In council election: 1. Candidates are sorted by vote count. If electing N first ones would not result in fewer than two representatives of either gender or more than two of any region in the council, they shall be elected. 2. If there would be fewer than two of either gender, minority gender candidates shall be elected over majority gender ones until there'd be two of them in the council. If there're multiple minority gender candidates available, those satisfying the two-per-region limit shall be given first priority, then ones from otherwise non-represented regions, after that the ones with most votes. 3. If there are not enough minority gender candidates to achieve the required minimum of two, their slots shall be left empty, to be filled by the Executive Committee with temporary alternate appointments, with the proviso that majority gender representatives may be appointed for a maximum of one month at a time until a minority gender one can be appointed. 4. If there would be more than two of any one region and there are candidates from less-represented region, the slots over two for the overrepresented region shall go preferentially to a candidate from a region that has no representative at all, after that to one that has only one. More than two councillors from one region shall be acceptable only in case there are no candidates left from other regions. 5. In event of a tie, minority gender and region shall be given priority as above until the requirement of at least two of each gender and at most two per region are satisfied. After that, priority shall be given to any otherwise non-represented region, then to minority gender representative. If tie still remains unresolved, winner shall be determined by lot. 6. In case there are some 1-year and some 2-year slots to be filled, 2-year slots shall be given to those with most votes from the set determined by rules above.
NCSG Travel Slot Transfer
This is the operating procedure for the allocation of ICANN-funded travel support to NCSG leaders (Executive Committee and Council members) and NCSG members for public ICANN meetings:
The NCSG receives the following travel slots per meeting:
At the annual Policy Forum and the annual Community Forum, the NCSG receives 6 slots for Council members, and 3 slots for NCSG Executive Committee members, being a total of 9 travel slots.
At the Annual General Meeting, the NCSG receives travel slots for all incoming and outgoing Councilors (a minimum of 6 slots and a maximum of 9 slots, depending on whether or not new persons are rotating into the Council) as well as 3 travel slots to be allocated to the to NCSG Executive Committee.
The chair of the NCSG shall send a note to the archived mailing lists of the NCSG Policy Committee and the NCSG Executive Committee about travel support upon receipt of notification from the GNSO Secretariat. The note should not be sent later than two days after receipt of the GNSO Secretariat email.
The Council members and whomever receives travel support, including the NCSG EC representatives, should respond within one calendar week (7 days) indicating whether or not they will be able to attend the meeting. If a member of the NCSG EC cannot attend, the respective constituencies’ leadership will be informed and the NCSG EC will decide on the allocation of travel slot. If the Chair cannot attend, the NCSG EC will be informed.
If a Council member or a funded NCSG Executive Committee cannot attend the meeting, the following process should be invoked to decide upon the travel slot transfer:
The NCSG chair announces the opportunity on the NCSG-Discuss list and requests that the interested members send their Motivation Statement privately to the Chair and copy in ICANN support staff.
The Motivation Statement must explain in detail why the applicant would like to attend the meeting, provide evidence of full and verifiable engagement in Domain Name System policy deliberations, proof that the applicant has previously attended calls and contributed to PDPs, NCSG Policy Committee meetings and other relevant policy and related meetings, and explain why their physical presence is important for this meeting, mentioning specific tasks they commit to carry out on behalf of the NCSG. The tasks must be related to the NCSG and advance the NCSG’s interests at that specific ICANN meeting.
If the applicant is to be an alternate to a GNSO Councillor, he or she should have an understanding of how the Council works and have observed their meetings beforehand. They must provide a letter of recommendation from either a) the Chair of the NCSG Policy Committee, or (b) a serving member of the Council in his or her second term.
While Execeutive Committee’ travel slots may be allocated to newcomers, newcomers should commit to attending sessions of the NCSG leading up to the ICANN meeting, as well as undertaking revision and background reading on at least one internal governance document and a PDP.
The applicant must commit to attending the ICANN meeting fully, be at the meeting venue every day, and be present to the greatest extent possible at all NCSG meetings, constituency meetings, GNSO Council meetings, and PDP sessions for which they have expressed interest in their Motivation Statement. If the selected applicant does not appear to be present at the venue without justification, s/he will not be eligible to be allocated a travel slot in the future. The decision of such ineligibility will be made by the NCSG Executive Committee (in the evaluation of at least two members).
The NCSG leaders and members should abide by the ICANN org timeline for submitting travel requests and reviewing itineraries when allocated a travel slot, so that they do not impose any additional and unnecessary costs onto ICANN. If they do not book travel swiftly without a justification, ICANN org may not agree to book the travel, and the recipient will not be given a travel slot by the NCSG for the next meeting.
If, under unforeseeable circumstances, the Council members have to cancel their travel after it has already been booked, they should inform the NCSG Chair as soon as possible to see if a transfer of their hotel room and per diem can be arranged. It is the responsibility of the traveler to determine whether or not he or she requires a visa to travel to a particular destination. If a Council member or an Executive Committee member requires a visa to travel to the meeting, the member is responsible for applying for a visa at the earliest opportunity and abiding by ICANN’s travel timeline. If, one month prior to the event the visa has not been issued, the member must inform the NCSG Chair and comment on the likelihood that his or her visa will be issued in time for the meeting. The NCSG Chair will consult with the NCSG EC and ICANN Constituency Travel about the potential transfer of the travel slot or, if it is feasible, allow additional time for the NCSG Council member to receive her/his visa.
