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To obtain community input on several proposed changes to the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Operating Procedures with respect to certain GNSO Council meeting processes (viz. the Council's ability to waive the deadline for submissions of motions for voting, and to vote outside a Council meeting), and to the GNSO Working Group Guidelines with respect to Working Group consensus levels.

The Standing Committee on Improvements Implementation (SCI) was established by the GNSOCouncil on 7 April 2011 as a standing committee of the GNSO, responsible for reviewing and assessing the effective functioning of the GNSO Operating Procedures and Working Group Guidelines. As part of its charter, the SCI is tasked to consider requests concerning issues related to the GNSO Operating Procedures and Working Group Guidelines that have been identified either by the GNSO Council or a group chartered by the GNSO Council as requiring review and possible amendments.

This public comment forum is being opened in relation to two proposed changes to the GNSOOperating Procedures and one to the GNSO Working Group Guidelines that are being recommended by the SCI as a result of three requests sent to the SCI from the GNSO Council. The proposed changes to the GNSO Operating Procedures are: (1) adding a provision regarding circumstances in which the general 10-day deadline for the submission of motions for voting at a GNSO Council meeting can be waived; and (2) adding a provision allowing theGNSO Council to vote outside a GNSO Council meeting in certain circumstances (seehttps://community.icann.org/x/myqfAg for the GNSO Council requests to the SCI on both topics). Please see the SCI Proposals on Waiving the 10-day Motion Deadline [PDF, 55 KB] and onGNSO Council Voting Outside a Meeting [PDF, 50 KB] and submit your comments.

The proposed change to the GNSO Working Group Guidelines is the addition of a footnote to the section dealing with the various consensus levels for decision-making in GNSO Working Groups, to clarify their scope. This last change was occasioned by the experience of theGNSO's Working Group for the Protection of IGO and INGO Identifiers in All gTLDs, which encountered "a possible limitation in the currently defined Consensus Levels when assigning "Divergence" to recommendations regarding acronym protections…. The use of "Divergence" did not adequately represent the lack of support for the proposed recommendation when said recommendation was stated in the affirmative, for example "Do you support…?". The Chair was equally concerned [that] not adhering to current Working Group Guidelines could introduce risk to the process, because "Consensus Against" is not formally defined" (see the WG's Final Report: http:/gnso.icann.org/en/issues/igo-ingo-final-10nov13-en.pdf [PDF, 645 KB]). The GNSOCouncil referred the matter to the SCI for its recommendation. Please see the SCI Proposal on Working Group Consensus Levels [PDF, 73 KB] and submit your comments.

As required by the ICANN Bylaws, the SCI is requesting community input on these proposed changes prior to their consideration by the GNSO Council.

The SCI generally conducts its work in accordance with the GNSO Working Group Guidelines; however, its Charter requires that its recommendations are made based on Full Consensus (as defined in the Working Group Guidelines) on the proposals under consideration. The set of proposals being published now for public comment has attained Full Consensus from the SCI on each one. Each GNSO Stakeholder Group and Constituency appoints a representative to the SCI. Other members of the SCI include a Nominating Committee appointee and an observer from any GNSO constituency-in-formation (if any). The SCI may also appoint observers from other ICANN Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committee. For further information about the SCI and its activities, please see https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/Home.

• Current version of the GNSO Council Operating Procedures – see GNSO Operating Procedures (version 2.8; as of 26 March 2014) [PDF, 956 KB].

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