• On 27 August 2009 the ICANN Board approved Bylaws Amendments Related to GNSO Restructuring (http://www.icann.org/en/general/bylaws-amendments-27aug09.pdf) in support of the transition to a new GNSO Council to be seated during the ICANN annual general meetings in Seoul in October 2009.
• The existing Rules of Procedure for the GNSO Council (http://gnso.icann.org/council/new-procedures.shtml ) require revision to accommodate the new Council structure.
• The GNSO Council Operations Work Team (GCOT) established by the GNSO Operations Steering Committee (OSC) identified areas of the existing Rules that needed to be revised in order to seat the new Council, developed recommendations for updating those areas and submitted them to the OSC for review and comment.
• The OSC reviewed and suggested a few edits to the GCOT recommendations.
• The GNSO Council would like to provide the opportunity to receive public comments before the procedures are approved.

The GNSO Council Resolves to:

• Sincerely thank the GCOT for its work in preparing the Draft Operating Procedures.
• Approve the attached draft GNSO Council Operating Procedures for public comment.
• Request ICANN Staff initiate a 21-day public comment period as soon as possible.

Attachment

GNSO Council Operating Procedures

Public Comment Draft – 17 September 2009

1. Background and Organization

See ICANN Bylaws, Article X: Generic Names Supporting Organization, Section 1. Description and Section 2. Organization. INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS--

2. The Generic Names Supporting Organization ("GNSO")

See ICANN Bylaws, Article X: Generic Names Supporting Organization, Section 3. GNSO Council and Section 5. Stakeholder Groups.INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS.

3. GNSO Council

3.1. GNSO Council Responsibilities

3.1.1 Policy Development Process

See ICANN Bylaws, Article X: Generic Names Supporting Organization, Section 3. GNSO Council, Subsection 4. INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS.

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3.1.2 GNSO Committees, Task Forces, Working Groups, Work Teams

See ICANN Bylaws, Article X: Generic Names Supporting Organization, Section 3. GNSO Council, Subsection 6. INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS.

3.1.3. ICANN Board Seats 13 & 14

See ICANN Bylaws, Article X: Generic Names Supporting Organization, Section 3. GNSO Council, Subsection 6. INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS.

3.2 GNSO Council Composition

See ICANN Bylaws, Article X: Generic Names Supporting Organization, Section 3. GNSO Council, Subsection 1. INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS.

3.3 Terms of GNSO Council Members

See ICANN Bylaws, Article X: Generic Names Supporting Organization, Section 3. GNSO Council, Subsection 2. INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS.

3.3.1 Special Circumstances[1|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_ftn1][SE1|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_msocom_1]

3.4 GNSO Council Vacancy

See ICANN Bylaws, Article X: Generic Names Supporting Organization, Section 3. GNSO Council, Subsection 3. INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS.

3.5. Quorum

A quorum is a majority of voting members, which must include at least one member of each Stakeholder Group. INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS. Whenever a vote is initiated the GNSO Council Chair will ensure that a quorum is present.

3.6 Votes

Except as otherwise specified in the GNSO Council Operating Procedures or the ICANN Bylaws, the default threshold to pass a GNSO Council motion or other voting action requires a simple majority vote of each house INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS

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4. GNSO Council Chair

4.1 Selection of the Council Chair

See ICANN Bylaws, Article X: Generic Names Supporting Organization, Section 3. GNSO Council, Subsection 7. INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS.

The GNSO Council shall select the GNSO Chair and two Vice Chairs as follows:a. The GNSO Chair shall be elected by a 60 percent vote of each house.
b. Each house will be allowed to nominate one candidate for GNSO Council Chair. Each house is responsible for determining how to nominate its candidate. A candidate for GNSO Council Chair does not need to be a member of a house but must be a member of the GNSO Council. Should a Chair be elected from outside of the houses that Chair will be a non-voting Chair.i. All ballots will include the “none of the above” option. In the event that a 60 percent vote of each house selects the “none of the above” option, each house will commence a new nomination period of not longer than 15 days. An election for the new nominees will be scheduled for no sooner than 30 days after the unsuccessful vote.
ii. In the case of a tie between the two candidates, or between a candidate and “none of above,” a second election will be held in no sooner than 30 days. The candidates shall remain the same for this second election. In the case this second election also results in a tie, each house will commence a new nomination period of not longer than 15 days. An election for the new nominees will be rescheduled for no sooner than 30 days after the unsuccessful vote.
iii. The leading candidate will be defined as the one with the highest score.The score is calculated by adding together the voting percentages attained from each house. The highest percentage attainable in each house is 100. Thus, the maximum score a candidate can achieve is 200 as a result of attaining 100 percent of the votes from the contracted party house and 100 percent from the non-contracted party house (100 percent + 100 percent = score of 200). In case neither candidate reaches the 60 percent of each house threshold, a second ballot will be held between the leading candidate and “none of the above.”
iv. In the event that neither candidate reaches the 60 percent of each house threshold and the candidates do not tie, a second runoff ballot will be held between the leading candidate and “none of the above.”
v. If the single candidate does not reach the 60 percent of each house threshold in the runoff ballot, then each house will commence a new nomination period of not longer than 15 days. An election for the new nominees will be rescheduled for no sooner than 30 days after the unsuccessful runoff ballot.c. Each house shall select a Vice Chair within its respective house.
d. A Chair may not be a member of the same Stakeholder Group of either of the Vice Chairs.
e. The Chair and Vice Chairs shall retain their votes (if any) in their respective houses (if any).
f. In the event that the GNSO Council has not elected a GNSO Council Chair by the end of the previous Chair’s term, the Vice-Chairs will serve as Interim GNSO Co-Chairs until a successful election can be held.
g. The Council shall inform the Board and the Community appropriately and post the election results on the GNSO website within 2 business days following each election and runoff ballot, whether successful or unsuccessful.
4.2 Meeting Schedules

