Page History

Proposed Agenda:

1.  Roll call (1 min)

2.  Statements of Interest (2 min)

3.  Approval of the agenda (2 min)

4.  Chair/Vice Chair Elections (5 mins)

5.  Working Group self assessment (5 mins)

56.  Re-Submitting a Motion (10 mins)

67.  Possible inclusion of a waiver/exception in the GNSO Operating Procedures (15 10 mins)

78.  Voting by email (10 mins)

89.  New Item: Review of GNSO Working Group Guidelines Consensus Levels (10 mins) – See document below

910.  AOB (5 mins)

Actions from 03 December Meeting:

1.  Working Group Self-Assessment:  Mikey O'Conner and Ron Andruff will enage Ken Bour to draft a message for Mikey to send to the WG to retake the survey and set a deadline for 2 weeks (17 December).  Julie Hedlund will send the summary of the previous survey to the SCI list (done).

2  Re-Submitting a Motion: Greg Shatan will re-write B Limitations and Exceptions #4 to change "tabled" to "deferred" and make other adjustments as discussed.  SCI members will send the revised language to their constituencies to get feedback by a 2-week deadline (17 December).  Continue discussion on whether "consent" is needed before "agenda" in item A Rule, #3.

3.  Voting by Email:  Avri Doria and Thomas Rickert will work on an approach.

4.  Waiver/Exception to GNSO Operating Procedures:  Continue discussion on the next call and on the list.

5.  AOB: Next meeting is 17 December and the SCI will move back to a 2-week schedule when it has outstanding items (excepting meetings that fall on holidays).

For review:

GNSO Working Group Guidelines Consensus Levels

Resubmitting a Motion

Waivers and/or Exceptions to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures

1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council
2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Submitting a motion and possibly other procedures
3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to waive or invoke an exception to and of its operating procedures.  An example is whether the deadline for submitting motions could be waived in certain circumstances.  Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "And essentially I wasn’t empowered as chair by our rulebook to allow that motion to be put on the table even if technically although we have done it by precedent and prior practice, even if no one objected from the council I didn’t really - there isn’t really device in the rulebook to allow that to take place. So I personally I think that’s an area we should look at is the - when and under what circumstances - formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council?"
4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems?  The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances.
5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? A waiver mechanism could allow the Council to consider a motion or document after the deadline of notice/submission to the Council has passed.

1. Which group do you represent? GNSO Council
2. To which rules or processes do you refer? Voting
3. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to conduct votes outside of a meeting.
4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems?  The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting and under what circumstances.  Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the Council transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "So I wanted - an issue I wanted us to consider maybe giving to the SCI and then to the group or to a committee to look at is I’d like to rethink about whether potentially voting by email or something like that is a possibility? I know we’ve looked at it on and off over the years.…And if that would help speed things along it would be great to just look at that issue in just maybe we can’t do it first time around obviously but for future..."  He raised this issue because the Council was in the process of scheduling a special meeting in August to conduct a vote.
5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to administer? Potentially voting by email could in some circumstances enable the Council to avoid having to schedule a special meeting for a vote that has to occur quickly.