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Any Notes of relevance to the ALAC / At-Large from GNSO Council Meetings will be highlighted at the top of any Agenda listed below in colour. 

ANNOUNCING

GNSO Council Unanimous Vote

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to adopt:- Final Report and Outputs from the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP 

Whereas and Resolved clause on the Vote and Action Items is listed below for your ease of review...

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Such Resolutions will be held here temporarily prior to the formal acceptance and publishing of Council Minutes and Resolutions.

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(excerpt from Item #5 of the Feb Meeting Council Resolutions please also read the full Minutes listed below)

The GNSO Council approves, and recommends that the ICANN Board adopt, the Affirmations, Recommendations, and Implementation Guidance (Collectively referred to as “Outputs”) that were determined to have received either Full Consensus or Consensus designations as documented in the SubPro PDP Working Group's Final Report

Recognizing that nearly a decade has passed since the opening of the 2012 round of new gTLDs, the GNSO Council requests that the ICANN Board consider and direct the implementation of the Outputs adopted by the GNSO Council without waiting for any other proposed or ongoing policy work unspecific to New gTLD Subsequent Procedures to conclude, while acknowledging the importance of such work.

Further, the GNSO Council requests that the ICANN Board initiate an Operational Design Phase on the Final Report of the SubPro Working Group and its Outputs as soon as possible, to perform an assessment of GNSO Council recommendations in order to provide the Board with relevant operational information to facilitate the Board’s determination, in accordance with the Bylaws, on the impact of the operational impact of the implementation of the recommendations, including whether the recommendations are in the best interests of the ICANN community or ICANN.

The GNSO Council requests ICANN org to convene an Implementation Review Team to work on the implementation of these Outputs. The Implementation Review Team will be tasked with assisting ICANN org in developing the implementation details for the New gTLD Program, evaluating the proposed implementation of the Outputs as approved by the Board, and working with ICANN staff to ensure that the resultant implementation conforms to the intent of the approved Outputs. The Implementation Review Team shall operate in accordance with the Implementation Review Team Principles and Guidance

approved by the GNSO Council in June 2015.

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Philippe Fouquart reminded councilors that the Final Report was submitted to Council on 18 January 2021. A briefing followed on the January Council meeting, as well as a webinar after that. Early February, an initial motion was proposed by leadership, with subsequent amendments and revisions to the motion text on recommendations 35.2 and 35.4, as well as resolved clause 1. The amendments were submitted by the seconder, considered friendly by the proposer.

Flip Petillion, GNSO Council liaison to the SubPro PDP WG, introduced the motion. He reminded councilors that the Final Report is the result of the work of 5 years by WG members, headed by Jeff Neuman and Cheryl Langdon-Orr. He brought to Council’s attention that in the whereas clauses of the motion, there are “affirmations” rather than the distinctions of the term which were made in the Final Report. He pointed out the different outputs and designations (Full Consensus and Consensus for most). The WG leadership took a conservative approach to the designations of the outputs. He however pointed out that for three recommendations, there were particular values of designations: topic 23 (no agreement but consensus on the fact there was no agreement), whereas clause 12 on the status quo of 2012, recommendation of 35.2 and 35.4 (Strong Support with Significant Opposition). The Resolved clauses no longer mention these recommendations.

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Adoption of the Policy Development Process on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Report

