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GNSO Council Meeting #8 of 2023 held on 24 Aug 2023  

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

GNSO Council Meeting #8 of 2023 held on 24 Aug 2023

Full Agenda  |  Documents  | Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Approval of the 2023 Customer Standing Committee (CSC) Slate
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - SubPro Small Team Clarifying Statement
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Chartering the Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”)
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Pending Recommendations - Expected Non-Adoption 
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Closed Generics
• Item 9: AOB
  • 9.1 Update from NIS2 Outreach Team 
  • 9.2 ICANN78 Planning
  • 9.3 Discussion Paper on .Quebec
  • 9.4 Grant Program Implementation update to Chartering Organizations
• 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 14 June were posted on 01 July 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 20 July were posted on 06 August 2023.
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Approval of the 2023 Customer Standing Committee (CSC) Slate - In accordance with Section 17.2 (d) of the ICANN Bylaw and per the CSC Charter, the full membership of the CSC must be approved by the GNSO Council. The Council approves the full slate of members and liaisons, noting that the SSAC has declined to appoint a liaison. 
  • The ALAC's Liaison for term 2023-2025 is Holly Raiche, with the alternate being Ejikeme Egbuogu
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - SubPro Small Team Clarifying Statement
  • During its informal session at ICANN76 and the subsequent Council meeting, Council discussed and agreed to task a small team of interested councilors to review the recommendations that the Board placed in a pending status and suggest to the full Council how the underlying concerns that caused the pending status can be best addressed (i.e., a limited triage exercise).
  • Since ICANN76, the Council SubPro Small Team has met several times and has completed a comprehensive review of the issues chart, with Board member input on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. Council discussed the main output of that triage effort, the proposed paths forward for each pending recommendation, during an Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May. During that meeting, Council agreed to further task the small team with taking interim steps (e.g., provision of clarifying information, developing speaking points) in order to support the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May. Council debriefed after the dialogue with the ICANN Board and discussed next steps. 
  • During ICANN77 Day 0 Session, Council heard from members of the Board regarding the Board’s views on potential “landing spots” on the pending recommendations. Following this discussion, the Small Team has drafted clarifying statements for items in landing spot one (“Provision of Clarifying Statement to the Board”). During its meeting in July, Council received an update from the Small Team on the proposed clarifying statement.
  • The recommendations where there is an expectation that the GNSO Council can resolve ICANN Board concerns via a Clarifying Statement are:
    • Topic 3: Applications Assessed in Rounds - Recommendations 3.1, 3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7
      • The SubPro Final Report recommendation envisions that “the next application procedure should be processed in the form of a round” and “Application procedures must take place at predictable, regularly occurring intervals without indeterminable periods of review”. However, the GNSO Council confirms its willingness to engage with the ICANN Board to explore a shared vision for the long-term evolution of the program, which could be materially different than what is envisioned for the next round of the New gTLD Program in the Topic 3 recommendations.
    • Topic 6: Registry Service Provider Pre-Evaluation - Recommendation 6.8
      • The GNSO Council confirms its understanding of the Implementation Review Team (IRT) Principles & Guidelines that state that, “the IRT is convened to assist staff in developing the implementation details for the policy to ensure that the implementation conforms to the intent of the policy recommendations.” The Council therefore recognizes that ICANN org will be responsible for establishing the fees charged for the RSP pre-evaluation program, in consultation with the IRT, as is consistent with the roles and responsibilities captured in the IRT Principles & Guidelines. The language used in Recommendation 6.8 is not intended to alter the respective roles and responsibilities of staff and the IRT.
    • Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments - Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 9.15
      • Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13 - The GNSO Council confirms that in respect to any new Public Interest Commitments (PICs) and Registry Voluntary Commitments (RVCs), PICs/RVCs entered into must be contractually enforceable, and in respect of RVCs, enforceability is determined by both ICANN org and the applicant. And further, the Council observes that among the purposes of PICs / RVCs is to address public comments, in addressing strings deemed highly sensitive or related to regulated industries, objections, whether formal or informal, GAC Early Warnings, GAC Consensus Advice, and/or other comments from the GAC.
      • Recommendation 9.15: The GNSO Council confirms that this recommendation does not require any implementation nor creates any dependencies for the Next Round of the New gTLD Program.
    • Topic 26: Security and Stability - Recommendation 26.9
      • The GNSO Council confirms that the “any level” language referenced in the recommendation should be interpreted to only be in respect of domain names that are allocated by the registry operator.
    • Topic 29: Name Collision - Recommendation 29.1
      • The GNSO Council believes that Recommendation 29.1 can be adopted by the Board on the understanding that it does not need to be acted on until such time any next steps for mitigating name collision risks are better understood out of the Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) Study 2.
    • Topic 30: GAC Consensus Advice and GAC Early Warning - Recommendation 30.7
      • Please see the Council’s clarifying statement for Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13.
    • Topic 31: Objections - Recommendations 31.16, 31.17
      • Please see the Council’s clarifying statement for Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13.
    • Topic 34: Community Applications - Recommendation 34.12
      • The GNSO Council confirms its recommendation that terms included in the contract between ICANN org and the CPE Provider regarding the CPE process must be subject to public comment. This recommendation however is not intended to require ICANN org to disclose any confidential terms of the agreement between ICANN org and the CPE Provider.
    • Topic 35: Auctions - Recommendations 35.3, 35.5
      • The GNSO Council confirms that the references to private auctions in Recommendations 35.3 and 35.5 merely acknowledge the existence of private auctions in 2012 and should NOT be seen as an endorsement or prohibition of their continued practice in future rounds of the New gTLD Program. The Council notes that there were extensive discussions on the use of private auctions in the SubPro working group. To the extent that draft recommendations were developed as to private auctions, these did not receive consensus support in the working group but did receive strong support with significant opposition.
  • Council will vote on the clarifying statement to be submitted to the ICANN Board.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Recommendations Report on Review of the Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements 
  • The GNSO Framework for Continuous Improvement Pilot was initiated in June 2021 to determine whether the framework, as outlined here, could serve as an approach for dealing with the various projects that are focused on improvements to GNSO processes and procedures.