The GNSO Chair and GNSO Council will prepare a 12-month schedule of meetings within 30 days following the ICANN annual general meeting. GNSO Council members may request changes to the schedule during the year, which may be agreed upon by the Chair in consultation with the Council, subject to the minimum period of notice below.

5. Conduct of Council Meetings

5.1 Except as provided elsewhere in these procedures, the GNSO Council shall act at meetings.

Provided that all members participating in such a meeting can communicate with one another, members of the GNSO Council may participate in a meeting of the GNSO Council through use of (i) conference telephone or similar communications equipment; or (ii) electronic video screen communication or other communication equipment; provided that (a) all members are provided the means of fully participating in all matters before the GNSO Council, and (b) ICANN adopts and implements means of verifying that a person participating in such a meeting is a member of the GNSO Council or other person entitled to participate in the meeting and all actions of, or votes by, the GNSO Council are taken or cast only by the members of the GNSO Council and not persons who are not members.

Except where determined by a majority vote of members of each house of the GNSO Council present that a closed session is appropriate, in-person meetings shall be open to physical or electronic attendance by all interested persons dependant upon space availability. Recordings of meetings will be made publicly available for any meetings not open to all interested parties. In cases where a closed session is deemed appropriate, the reason for such a closed session as well as the result of the vote will be published in the minutes. Votes in closed sessions shall be taken by a polling of the members.

5.2 Notice of Meetings

Advance notice of meetings shall be posted on the GNSO website, if reasonably practicable, at least 7 days in advance of the meeting for Administrative issues and 14 days in advance for Policy issues. Advance notice shall also be posted to other GNSO Council work spaces where practical.

Reports and motions should be submitted to the GNSO Council for inclusion on the agenda as soon as possible, but no later than 8 calendar days before the GNSO Council meeting.

The time of the meetings may vary to accommodate the different geographic regions represented by GNSO Council members. By way of guidance start times corresponding to local times for the GNSO Council members earlier than 06.00 and later than 23.00 should be avoided where possible.

5. 3 Who May Make Motions or Cast Votes

All actions of, or votes by, the GNSO Council are taken or cast only by the members of the GNSO Council. Persons who are not GNSO Council members may not vote.

5.4 The Number of Votes Cast

See ICANN Bylaws, Article X: Generic Names Supporting Organization, Section 3. GNSO Council, Subsections 10 and 11. INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS.

To pass, a motion must attain a majority of the votes cast in each house unless otherwise specified in these procedures or in the ICANN Bylaws. Abstentions count as votes cast and shall include a reason for the abstention.

5.5 Procedure to Produce the Minutes

Within 8 working days of a GNSO Council meeting, the GNSO Secretariat will forward draft summary to the GNSO Chair and Vice Chairs.Within 10 days of the meeting, the Chair and Vice Chairs will edit the draft and request the Secretariat to circulate the draft summary to GNSO Council members for comment and approval. All comments received will be accepted for inclusion into the draft minutes unless there are objections. If no objections are received within 10 days, the minutes will be deemed to have been approved for posting.
All comments received from GNSO Council members will be incorporated in the summary unless there are objections from other GNSO Council members.Where there are objections, the Chair will attempt to resolve the issue (by reference to the audio transcript if any) and secure agreement from the relevant GNSO Council members. If agreement is not achieved, the Chair will determine the final version of the minutes and will note areas in which agreement has not been achieved
Disputes: If any GNSO Council member disputes what he or she has said in the resulting draft minutes, the recording and/or transcript of the meeting should be reviewed before minutes are approved.The Chair will ensure the above procedure is complete and an approved version of the summary is circulated and made public within 21 days of the relevant meeting.
All minutes of meetings of the GNSO (and any working groups thereof) shall be approved promptly by the originating body. No later than the business day after the date on which they are approved by the Council, the minutes shall be made publicly available on the Website.

