Subject: Original OSC Draft Work of GNSO IPT
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Date: 2011-03-24 05:54:56 GMT
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Summary: The text below was created prior to the Paris ICANN Meeting. It may offer useful background information for new OSC members to see the origin of the concept. The only recent edits that were made were changing the original term "standing committee" to "steering committee." Description of GNSO Operations Steering Committee The GNSO Operations Steerin...
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The text below was created prior to the Paris ICANN Meeting. It may offer useful background information for new OSC members to see the origin of the concept. The only recent edits that were made were changing the original term "standing committee" to "steering committee."
Description of GNSO Operations Steering Committee
The GNSO Operations Steering Committee will be responsible for coordinating, recommending and reviewing changes to certain operational activities of the GNSO Council and constituencies with a view to efficient outcomes. The BGC WG Report on GNSO Improvements as approved by the Board makes a number of recommendations in three operational areas, as follows:
1. GNSO Operations – restructuring the Council away from being a legislative body to a smaller, more focused strategic entity; including changes to the representation of stakeholders, with strengthened management and oversight of the policy development process;
2. Constituency Operations – enhancing constituencies by making processes more outcome oriented, transparent, accountable and accessible; and by redoubling outreach efforts to encourage broader participation in current constituencies and the self-forming of new constituencies; and
3. Communications – improving communication and coordination with other ICANN structures, including members of the ICANN Board, other Supporting Organizations (SOs) and Advisory Committees (ACs).
The immediate goal of this Steering Committee is to develop recommendations to implement the operational changes recommended in the Report as approved by the Board. Once recommendations have been implemented, the GNSO Operations Steering Committee could be given the additional task of being responsible for reviewing and assessing the effectiveness of these new improvements and for recommending further operational enhancements as warranted. The Operations Steering Committee may, if so tasked, also consider taking on other operations-related matters on a standing, or ongoing basis. For example, the Operations Steering Committee might examine how constituency support might be further enhanced in the future, or identify when new training curricula might be called for, or consider how to best align the GNSO Council's work with ICANN's strategic plan on an ongoing basis.
Working Method for GNSO Operations Steering Committee
One possible working method for the committee would be to initially create three separate teams to take on the work of each of the three operational areas described above. In this case the Operations Steering Committee would serve as the coordinating body for these separate work teams. There are two reasons to consider establishing three teams: 1) recommendations span a significant list of topic areas, and dividing the work into three teams may reduce the volume of work asked of each individual participant; 2) successful implementation of certain recommendations may benefit from special expertise and experience. For example, those who are active in constituency management will have valuable expertise to help the team responsible for developing consistent and transparent rules of constituency participation. Communications experts may have valuable insights on the best collaborative tools to use in a distributed working environment. If the Operations Steering Committee does opt to establish these three teams, one possible way to allocate the work activities might be as follows:
Team #1, GNSO Operations - Develop a proposal for Council consideration on GNSO operations related recommendations. Recommendations considered from the BGC WG Report might include:
• Determine what steps are needed to establish the role of the Council as a "strategic manager of the policy process".
• Define and develop scope and responsibilities of any other standing "committees" as recommended by the BGC WG (those suggested to date: committee to analyze trends; committee to benchmark policy implementation)
• Develop "Statement of Interest" and "Declaration of Interest" forms.
• Develop curriculum for training Council members, also constituents, facilitators and others.
• Develp clear rules for the establishment of stakeholder groups
A key task of this team could be to revise the GNSO Council Rules of Procedure to correspond to the the new GNSO Structure.
Team #2, Enhance Constituencies - Develop a proposal to implement recommendations focused on enhancing constituency operations. Recommendations considered from the BGC WG Report might include:
1. Developing a global outreach program to broaden participation in current constituencies and to encourage the self forming of new constituencies.
2. Enhance existing constituencies by developing recommendations on the following:
• Develop a set of top-level participation guidelines based on the principles as defined in the GNSO recommendations
• Develop a "tool kit" of basic administrative, operational and technical services available to all constituencies
3. Methods for introducing new constituencies.
Team #3 Improve coordination with other ICANN structures – Develop a proposal to improve communication and coordination for Council consideration.
In addition, the structure proposed by the planning committee also contemplates the possibility that this steeing committee might opt to create one or more special focus teams. The Operations Steering Committee may also want to consider whether any of the activities called for in the recommendations lend themselves to being addressed through the establishment of a special team.
This steering committee would be responsible for identifying any additional implementation tasks required to implement the Board approved GNSO Improvement Recommendations and for coordinating the work needed to fulfill those tasks.
Membership in the GNSO Operations Steering Committee
- GNSO council chair and/or vice chair
- 1 representative from each constituency
- 1 NomCom appointee (see note on NomCom appointees)
Note: This could be modified to better fit the Stakeholder Group model in the future.
Other Participants in the GNSO Steering Committee
- 1 representative from any constituencies formally involved in the process of formation (once the process for forming a new constituency has been established)
- Laision or an appointed representative from each designated group (as appropriate)
- GNSO Secretariat
- 1 ICANN policy staff representative
Goals and Milestones
- To be determined by the steering committee and approved by the Council
Operations Steering Committee (OSC)
GNSO Operations Team
Constituency Operations Team
OSC Communications Team