  • The CCOICI tasked the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI) Task Force to address the following questions:

    1. Is the original objective of the SOI, as stated in the BGC WG Report, still valid? If not, why not and what should the current objective be?
    2. Based on the response to question 1), is the requested information to be provided as part of the SOI still fit for purpose? If not, why not, and what would need to be changed to make it fit for purpose?
    3. Are there any further measures that should be considered from an enforcement / escalation perspective, in addition or instead of those already included in the requirements?
  • The CCOICI submitted to  Council for consideration its Recommendations Report following its review of the Recommendations Report submitted to the CCOICI by the GNSO Statement of Interest Task Force based on their review of the GNSO Statement of Interest (SOI) Requirements as well as their review of the input received in response to the public comment forum.
  • Council will receive an overview of the CCOICI Recommendations Report on the SOI Requirements.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Chartering the Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”)
  • In its Final Report, the Subsequent Procedures Working Group recommended “the formation of a Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (‘SPIRT’) (Pronounced ‘spirit’) to serve as the body responsible for reviewing potential issues related to the Program, to conduct analysis utilizing the framework, and to recommend the process/mechanism that should be followed to address the issue (i.e., utilize the Predictability Framework). The GNSO Council shall be responsible for oversight of the SPIRT and may review all recommendations of the SPIRT in accordance with the procedures outlined in the GNSO Operating Procedures and Annexes thereto.”
  • Council will hear on the issue of SPIRT chartering.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Pending Recommendations - Expected Non-Adoption 
  • Further to Item 4: SubPro Small Team Clarifying Statement which addressed 22 of 38 SubPro recommendations marked as "pending", the Council SubPro Small Team has also looked at proposing paths for the remaining 16 recommendations the Board is not expected to adopt.
  • Council will hear an update on the proposed path. In addition, the small team is requesting Council for further instructions now that it has reached the solution building stage; as well as input on whether or not it is time to invite the GAC to participate more formally in the small team's work and how that would work practically.
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Closed Generics

  • In March 2022, the ICANN Board requested that the GAC and GNSO Council consider engaging in a facilitated dialogue to develop a framework for further GNSO policy work on the issue of Closed Generics. The GAC and GNSO Council agreed to the Board’s suggestion and each appointed six participants for the dialogue. One participant and one alternate from the ALAC were also appointed. Should the GAC-GNSO facilitated dialogue result in an agreed framework, the agreements will be further developed through the appropriate GNSO policy process.

