...

The proposed upcoming dates for the GNSO Council Meetings in 2020 are as follows. (dates removed as they are completed and detailed in section below)    

• 21 May GNSO Council Meeting 21:00 UTC   
• 24 June GNSO Council Meeting 05:00 UTC   
• 23 July GNSO Council Meeting 12:00 UTC   
• 20 August GNSO Council Meeting 21:00 UTC   
• 24 September GNSO Council Meeting 12:00 UTC   
• 21 October GNSO Council Meeting 11:00 UTC  
• 19 November GNSO Council Meeting 21:00 UTC  
• 18 December GNSO Council Meeting 12:00 UTC   

...

GNSO Council Meeting Agenda's and Records for 2020 will be listed  below when available:

...

Next Council Meeting is to be held on

...

May 12th 2020 at

...

2100 UTC 

DRAFT Agenda will be posted here when available...

GNSO Council Meeting Audio Cast

Listen in browser:  http://stream.icann.org:8000/stream01

...

Webinar Room

https://icann.zoom.us/j/895774606?pwd=a051c2pESGpYaEdQWktzN2V5Y0xxQT09

...

Agenda 16 April 2020  1200 UTC   -   MINUTES will be posted when they become available.

Please note that all documents referenced in the agenda have been gathered on a Wiki page for convenience and easier access: https://community.icann.org/x/myWJBw

GNSO Council meeting held at 12:00 UTC

Coordinated Universal Time: 12:00 UTC: https://tinyurl.com/vau3jkd [tinyurl.com]

05:00 Los Angeles; 08:00 Washington DC; 13:00 London; 17:00 Islamabad; 21:00 Tokyo; 22:00 Melbourne 

___________________________________

Item 1: Administrative Matters (10 mins)

1.1 - Roll Call

1.2 - Updates to Statements of Interest

1.3 - Review / Amend Agenda

1.4 - Note the status of minutes for the previous Council meetings per the GNSO Operating Procedures: 

Minutes [gnso.icann.org] of the GNSO Council meeting on the 20 February 2020 will be posted on 6 March 2020

Minutes [gnso.icann.org] of the GNSO Council meeting on the 11 March 2020 were posted on 27 March 2020.

Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List (10 minutes)

2.1 - Review focus areas and provide updates on specific key themes / topics, to include review of Projects List [gnso.icann.org]and Action Item List. 

Item 3: Consent Agenda (0 minutes) 

• None

Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) (10 minutes)

Everyone is affected by the coronavirus pandemic, including members of the Council, members of the Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies, and staff. The impact is substantial for some, who in addition to their regular job are now also playing additional roles as day care provider and educator. For some, their work may be directly related to the effort to combat coronavirus. 

Here, the Council will have a brief discussion about how the coronavirus pandemic may impact the capacity of the GNSO Council and the SG/Cs as well as ICANN Org’s operations and staff, and that it should be accounted for in discussing all of the subsequent agenda items during this meeting.

4.1 – Introduction of topic (Council leadership)

4.2 – Council discussion

4.3 – Next steps

Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION – GNSO Work Prioritization - 2020 Work Plan / Impact From Coronavirus (25 minutes)

After the GNSO Council’s Strategic Planning Session in January 2020, the Council acknowledged that there are limited resources available for policy development activities and related work. This resource limitation means that the GNSO Council must efficiently complete its current work, but also prioritize the new work waiting in its pipeline. At the Strategic Planning Session, Councilors participated in an informal and non-binding ranking survey, which was used as a “sense of the room.” This informational survey result was shared with Councilors to then share with their respective Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies, to gain a better sense of the various groups’ top priorities. The Council touched on this topic briefly during the February Council meeting and again during its March meeting.

Council leadership and staff developed a draft work plan for the Council’s consideration. Previously, the focus was on prioritization of the GNSO’s work, which implies that the work should be ranked in order of priority. However, Council leadership determined that it might be more practical to think of this exercise more simply as establishing a work plan, which does still consider the urgency of the work, but also looks at each element of work in a more granular fashion and identifies potential dependencies. What this allows the Council to do is to potentially carve out pieces of work from a project that might be initiated in the near-term, some of which may then serve as the preparatory/informational basis for Council next steps.