Submitted by: Flip Petillion

Seconded by: Kurt Pritz

WHEREAS

1. On 17 December 2015 the GNSO Council resolved to initiate [gnso.icann.org] a PDP to consider and analyze issues discussed in the Final Issue Report on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (SubPro PDP) to determine whether changes or adjustments to the existing policy recommendations in the Final Report on the Introduction of New Generic Top-Level Domains from 08 August 2007 are needed.
2. On 21 January 2016 the GNSO Council approved [gnso.icann.org] the Charter for the SubPro PDP and directed ICANN staff to issue a call for volunteers for the SubPro PDP Working Group.
3. After initiating a call for community comment in June of 2016 (Community Comment 1), the SubPro PDP divided its work into four Work Tracks culminating in a second call for community comment (Community Comment 2) in March of 2017, that provided an insight into the work of each of the initial four Work Tracks, and asked a series of questions of the community for further consideration.
4. In November of 2017, a fifth Work Track (WT5) was created solely for the purpose of examining the issues related to Geographic Names as the Top Level. In recognition of the broad interest in the topic and to encourage participation from the ICANN community, it was set up to include four WT5 leaders, one each from the GNSO, ccNSO, GAC and At-Large.
5. The SubPro PDP has followed the prescribed PDP steps as stated in the Bylaws, including the publication of the following Reports for public comment:
   1. an Initial Report [icann.org] on 08 July 2018 for public comment.
   2. a Supplemental Initial Report [icann.org] on 30 October 2018, covering certain issues not included in the Initial Report.
   3. a Supplemental Initial Report  [icann.org]on Geographic Names at the Top Level on 5 December 2018.
   4. a Draft Final Report [icann.org] on 20 August 2020.
6. On 18 January 2021, the SubPro PDP Working Group submitted its Final Report to the Council for its consideration.
7. On 21 January 2021, the GNSO Council received a high-level briefing of the Final Report by the GNSO Council Liaison to the SubPro PDP Working Group.
8. On 28 January 2021, the GNSO Council Liaison to the SubPro PDP Working Group and its Co-Chairs held a webinar, directed at the GNSO Council, to discuss the Final Report’s 41 Topics, which included hundreds of Affirmations, Recommendations and Implementation Guidance (Collectively referred to as “Outputs”) in more detail.
9. Each of the Outputs in the following topics obtained a Full Consensus designation (Topics 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40).
10. Each of the following topics received an overall designation of Consensus, with all of the Outputs obtaining at least a Consensus designation (Topics 2, 3, 4, 9, 12, 15, 17, 18, 21, 24, 27, 29, 30, 34, and 41).
11. One Topic obtained a Strong Support but Significant Opposition designation (#35); However, within that one Topic, three of the five Outputs obtained a Consensus designation, and two of the five Outputs, Recommendations 35.2 and 35.4, obtained the designation Strong Support but Significant Opposition.
12. While not seeking to affirm that the status quo prevails in any particular instance, the GNSO Council notes that the Working Group operated under the assumption that, in the event the Working Group was unable to reach consensus in recommending an alternate course of action, the “status quo” should remain in place as a default position, with the status quo consisting of the 2007 policy, the final Applicant Guidebook, and any implementation elements that were put into practice in the 2012 application round.
13. The GNSO Council notes that Topic 23: Closed Generics was identified as an Output category of No Agreement, which did achieve Full Consensus. However, the GNSO Council believes No Agreement is functionally equivalent to the designation of Divergence as detailed in the GNSO Working Group Guidelines, meaning that the Working Group was unable to reach consensus in recommending an alternate course of action. The GNSO Council further notes that especially as it relates to Topic 23: Closed Generics, there were diverging interpretations within the Working Group of what constitutes the “status quo”.
14. Given the large number of topics and the interdependency of many of the subjects, the SubPro PDP Working Group recommends that all Outputs be considered as one package by the GNSO Council and subsequently the ICANN Board, notwithstanding any Outputs that did not achieve Consensus or Full Consensus.

RESOLVED

1. The GNSO Council approves, and recommends that the ICANN Board adopt, the Affirmations, Recommendations, and Implementation Guidance (Collectively referred to as “Outputs”) that were determined to have received either Full Consensus or Consensus designations as documented in the SubPro PDP Working Group's Final Report
2. Recognizing that nearly a decade has passed since the opening of the 2012 round of new gTLDs, the GNSO Council requests that the ICANN Board consider and direct the implementation of the Outputs adopted by the GNSO Council without waiting for any other proposed or ongoing policy work unspecific to New gTLD Subsequent Procedures to conclude, while acknowledging the importance of such work.
3. Further, the GNSO Council requests that the ICANN Board initiate an Operational Design Phase on the Final Report of the SubPro Working Group and its Outputs as soon as possible, to perform an assessment of GNSO Council recommendations in order to provide the Board with relevant operational information to facilitate the Board’s determination, in accordance with the Bylaws, on the impact of the operational impact of the implementation of the recommendations, including whether the recommendations are in the best interests of the ICANN community or ICANN.
4. The GNSO Council requests that ICANN Org convene an Implementation Review Team to work on the implementation of these Outputs. The Implementation Review Team will be tasked with assisting ICANN org in developing the implementation details for the New gTLD Program, evaluating the proposed implementation of the Outputs as approved by the Board, and working with ICANN staff to ensure that the resultant implementation conforms to the intent of the approved Outputs. The Implementation Review Team shall operate in accordance with the Implementation Review Team Principles and Guidance approved by the GNSO Council in June 2015.
5. The GNSO Council extends its sincere appreciation to the Co-Chairs, Cheryl Langdon-Orr and Jeffrey Neuman, as well as past Co-Chair Avri Doria, the SubPro PDP Work Track leaders, the SubPro Working Group members and support staff of the SubPro PDP for their tireless efforts these past five years to deliver this Final Report.