  • Following an initial, informal meeting at ICANN75 in Kuala Lumpur, the dialogue participants have since been meeting regularly via Zoom and held a substantive two-day face-to-face meeting in Washington, D.C. in late January 2023. The dialogue is hoping to deliver a draft framework around the end of April 2023 to the ALAC, GAC, GNSO and other SOACs for community input. At this stage, groups are expected to have approximately four weeks to review the document.

  • During its meeting at ICANN76, the ICANN Board passed a resolution adopting a substantial portion of the outputs from the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP, setting in motion the start of the implementation process for the next round of new gTLDs. As part of the resolution, the Board established deadlines for key deliverables that will impact the development of the implementation plan.

  • The GNSO Chair, GAC Chair, and ALAC Chair plan to send a separate communication to the ICANN Board that reflects the decision they took and, as stated in the letter, expressing the collective view that:
    • (1) closed generic gTLDs should not be viewed as a dependency for the next round;
    • (2) until there is community-developed policy, the Board should maintain the position from the 2012 round (i.e., any applications seeking to impose exclusive registry access for "generic strings" to a single person or entity and/or that person's or entity's Affiliates (as defined in Section 2.9(c) of the Registry Agreement) should not proceed; and
    • (3) should the community decide in the future to resume the policy discussions, this should be based on the good work that has been done to date in the facilitated dialogue.
  • Council will discuss the current state of work and the proposed communication to the Board.
• Item 9: AOB
  • 9.1 Update from NIS2 Outreach Team 
  • 9.2 ICANN78 Planning
  • 9.3 Discussion Paper on .Quebec
  • 9.4 Grant Program Implementation update to Chartering Organizations

GNSO Council Meeting #8 of 2023 held on 24 Aug 2023 at 13:00 UTC: 

.. 

Non-Council members are welcome to attend the call as listen-only observers.

 https://tinyurl.com/2h2mdzcd. 

06:00 Los Angeles; 09:00 Washington DC; 14:00 London; 15:00 Paris; 16:00 Moscow; 07:00 Melbourne 

 GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: https://icann.zoom.us/j/97891627902?pwd=RURCTitiNEVwd2UySEk1QkRESmlFZz09 

Non-Council members are welcome to attend the call as listen-only observers.

Records of 24 Aug 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 24 Aug 2023 Meeting to ALAC

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

GNSO Council Meeting #7 of 2023 held on 20 Jul 2023  

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

GNSO Council Meeting #7 of 2023 held on 20 Jul 2023

Full Agenda  |  Documents  | Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team Recommendations #1 and #2 – extending deferral of consideration by six months
  • GNSO Review of GAC Communiqué 
  • GNSO Non-Registry Liaison to the Customer Standing Committee (CSC) - Milton Mueller; [GNSO Non-Registry Liaison Alternate to the CSC - [candidate under review]]
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy 
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Operational Design Phase and Operational Design Assessment Liaison & Small Team Survey Feedback
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Pending Recommendations - Clarifying Statement
• Item 7: Follow up on IGO Curative Rights IRT and Other Work Necessary to Achieve Release of the IGO Acronyms  Under Interim Reservation
• Item 8: IDNs EPDP Timeline
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 9.1 ccNSO Liaison update
  • 9.2 Closed Generics Update