While this topic is focused on a relatively long-term work plan for the GNSO, the landscape has changed significantly since the Strategic Planning Session in late January of 2020. It is possible that capacity within the community, as well as Policy staff, is or may be diminished by the impact from the coronavirus pandemic. For instance, the Council had anticipated initiating the IGO Work Track just after ICANN68, but Council leadership believes discussion is warranted on whether the timing still remains appropriate.

Here, the Council will discuss this change in approach (and draft document) to establishing the Council’s draft work plan for 2020, and potentially beyond, but will also consider whether the coronavirus pandemic might impact that plan.

5.1 – Introduction of topic (Council leadership)

5.2 – Council discussion

5.3 – Next steps

Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Report from the Transfer Policy Scoping Team (15 minutes)

On April 22, 2019, ICANN Org delivered the most recent version of the Transfer Policy Status Report (TPSR) [gnso.icann.org] to the GNSO Council. ICANN Org delivered the TPSR pursuant to Recommendation 17 of the Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy (IRTP) Part D PDP Working Group’s Final Report [gnso.icann.org], which provides, “[t]he Working Group recommends that contracted parties and ICANN should start to gather data and other relevant information that will help inform a future IRTP review team in its efforts.” 

The GNSO Council established the Transfer Policy Review Scoping Team to review the TPSR and consider the best approach/mechanism to conduct the review, composition of the potential review team, and the scope of the review and future policy work related to the Transfer Policy. The team believes that the GDPR and similar national privacy legislations have rendered the Transfer Policy ineffective and unworkable as written and recommends that a PDP, or series of PDPs, be established to conduct policy work on the Transfer Policy. Further, as a first step, the team recommends that the GNSO Council instruct ICANN Policy staff to draft an Issues Report in line with the Scoping Document [gnso.icann.org] delivered to the GNSO Council on 7 April 2020..

Here, the Council will discuss the report from the Transfer Policy Scoping Team and consider possible next steps, including the request of an Issue Report on the Transfer Policy.

6.1 - Introduction of topic (Council leadership)

6.2 – Council discussion

6.3 – Next steps

Item 7: Registration Directory Service (RDS) - Program Management (35 minutes)

The GNSO Council has a number of Registration Directory Service (RDS) related topics to consider.

• EPDP Phase 1, Recommendation 27 Wave 1 report - The Council was provided with the updated version of the Wave 1 report on 19 February 2020. On 24 March 2020, a suggested approach for addressing the Council’s work related to recommendation 27 was shared with the Council. The Council has not yet discussed how it wants to prioritize and allocate this work, which will have an impact on the Council’s work plan.
• Whois Procedure Implementation Advisory Group (WPIAG) - At the Council’s 13 March 2019 meeting, it agreed to defer further discussion of the WPIAG for 12 months, reserving the right to revisit at any time. With 12 months having lapsed, what action, if any, should be taken?
• Registration Directory Service Review Team (RDS-RT) - On 18 March 2020, the Council was informed that the ICANN Board passed two recommendations to the Council, in whole or in part, for its consideration as documented in the scorecard [icann.org] associated with the Board resolution [icann.org]. The Council has not yet discussed how it will consider the two relevant recommendations (i.e., CC1 and CC.4).

Here, the Council will discuss the bullet points above and discuss next steps, as applicable.

7.1 – Introduction of topic (Council leadership)

7.2 – Council discussion

7.3 – Next steps

Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS (15 minutes)

• 8.1 - GNSO Chair election timeline [gnso.icann.org] announced
• 8.2 - EPDP Phase 2 Initial Report and latest EPDP Project Package - Any questions?
• 8.3 - RDS data accuracy - possible next steps?
• 8.4 - Expectations for ICANN68 (if virtual)?
• 8.5 - Letter [gnso.icann.org] from the ICANN Board regarding a potential impasse concerning the implementation of EPDP Phase 1 Recommendation 7, related to Thick WHOIS Transition Policy..

...

Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting 11 March 2020

...