Vote results [gnso.icann.org]

more time. The IPC believes the security and stability of the Domain Name System will continue to be under attack, a solution needs to be worked on. The IPC asks the Council to begin a PDP on DNS Abuse as soon as possible.

Pam Little asked about resolved clause 4 and proposed to make a change from “The GNSO Council directs ICANN Org to convene an Implementation Review Team” to “The GNSO Council requests that ICANN Org convene an Implementation Review Team (IRT)”. This change was accepted as friendly by both proposer and seconder of the motion.

Jeff Neuman, GNSO Council Liaison to the GAC, shared the GAC’s communication to the GNSO Council on the Final Report. The GAC noted membership is still reviewing the Final Report, but are seeking clarification on aspects of the Final Report in view of GAC input which has not been fully considered: Public Interest Commitments, DNS Abuse mitigation, Safeguards for gTLDs in Highly Regulated Sectors, GAC Early Warnings and Advice, Next Rounds of new gTLDs (costs and benefits of new gTLD rounds), Auctions: Mechanisms of Last Resort / Private Resolution of Contention Sets. GAC Leadership intends to hold a preparatory webinar intersessionally on the SubPro PDP WG Final Report and next steps, and further discuss topics of priority to the GAC relative to Subsequent Procedures of New gTLDs at ICANN70.

Maxim Alzoba asked Jeff Neuman if he expected the GAC to deliver their consensus-based advice during ICANN70. Jeff Neuman replied that the GAC would only be able to pronounce itself during ICANN70 GAC sessions.

Councilors voted unanimously in support of the motion. Philippe Fouquart thanked the SubPro WG co-chairs and members for their efforts.

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Action item:

GNSO Staff to develop a recommendations report for the SubPro PDP Final Report for Council’s consideration as a consent agenda item during the March 2021 meeting

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The EPDP P2A began in January 2021, focussing on the legal vs natural persons distinction and the feasibility of unique contacts. The EPDP initiated an EPDP P2A Legal sub-team chaired by Becky Burr, proposed definitions for consideration of liability issues for contracted parties as well as identifying policy questions. The work is driven through the Legal sub-team. Council may expect a request from the EPDP to extend the project and the timeline. End of May is planned for the Initial Report, prior to that Keith Drazek, EPDP P2A Chair will provide an update to Council. Maxim Alzobastated that as the efforts of this phase were initially time-limited, if no progress was made, the Council would need to take action after the update from the Chair.

8.2 - Update from the GNSO Council liaison to the GAC, including his discussion with the GAC point of contact, Jorge Cancio

Jeffrey Neuman: A month ago, the GAC appointed Jorge Cancio as GAC point of contact for the calendar year. This is a new position and covers the GNSO rather than the GNSO Council. Jorge and Jeff are meeting monthly, scheduled around GNSO Council meetings. Discussion will revolve around GAC issues, and increased dialogue and collaboration.

8.3 - ICANN70 GNSO sessions and agenda topics for bilateral sessions (ccNSO, GAC, ICANN Board)

Philippe Fouquart reminded councilors of the three scheduled meetings with the ccNSO, GAC and ICANN Board. For the meeting with the ccNSO, topics of discussion already raised are: IDNs, SubPro, cooperation between SCBO and SOPC on the ICANN budget, EC regulation and NIS 2 Directive and Digital Services Act, Empowered Community. Sebastien Ducos, GNSO liaison to the ccNSO, invited IDN EPDP DT colleagues to join the session to share their expertise. For the meeting with GAC, Jeff Neuman will liaise with Jorge Cancio. For the meeting with the ICANN Board, topics SSAD and Operational Design Phase (ODP), SubPro ODP.

Mark Datysgeld added that there had been discussion on the chat about DNS Abuse and would encourage the topic to be added to the GNSO Council agenda for a future meeting.

Philippe Fouquart adjourned the meeting at 21:02 UTC on Thursday18 February 2021 

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GNSO Council Minutes 21 January 2021 1900 UTC 

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