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 Extraordinary Council meeting on 05 June 2023 were posted on 19 June 2023
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 14 June 2023 were posted on 01 July 2023
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team Recommendations #1 and #2 – extending deferral of consideration by six months
• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Accuracy 
  • During Council’s extraordinary meeting on 5 June 2023, Thomas Rickert introduced an area for potential discussion at a future GNSO Council meeting.
  • Specifically, the European Union's Second Network and Information Systems Directive (“NIS2”) entered into force on 16 January 2023. Article 28, subsection 3 provides, "Member States shall require TLD name registries and the entities providing domain name registration services, those are registrars, resellers and privacy and proxy services, to have policies and procedures, including verification procedures in place to ensure that the databases referred to in paragraph 1 include accurate and complete information. Member States shall require such policies and procedures to be publicly available." Additionally, the corresponding recital number 111, provides, in part, “Those policies and procedures should take into account to the extent possible the standards developed by the multi-stakeholder governance structures at the international level." 
  • There was a suggestion to consider informal options of responding to the recital text to highlight the standards that are currently applicable.
  • Council will discuss if further work is needed on this topic, and if the GNSO is the appropriate venue for further work at this time.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Operational Design Phase and Operational Design Assessment Liaison & Small Team Survey Feedback
  • Council will receive an overview of the feedback provided in the surveys issued to two GNSO Liaisons to the ODP (Janis Karklins and Jeff Neuman) and the members of both ODA review teams, and consider potential next steps such as sharing this feedback to ICANN org to help inform the upcoming community consultation.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Pending Recommendations - Clarifying Statement
  • Since ICANN76, the Council SubPro Small Team has met several times and has completed a comprehensive review of the issues chart, with Board member input on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. The Council discussed the main output of that triage effort, the proposed paths forward for each pending recommendation, during an Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May, in order to support the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May. 
  • During the ICANN77 Day 0 Session, Council heard from the members of the Board regarding the Board’s views on potential “landing spots” on the pending recommendations. Following this discussion, the Small Team has drafted clarifying statements for items in landing spot one (“Provision of Clarifying Statement to the Board”). Immediately after ICANN77, Council submitted its ICANN77 Deliverable Work plan & Timeline SubPro Related Activities as requested by the ICANN Board in its 16 Mar resolution.
  • Council will receive an update from the Small Team on the proposed clarifying statement to the Board as well as the work that is ongoing in relation to the recommendations for which the Board has indicated likely non-adoption.
• Item 7: Follow up on IGO Curative Rights IRT and Other Work Necessary to Achieve Release of the IGO Acronyms  Under Interim Reservation
  • On 14 April 2013, the Board passed a resolution placing certain IGO acronyms under temporary reservation. In recent correspondence, the Board confirmed that its intention in passing this resolution was to “withhold these IGO acronyms from registration at the second level on an interim basis, pending resolution by the community of the inconsistencies between GAC advice and GNSO policy recommendations from the GNSO’s 2012-2013 Policy Development Process (PDP) on IGO-INGO Protections in All gTLDs.” 
  • Since the April 2013 Board resolution, the GNSO has completed two PDPs specific to curative rights protections for IGOs: (1) the PDP on IGO-INGO Access to Curative Rights Protection Mechanisms that was completed in 2019 and (2) the Expedited PDP (EPDP) on Specific Curative Rights Protections for IGOs that was completed in 2022.
  • On 30 April 2023, the Board voted to adopt all four recommendations that the GNSO Council approved from the 2019 PDP and all five Full Consensus recommendations from the 2022 EPDP. The Board also directed ICANN org to proceed with implementation “as soon as feasible; and to develop and submit to the Board an implementation plan … to inform the Board as to how the implementation of these recommendations fit into ICANN org’s operational planning and prioritization of its ongoing work to implement other community-developed recommendations that the Board has adopted.” 
  • Council will discuss whether it wishes to take any steps to request that ICANN org implementation of these Consensus Policy recommendations remains a high priority, understanding the need to resource this work appropriately in the context of other ongoing implementation work.
• Item 8: IDNs EPDP Timeline
  • In accordance with ICANN Board request (16 Mar resolution), the EPDP Team delivered an updated project plan by the last day of ICANN77.  It identifies that almost all of its charter questions will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, and determines that its timeline for the EPDP Team’s delivery of relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council remains unchanged, which is November 2025. 

  • Nevertheless, the EPDP Team made a commitment to reconsider its delivery date shortly after ICANN77 by taking into consideration: 

    • Closure of the Phase 1 Initial Report Public Comment period and gaining a better understanding of the breadth and quantity of comments received; 
    • A better sense of progress made on Phase 2 charter questions in advance of the schedule; and
    • More certainty of approval for the EPDP Team’s request for its dedicated face-to-face workshop, etc.  
  •  Council will hear an update on the EPDP Team’s revised schedule.
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 9.2 Closed Generics Update 

Records of 20 Jul 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 20 Jul 2023 Meeting to ALAC