5.6 Speaking at Meetings

Both at physical and telephone meetings the GNSO Chair will recognize three types of intervention in the following order of priority:

1. A point of order
2. A point of information
3. A normal substantive intervention

5.6.1 Points of Order

At a physical meeting, a GNSO Council member may raise a hand or during a teleconference a GNSO Council member may speak over the dialogue and say immediately "point of order." A point of order is raised when there is an infraction of the GNSO Council Operating Procedures, or improper decorum in speaking. The point of order must be raised as soon as possible after the error occurs. The Chair will suspend discussion to hear the point.

5.6.2 Points of Information and Normal Interventions

At a physical meeting, a GNSO Council member may raise a hand and wait to be recognized by the Chair and during a teleconference a GNSO Council member may speak in an appropriate gap and say immediately "state name to speak". This will be noted by the Chair who will invite the intervention in due course. To ensure balance, the GNSO Council Chair has the discretion to delay an intervention by a frequent speaker to allow others to speak. By way of guidance for the Chair, a GNSO Council member is not expected to speak for more than three minutes at a time and the Chair should solicit the views of other GNSO Council members before returning to the same speaker on any one issue. This guidance should not be construed as limiting the Council from substantive discussion of an issue. The GNSO Council Chair’s discretion to delay an intervention should not be exercised for a "point of information". A point of information is for GNSO Council members seeking information from the Chair or other GNSO Council members about meaning or procedure - it is specifically not intended to provide information.

5.7 Seating

As possible, during in-person meetings, the GNSO Council Chair and Vice Chairs should be located so they can observe all GNSO Council members.

5.8 Proxies[2|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_ftn2]

5.9 Absences

When a GNSO council member fails to participate in two consecutive regularly-scheduled GNSO Council meetings without notification of absence to the GNSO secretariat or GNSO Council Chair or Council list, the GNSO secretariat will notify the Stakeholder Group and ask for an explanation.

6. GNSO Policy Development Process

See ICANN Bylaws, Annex A: GNSO Policy Development Process, Sections 1-15. INSERT LIVE LINK TO BYLAWS.[3|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_ftn3]

7. GNSO Council Absentee Voting

Members that are absent from a meeting at the time of a vote on the following items may vote by absentee ballot:1. Initiate a policy development process;
2. Forward a policy recommendation to the Board;
3. Recommend amendments to the ICANN Bylaws; or
4. Fill a position open for election.
The GNSO Secretariat will provide reasonable means for transmitting and authenticating absentee ballots, which could include voting by telephone, e-mail, or web-based interface. Absentee ballots must be submitted within 72 hours following the start of the meeting in which a vote is initiated, except that in exceptional circumstances announced at the time of the vote the Chair may reduce this time to 24 hours or extend the time to 7 days. There must be a quorum for the meeting in which the vote is initiated.

9.8. Observers[4|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_ftn4]

The GNSO Council may agree with the Council of any other ICANN Supporting Organization or Advisory Committee to exchange observers. Such observers shall not be members of, or entitled to vote or make motions on the GNSO Council, but otherwise shall be entitled to participate on equal footing with members of the GNSO Council. The appointing Council shall designate its observer (or revoke or change the designation of its observer) on the GNSO Council by providing written notice to the Chair of the GNSO Council and to the ICANN Secretary.
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[1|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_ftnref1]Note that this is a place-holder section that the Work Team will return to at a later date to provide suggested language.

[2|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_ftnref2]This is a placeholder. This section is deferreddue to the fact that 1) language in the GNSO Council Operating Procedures that pertainstothis sectionrequires ICANN legal counsel review, and 2) it is not necessary to completethislanguage in order to seat the Council at the ICANN Annual Meeting in Seoul, Korea, in October 2009. Thus, the OSC GNSO Council Operations Work Team has decided to defer completion of its work onthis languageuntil after the ICANN Annual Meeting in Seoul.

[3|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_ftnref3]Note that this reference to Annex A of the ICANN Bylaws will remain until such time as the Policy Process Steering Committee Work Teams have completed their recommendations on these topics.

[4|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_ftnref4]This section previously appeared in the ICANN Bylaws. In the Bylaws amendments approved by the ICANN Board of Directors on 27 August 2009, the section was removed from the Bylaws and thus now appears in the GNSO Council Operating Procedures.

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[SE1|https://st.icann.org/static/3.5.0.3/skin/s3/html/wikiwyg.html#_msoanchor_1]Stated in the bylaws that this will be defined here.