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GNSO Council Meeting #2 of 2023 held on 16 Feb 2023 

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #2 of 2023 held on 16 Feb 2023

Full Agenda  |  Motions  |  Documents

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Adoption of the Amended Charter for the Transfer Policy Review PDP and Approval of the Policy Change Request
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on the Board's Consideration of the Subsequent Procedures Recommendations and Operational Design Assessment (SubPro ODA)
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on the Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvements (CCOICI)’s Working Group Self-Assessment Recommendations Report and Update from the Statement of Interest (SOI) Task Force
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - ICANN76 Meeting Planning
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - PDP Improvements item #8 (Review of the Policy & Implementation recommendations)
• Item 9: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) Review Next Steps
• Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 
  • 9.2 - Update on Closed Generics Facilitated Dialogue

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 15 December 2022 were posted on 03 January 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 19 January 2023 were posted on 02 February 2023.
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Nomination of a Mentor for the ICANN Fellowship Selection Committee - Taiwo Peter Akinremi
  • Motion for the Adoption of the Revised Charter for the Budget and Operations Townhall
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Adoption of the Amended Charter for the Transfer Policy Review PDP and Approval of the Policy Change Request 
  • Council initiated the two-phased Transfer Policy Review PDP in February 2021. Since it began meeting in May 2021, the WG has made steady progress on its Phase 1 charter questions, including publishing its Phase 1A Initial Report for public comment.  The WG conducted preliminary deliberations on Phase 1B topics during the Phase 1A Initial Report public comment period, then reviewed public comments on the Phase 1A Initial Report, and is now completing revisions to preliminary recommendations, taking into account public comment received. 
  • In the course of Phase 1 work conducted to date, the WG discovered that certain Phase 2 topics must be addressed before Phase 1 recommendations can be fully developed. As a result, the leadership team is preparing a Project Change Request (PCR) to update its work plan to consolidate all work into a single phase and change the order in which topics are considered. This will impact the timeline for key deliverables.
  • Council to consider the amended Charter and approval of the PCR for the Transfer Policy Review PDP.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on the Board's Consideration of the Subsequent Procedures Recommendations and Operational Design Assessment (SubPro ODA)
  • Council will receive an update from Becky Burr/Matthew Shears on the SubPro related discussions during the Board workshop and what has transpired since the the Board's workshop in January 2023. As discussed in the Chair's blog, the ICANN Board spent a full day reviewing the SubPro Outputs and SubPro ODA.
• Item 6:  COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on the Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvements (CCOICI)’s Working Group Self-Assessment Recommendations Report and Update from the Statement of Interest (SOI) Task Force
  • Council had resolved on 16 June 2021 to initiate the Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvements (CCOICI) as a pilot, which included the review of the Working Group Self-Assessment as one of the two areas of focus.
  • The CCOICI started the Working Group Self-Assessment assignment in October 2021, concluding in February 2022. However, the CCOICI deferred conducting the public comment until it could be combined with recommendations related to the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI). The consolidated public comment proceeding on Proposed Updates to the GNSO Operating Procedures was conducted from 09 September - 14 November 2022, after which the CCOICI integrated public comments as appropriate and submitted its Recommendations Report to the Council on 5 January 2023.
  • Council will receive an update on both the CCOICI’s Working Group Self-Assessment Recommendations Report. In addition, an update will be provided on the work of the GNSO SOI Task Force (TF).
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - PDP Improvements item #8 (Review of the Policy & Implementation recommendations)
  • GNSO Council established a PDP Improvements Tracker in order to provide an aggregated view of the various proposed improvements that have been identified from a number of different initiatives., which include:
    • Council Strategic Planning Session (SPS) Action Item – how to improve support for and follow up on policy recommendations post-Council adoption
    • Operational Design Phase
    • Modifying Consensus Policies
    • PDP 3.0 Parking Lot Items
    • Review of Policy & Implementation Recommendations
  • For item #8 (Review of the Policy & Implementation recommendations) and the agreed next step (“Staff support team to provide further detail on what a policy status report (PSR) would be expected to cover”), staff circulated a background note on a possible PSR on the Policy & Implementation Recommendations on 20 January 2023.

  • Council will discuss the background note and consider next steps.

• Item 9: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) Review Next Steps
  • After the approval of the Phase 1 Final Report of the GNSO Policy Development Process (PDP) on the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) in All gTLDs in January 2021, the Council discussed the need to review the RPMs charter in advance of launching Phase 2 of the PDP.
  • Council determined that a Policy Status Report (PSR) should be requested from ICANN org to better understand if new issues or information has emerged that would be relevant to a comprehensive review of the policy.
  • ICANN org’s Global Domains and Strategy (GDS) team completed the draft PSR and published it for public comment on 3 March 2022; the revised PSR was shared with Council on 18 July 2022 and Council then received a briefing from GDS during the July meeting, at which Council delayed next steps based on a number of reasons, primarily though because of the amount of competing work. Council agreed during its November 2022 meeting that because of the launch of the Phase 1 RPMs Implementation Review Team (IRT), which would likely have overlapping community support with a Phase 2 PDP, that the delay for next steps should be tied to the completion or key milestones for the IRT.
  • Council will receive an update from the Council’s liaison to the RPMs IRT to better understand precise timing for delaying Phase 2 next steps.
• Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS 
  • 9.2 - Update on Closed Generics Facilitated Dialogue