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

1. Next Round of New gTLDs / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations & "Other Dependencies"

• To recap, the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution had requested the GNSO Council to submit 3 of 4 deliverables. 
• For convenience, the 3 of 4 deliverables are replicated as follows:
  • a. A plan and timeline as agreed upon by the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council for consideration and resolution of all Outputs contained in Section B of the Scorecard (the 38 Pending Recommendations);
  • b. A working methodology and Implementation Review Team (IRT) work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council;c. 
  • c. A GNSO Council project plan and timeline for policy work, or an alternate path, on how to handle closed generics for the next round of new gTLDs; and
  • d. A project plan from the GNSO Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Working Group (WG) identifying all charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, along with considerations to ensure a consistent solution on IDN Variant TLDs with the ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLDs (in accordance with prior Board Resolution 2019.03.14.09), and a timeline by when the IDNs EPDP WG will deliver relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council.
• Immediately after ICANN77, Council submitted to the Board on 15 Jun 2023 the SubPro ICANN77 Deliverables: Workplan and Timeline which addresses the 3 requested deliverables.

a. The 38 Pending Recommendations

• Since after ICANN77, the GNSO Council Small Team on SubPro has continued to work with the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads, Avri Doria and Becky Burr, in developing the Council's 2 next sub-deliverables in respect of the 38 Pending Recommendations. This involves bifurcating the 38 recommendations into 2 broad groups: 

• • Group (1) covers Recommendations on the following SubPro Topics which were assessed and are understood to merely require clarifying statements by Council for the Board's consideration in context of the Board's concerns, in order to facilitate adoption by the Board. *  
    • Topic 3: Applications Assessed in Rounds - Recommendations 3.1,3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7
    • Topic 6: Registry Service Provider Pre-Evaluation - Recommendation 6.8
    • Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments - Recommendations 9.1, 9.4, 9.8, 9.9, 9.10, 9.12, 9.13, 9.15
    • Topic 26: Security and Stability - Recommendation 26.9
    • Topic 29: Name Collision - Recommendation 29.1
    • Topic 30: GAC Consensus Advice and GAC Early Warning - Recommendation 30.7
    • Topic 31: Objections - Recommendations 31.16, 31.17
    • Topic 34: Community Applications - Recommendation 34.12
    • Topic 35: Auctions - Recommendations 35.3, 35.5
  • The complete Clarifying Statement produced for Group (1) recommendations can be viewed via this link.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • •  To participate in Small Team to ensure clarifying statement captures existing ALAC positions, as relevant/needed.

• • Group (2) covers the remaining pending recommendations for which the Council Small Team will continue to work on in light of the clear signal by the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads that the Board will very likely decline to adopt as they currently read. The Small Team's scope of work here includes considering whether such recommendations should be revised, and if so, how - either through the 'GNSO Operating Procedures section 16' path (which would involve reconvening the SubPro PDP WG), or through a 'Supplemental Recommendation' path for which Council will need to determine the mechanism to produce such supplemental recommendation.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• • •  To continue to participate in Small Team to ensure clarifying statement captures existing ALAC positions, as relevant/needed, or to advocate for the inclusion of input outside of GNSO where Council opts for the 'Supplemental Recommendation' path.

• • *To note that I have previously reported, that the list of recommendations in group (1) versus group (2) continues to evolve over time; compare with as at ICANN77

c. Draft Closed Generics Framework

• • Council received a cursory update on where the Draft Closed Generics Framework stands and informed that the GAC-GNSO-ALAC Dialogue small team will reconvene to review the community comments received in response to the request for comments on the Draft Closed Generics Framework which closed on 15 Jul 2023. 

d.  Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP)

• • As reported in Jun 2023, the IDNs EPDP WG was already taking steps to improve its timeline to expedite completion of its work well ahead of its original Nov 2025 target.
  • The WG Chair presented a revised project plan which shaves 13 months off the earlier timeline. The key milestones for this EPDP are now as follows:
    • Phase 1 Final Report remains expected to be delivered to Council in Nov 2023
    • Council then considers this Phase 1 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
    • Phase 2 Initial Report is expected to be published for public comment in Apr 2024 (vs May 2025 earlier)
    • Phase 2 Final Report is expected to be delivered to Council in Oct 2024 (vs Nov 2025 earlier)
    • Council then considers this Phase 2 Final Report and decides on the adoption of report and recommendations
  • Assumptions for this revised project plan must hold for the EPDP to meet the new milestone dates:
    • Progress to be achieved via multiple sessions during ICANN78 (similar to ICANN77)
    • A planned F2F workshop scheduled for early Dec 2023
    • No change to the EPDP Charter / scope of quarter questions

• Update: Following this 20 Jul meeting, Council submitted an updated ICANN77 Deliverable Workplan & Timeline SubPro Related Activities to provide further clarity to its 15 Jun submission.