The NCSG Chair or ICANN support staff will send all eligible requests received for travel support to the NCSG EC mailing list. Ineligible requests are those applications that do not have Motivation Statements. (If a Motivation Statement is missing and the application has been received well before the deadline, the NCSG Chair or ICANN support staff will endeavor to remind the candidate to re-submit their application before the deadline with the Motivation Statement completed.) In addition, after the deadline has passed, the NCSG Chair or ICANN support staff will inform any applicants whose application was unsuccessful due to being incomplete. An application is incomplete if it only expresses the desire to travel but does not provide a detailed justification for being present during the meeting and fulfill the criteria set out under section 4.
The email addresses of the applicants should not intentionally be shared on the public mailing list. If other private information is found within the Motivation Statement or other attachments, such as one’s home address, the NCSG Chair or ICANN support staff will endeavor to cloak this information with a black box. However, candidates should know and be notified prior to applying that their Motivation Statement will be made public and shared in a public mailing list.
The NCSG Executive Committee will decide who to allocate the travel slot to within one calendar week (7 days) after the deadline for submitting applications. Each EC member must provide a justification as to why they support an applicant and how the supported candidate fulfills the criteria stipulated under section 4 and throughout this policy. The decision should be taken through full consensus but if it is a matter of urgency, the Chair can give a shorter deadline and make a decision with the support of at least two other EC members.
The results should be announced on the NCSG mailing list with a justification.
The EC deliberations on allocating travel slots should take place on the NCSG-EC mailing list. If there are discussions about applicant eligibility that should not be discussed on the public mailing list, the EC can enter an executive session to discuss this matter privately, but with full disclosure to the NCSG-mailing list on the rationale of discussing such a matter privately. Discussing privately is allowed only under exceptional circumstances and should be agreed upon by the majority of EC.
Those who have an NCSG leadership slot transferred to them should send a report of their activities to the NCSG Chair within 2 weeks of the meeting concluding. They should also report from the meeting about the ongoing discussions and important issues.
If non-refundable transportation has already been booked for a traveler who finds themselves unable to attend a meeting, and this ticket cannot be transferred to another traveler, it is possible that their hotel and per diem can be allocated to another NCSG member. The NCSG Chair and EC should endeavour to re-allocate those components of the travel slot that can be allocated, so they are not left unused.
Travel Opportunities As Given by Additional Budget Requests
Occasionally ICANN approves some of the Additional Budget Requests (ABR) that the NCSG has submitted, and these might include travel components. The allocation of those travel slots should take place according to the following:
The NCSG Chair liaises with ICANN org to determine what resources are available and what timeline must be followed for the allocation of this resource.
The NCSG Chair drafts the call for applicants based on the ABR approval text and advice from ICANN staff, including within this call what is required from the candidate as well as the specific tasks that are expected of the member. This is sent to the NCSG Executive Committee giving them at least one calendar week (7 days) to approve the call for applicants announcement. This deadline can be shorter under justifiable circumstances, but the Chair has to be clear as to why the deadline is amended. If the deadline is amended simply because the Chair was too late to submit with no adequate justification, then the EC should give a warning to the Chair.
If applicable, the NCSG EC suggests modifications or additions to the proposed text of the call for applications.
The Chair finalizes the announcement and sends it to the NCSG-Discuss list with a deadline for applications. Under normal circumstances applicants should be given 7 to 10 days to apply, however depending on the ABR and the specialized knowledge it requires, it may be necessary to allow a longer application window. If the call for candidates is longer than 10 days, a ‘last call’ reminder email should be sent to the NCSG-Discuss list five days before the deadline ends. The Chair may delegate the responsibility of sending the reminder email to the ICANN support staff.
The applicants are required to provide a Motivation Statement that fulfills the criteria set by the NCSG EC, and to submit a Statement of Interest (SOI) on the ICANN wikispace that outlines any conflicts of interest.
The applicants should send their Motivation Statement and SOI to the NCSG Chair and ICANN Staff Support.
The complete applications should be sent to the NCSG EC mailing list.
The EC has 7 days to decide on successful applications.
Preferably, all the EC members should evaluate the applicants and provide a reasoning for their choice.
If there is a significant support for a candidate or candidates (depending on the number of travel slots) among those EC members who have evaluated them, the Chair will announce the result on the EC list and on the NCSG mailing list. If none of the EC members evaluate the applicants on the NCSG-EC mailing list within the deadline, the Chair will send the name of a recommended applicant with a justification to the NCSG-EC mailing list. If there is no significant opposition (>1 members) to this suggestion after 7 days, the applicant will be selected and announced on the mailing list. If there is substantial objection and name of an alternative has been put forward, the Chair gives the EC 7 days from when the suggestion has been made to decide. (the deadline can change depending on the urgency of the matter, however, urgency has to be justified for example by showing that if the name is not submitted soon, the travel slot will not or can not be used). If the rest of the EC does not oppose or agree on the alternative, the Chair will consider the alternative but ultimately will decide on the selection with a justification and announce it on the list.
ICANN Constituency Travel information can be found here: https://community.icann.org/x/TjjxAg