Records of 16 Feb 2023 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 16 Feb 2023 Meeting to ALT-PLUS

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Feb 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Feb 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda

• Council confirmed Taiwo Peter Akinremi as a Fellowship Selection Committee member for six consecutive ICANN meetings, beginning with ICANN78.
• Council adopts the revised Charter for the Budget and Operations Townhall (formerly known as the GNSO Standing Committee on Budget and Operations (SCBO)).

2. Transfer Policy Review PDP

• Council approved the Transfer Policy Review PDP amended Charter and Project Change Request (PCR), which following recent developments, are designed to update the PDP WG's work plan to consolidate all work into a single phase and change the order in which topics are considered.

3. Subsequent Procedures Operational Design Assessment (SubPro ODA)

• Council received an update on SubPro related discussions during the recent Jan 2023 Board workshop from the one of the GNSO appointees to the ICANN Board, Becky Burr (Matthew Shears was an apology).  As discussed in the Chair's blog, the ICANN Board spent a full day reviewing the SubPro Outputs and SubPro ODA.
• Becky indicated:
  • That the Board is expected to proceed with decision on many of the SubPro Outputs but mentioned that there were still a small number of questions/issues which the Board is looking to work through with Council and the GAC.
  • That one of the key question that the Board wishes to discuss with Council is on the issue of rounds - linked to Option 2 in the SubPro ODA which suggested "4 annual rounds" - particularly on how quickly we might be able to get to "a first-come-first-served" basis instead of rounds.
    • (Ed. I believe Becky meant "on a rolling basis" in context of SubPro Output 3.5.)
    • SubPro Output 3.5 says, "Absent extraordinary circumstances application procedures must take place at predictable, regularly occurring intervals without indeterminable periods of review unless the GNSO Council recommends pausing the program and such recommendation is approved by the Board. Such extraordinary circumstances must be subject to the Predictability Framework under Topic 2 of this Report. Unless and until other procedures are recommended by the GNSO Council and approved by the ICANN Board, ICANN must only use “rounds” to administer the New gTLD Program."
  • While the full list of issues is being finalized by the Board and will be shared with Council in the near future, and that a Board SubPro Caucus-Council meeting will be convened to discuss them, it includes auction proceeds and mostly, a handful of questions; also, the matter of GAC's role with regards to applications in the next round. 
  • With GAC, there is the matter of the GAC's expectation on how the Board would handle GAC Advice on applications, following guidance from the Independent Review Panels (IRPs) that came out of the last round and guidance on how the Board would handle GAC Advice on applications; also a piece of advice which doesn't have a lot to do with SubPro but which the Board would have to defer action on until they have been worked through.  
  • However, there was nothing precluding an Implementation Review Team (SubPro IRT) from being created as soon as the Board has voted on the bulk of the SubPro Outputs
• Council will consider whether this Board SubPro Caucus-Council meeting should include not only SubPro PDP WG co-chairs but also active members of that PDP WG.  (

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and share updates regarding this Board SubPro Caucus-Council meeting arrangements.

4. Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvements (CCOICI)

• By way of background, the work of the CCOICI (a GNSO pilot) covers several areas of focus, including Updates to GNSO Operating Procedures; which covers (a) Working Group Self-Assessment (WGSA) and (b) GNSO Statement of Interest (GNSO SOI), which were part of the public comment proceeding on Proposed Updates to the GNSO Operating Procedures which ran from Sep-Nov 2022.
• Council received an update on both (a) and (b), and while the work on (a) WGSA has more or less concluded (where I can confirm that action has been taken to incorporate the ALAC's input in respect of the existing WGSA survey), the CCOICI is still grappling with public comments received on the GNSO SOI update. 
• The key issue with the GNSO SOI update revolves around transparency of ICANN PDPs, in particular the proposed allowance for a PDP WG member to claim confidentiality as the ground for not revealing the entity that stands to benefit from that member's participation (client-solicitor privilege was cited as an example for claiming such confidentiality). Council discussed this issue briefly and will revisit this issue at a future meeting when the CCOICI is ready to present its recommendation(s) on the GNSO SOI update.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and share updates regarding the GNSO SOI with ALAC

5. Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) 

• Council considered the need to review the GNSO Policy Development Process on the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs (RPMs PDP) charter in advance of launching Phase 2 of this RPMs PDP.
• Council had agreed during its Nov 2022 meeting that because of the launch of the Phase 1 RPMs Implementation Review Team (IRT), which would likely have overlapping community support with a Phase 2 PDP, that the delay for Phase 2 should be tied to the completion or key milestones for the IRT. Council concluded that completion of the Phase 1 RPMs IRT would be a sensible trigger for Phase 2 work.