2. Data Accuracy in the context of NIS2 & Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team

      Accuracy

• Council continued to discuss what should or could be done in light of the European Union's Second Network and Information Systems Directive (“NIS2”) entered into force on 16 January 2023, particularly regarding Article 28, subsection 3 referencing the need for Member States to require that "(accuracy) policies and procedures should take into account to the extent possible the standards developed by the multi-stakeholder governance structures at the international level." 
• There was no clear agreement on matters of protocol - ie. whether it would be more appropriate for ICANN org or ICANN Board to address the EU or for GNSO Council to address the GAC, and the EC representative specifically, to inform of the work already or being undertaken by ICANN in this area. This was to be referred to Council's communication small team for consideration.

     Data Accuracy Scoping Team

• Council continues to await an update on the status of negotiations Data Processing Agreement (DPA) negotiations between ICANN org and Contracted Parties and resolved to extend deferral of consideration of recommendations #1 and #2 of the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team write up for another six months or at an earlier date if the DPA negotiations have been completed before six months have passed and/or there is feedback from ICANN org if/how it anticipates the requesting and processing of registration data will be undertaken in the context of measuring accuracy.

3. Operational Design Phase (ODP) and Operational Design Assessment (ODA)

• Council was given a presentation on the results of a survey conducted with the 2 GNSO liaisons to 2 completed ODP (SSAD and SubPro) as well as members of the 2 small teams (SSAD and SubPro) and was informed that ICANN org will be conducting an upcoming community consultation to obtain feedback on the ODP process.
• To note that ICANN org intends to incorporate (possibly formalize) the ODP process into the CPIF - Consensus Policy Implementation Framework. 

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To alert the ALAC/At-Large on details of ICANN org's upcoming community consultation when they become available

GNSO Council Meeting #3 of 2023 held on 15 Mar 2023 

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

GNSO Council Meeting #3 of 2023 held on 15 Mar 2023

Full Agenda  |  Motions  |  Documents

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List
• Item 3: Consent Agenda: None
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Adoption of the Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Working Group Self-Assessment (WGSA) Recommendations Report
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps for Consideration of Expired Domain Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”)
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Review GNSO-owned projects that may impact SubPro timeline
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Continuation of Informal GNSO Council SubPro Discussion
• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Whois Disclosure System Next Steps
• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

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 19 January 2023 were posted on 02 February 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 16 February 2023 were posted on 03 March 2023.
• Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Adoption of the Council Committee for Overseeing and Implementing Continuous Improvement (CCOICI) Working Group Self-Assessment (WGSA) Recommendations Report
  • 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.
  • The CCOICI integrated public comments received as appropriate and submitted its Recommendations Report to the Council on 5 January 2023; Council will vote on this Recommendations Report which is limited to just the WGSA. (The portion on the GNSO SOI is still pending)
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Next Steps for Consideration of Expired Domain Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”)
  • In July 2022, Council agreed that it would be helpful to check with the registrars and ICANN Compliance to help determine if there are any known issues or concerns with either of the two Expiration Policies which could warrant requesting a Policy Status Report (PSR).
  • A report from Contractual Compliance was shared with Council on 1 November 2022 and feedback from the GNSO Councilors from RrSG has been shared on previous Council calls. 
  • During Council's Nov 2022 meeting, ICANN Org Contractual Compliance Team provided a briefing of the report, and Council briefly considered potential next steps.
  • Following the meeting, Nacho Amodoz, Greg DiBiase, and Susan Payne volunteered to closely review the report from ICANN org and determine if any of the issues raised warrant a PSR request. Council will receive an update on this small team’s recommendation.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Review GNSO-owned projects that may impact SubPro timeline

  • During Council’s Strategic Planning Session (SPS), a recurring theme emerged. Taking into consideration the possible timelines surrounding the implementation of the SubPro recommendations, especially if Option 2 or similar were to be pursued, Council should take care to ensure that any SubPro related work within its control should be carefully managed for timely delivery. The Council does not want its work to serve as an impediment to the timely implementation and launch of the next round of new gTLDs.

  • In order to address this recurring theme,, Council agreed that it would like to receive frequent updates on the work that is connected to the next round of new gTLDs. Presumably, those projects include:

    • IDNs EPDP Phase 1 (top-level charter questions)
    • GNSO Guidance Process on Applicant Support
    • Closed Generics Facilitated Discussion
    • Small Team review of SubPro recommendations likely pending Board action
  • Council will receive a brief update on the above-referenced projects.
• Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Continuation of Informal GNSO Council SubPro Discussion

  • On 12 September 2021 the ICANN Board directed the ICANN President and CEO to organize the resources required to begin work on the Operational Design Phase (ODP) for the GNSO’s New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Report and the Affirmations, Recommendations, and Implementation Guidance contained in that report. On 20 December 2021, ICANN org announced that the SubPro ODP had formally launched, starting at the beginning of January 2022. The ODP Team has shared numerous updates to the community and sent several sets of assumptions/questions to the GNSO Council via the Council’s liaison to the ODP.

  • ICANN org published the SubPro Operational Design Assessment (ODA) on 12 December, and Council received a briefing on it during a webinar on 7 December.

  • Council formed a small team to review the ODA in detail and provided its input to the ICANN Board on 20 January, in advance of 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 ODA.

  • On 28 February 2023, the Council and ICANN Board had a joint meeting on SubPro, and Council plans a follow-up informal discussion on 7 March 2023.

  • Council will discuss the joint meeting with the Board and the informal discussion, and consider appropriate next steps

• Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Whois Disclosure System Next Steps

  • ICANN org published the Whois Disclosure System design paper in September 2022, presenting it to Council and the EPDP Phase 2 Small Team during ICANN75.

  • The small team subsequently reviewed the design paper and continued its consultations with ICANN org, resulting in an addendum to its preliminary report. Council accepted the addendum and communicated to the ICANN Board its support for the request that the ICANN Board proceed with the implementation of the Whois Disclosure System, provided that the updates identified by the small team in the addendum are made.

  • On 27 February 2023, the Board directed ICANN org to develop and launch the Whois Disclosure System (System) as requested by Council within 11 months from 27 February 2023. The Board also directed ICANN org to operate the System for up to two years from the date of launch, and collect and report on usage data. Furthermore, the ICANN Board has urged “the GNSO Council to consider a Policy Development Process or other means to require registrars to use the System”.

  • During ICANN76, on 11 March 2023, the EPDP Phase 2 Small Team will meet with ICANN org to receive an update the status of implementation of the Whois Disclosure System and continue its consideration of some of the aspects identified as requiring further discussion in the addendum.

  • In addition to receiving an update from the Small Team on its meeting with ICANN org, Council will consider if/how the instructions to the Small Team should be updated to reflect Council’s expectations of the Small Team during the implementation phase as well as post-implementation, in addition to the ask from the Board to consider a Policy Development Process or other means to require registrars to use the System. 

• Item 9: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 9.1 GNSO Chair Election Timeline Announcement
  • 9.2 Policy Status Report on Policy and Implementation Working Group Final Recommendations Report

Records of 15 Mar 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 15 Mar 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 Mar 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Mar 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Subsequent Procedures Operational Design Assessment (SubPro ODA), Implementation and other Next Steps, Dependencies 

   ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution

• ICANN Board resolved during its Board Meeting at ICANN76 to adopt the SubPro Outputs in Section A of its "Scorecard on Subsequent Procedures PDP" (Scorecard); marking 38 Outputs in Section B of the Scorecard as "pending" and noting ongoing community discussions relating to Topic 17: Applicant Support, Topic 23: Closed Generics, and Topic 25: Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), as well as additional dependencies concerning specific Review Team Recommendations, the Name Collision Analysis Project Study 2 Report (NCAP2), and other items noted in Section C of the Scorecard.
• ICANN Board has communicated this development to GNSO Council via their 16 Mar letter. In particular, the Board said:- 
  • The Board has adopted all Outputs contained in Section A of the Scorecard and designated the Outputs in Section B as pending. The Board has also committed to resolve the dependencies noted in Section C of the Scorecard in a timely manner. 
  • The ICANN Board has directed ICANN org to submit a comprehensive implementation plan no later than 1 August 2023, containing a work plan, relevant information for the Infrastructure Development stream, timelines, and anticipated resource requirements to announce the opening of the next round of new gTLDs (Implementation Plan).
  • The Board acknowledges that the delivery of the Implementation Plan requires the satisfactory completion of four deliverables by 15 June 2023, the last day of the ICANN77 Public Meeting. These deliverables are:

1. A plan and timeline as agreed upon by the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council for consideration and resolution of all Outputs contained in Section B of the Scorecard.
2. A working methodology and Implementation Review Team (IRT) work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council.
3. A GNSO Council project plan and timeline for policy work, or an alternate path, on how to handle closed generics for the next round of new gTLDs.
4. A project plan from the GNSO Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Working Group (WG) identifying all charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, along with considerations to ensure a consistent solution on IDN Variant TLDs with the ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLDs (in accordance with prior Board Resolution 2019.03.14.09), and a timeline by when the IDNs EPDP WG will deliver relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council.

• • The Board is prepared to work closely with the GNSO Council on the first deliverable. The Board appreciates that the GNSO Council has already begun a conversation with ICANN org on a working methodology for the Subsequent Procedures Implementation Review Team (SubPro IRT).

   Section A Outputs    

• Section A Outputs will now proceed to implementation; ICANN org is liaising with Council on constituting the SubPro IRT for this purpose.
• While the SubPro IRT is to be driven by ICANN org, its constitution and membership is determined by Council.
• Council is in the process of determining the membership model for this SubPro IRT; Council is currently leaning towards an Open model per the PDP 3.0 framework.
• While an Open model IRT will makes participation open to anyone and without limit on the number of participants, it is likely that the corresponding call for volunteers would express a preference for active former members of the SubPro PDP WG on account of the need for familiarity/expertise on the Section A Outputs in order to be able to adequately guide their implementation by ICANN org. Newcomers will be at a severe disadvantage if they do not get up to speed with the SubPro PDP Final Report.
• Timeline for the call for volunteers for the SubPro IRT, workplan etc are all pending.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and share updates regarding the SubPro IRT constitution

    Section B Outputs: 38 "Pending" Outputs

• Council has constituted a Council Small Team to conduct a triage for the 38 Pending SubPro Outputs. The Small Team comprises Anne Aikman-Scalese (NCA), Bruna Martins dos Santos (NCSG), Jeff Neuman (GNSO Liaison to SubPro ODP), Justine Chew (ALAC Liaison to GNSO), Nacho Amados (RySG), Paul McGrady (NCA-NCPH), Sebastien Ducos (RySG), Stephanie Perrin (NCSG), Susan Payne (IPC) and Tomslin Samme-Nlar (NCSG).
• The purpose of the triage exercise to examine the Board's concerns on the 38 Pending Outputs, how they can be grouped for varying onward action.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and share updates regarding progress of the Council Small Team work on the 38 Pending Outputs

    Section C Outputs: Ongoing Community Work, Reviews & Dependencies

    These are listed as follows:

2. Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) (formerly known as Whois Disclosure System (WDS)) 

• Following the ICANN Board's 27 Feb resolution directing ICANN org to proceed with development and launch of the WDS as soon as possible, a meeting of the GNSO EPDP Phase 2 (SSAD) took place at ICANN76 on 11 Mar, where the Whois Disclosure System (WDS) was proposed to be renamed to Registration Data Request Service (RDRS).
• Hereon, Council is to consider the use of a PDP or other means to require, or strongly encourage, registrars to use the RSRS, noting that the small team has already been assigned the task to how to best to promote and secure comprehensive use of the system, both by potential requestors as well as ICANN accredited registrars.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and share updates regarding Council's deliberations on the RDRS

3. Expired Domain Deletion Policy (“EDDP”) and Expired Registration Recovery Policy (“ERRP”)

• Council was asked if it was timely to request a Policy Status Report (PSR) for the EDDP and the ERRP. There was tentative agreement within Council that whilst it was important, there were other ongoing and important topics, so the review of the policy was postponed. Following this, ICANN Compliance put together a report which showed registrants having issues with renewals, confusion with the terms of the policies.
• A small team of councilors (Nacho Amadoz, Greg DiBiase, and Susan Payne) reviewed the report as well as the recommendation to review the PSR. Incremental work could be done to improve on clarity of the policy language and in this respect, support staff is to reach out to ICANN org colleagues to request further information on the educational materials relating to the EDDP and ERRP.
• The PSR will be reviewed in 6 months.

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.
• With respect to (a), Council has adopted WGSA Recommendation Report (which incorporates the ALAC's input in respect of the existing WGSA survey)
• With respect to (b), 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

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; 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.