Date: 24 December 2015
To: Steve Crocker
Cc: Bruce Tonkin, Fadi Chehade, Cherine Chalaby
Subject: Practical suggestions for constructive CCWG-Board dialogue
Dear Steve,
The CCWG-Accountability 3rd public comment phase is now closed and we appreciate and value the amount of effort dedicated by the Board, through a series of meetings, in order to provide our group and the community with comments in this process. As you know dialogue has started on our list regarding several items raised by the Board and we look forward to continuing this fruitful dialogue.
Our group is actively preparing the analysis of all the comments received, in order to finalize its recommendations, and want to inform you of these plans as well as offer a constructive way forward for a constructive dialogue.
In the CCWG-Accountability process, the Icann Board holds two distinct roles :
- the Board is one the affected stakeholders, and as such, its contributions, as well as those of the individual Board members are welcome and encouraged ;
- the Board also committed, in its 16 October 2014 resolution to assess CCWG Accountability recommendations on the basis of global public interest, and engage into a special dialogue with the CCWG Accountability in case it found that implementation of a recommendation is not in the global public interest.
After the Los Angeles face to face meeting, and during the Dublin meeting, the recommendations from our group greatly benefitted from the significant increase of Board member participation into our deliberations. We strongly encourage the Board and its individual members to maintain this high level of engagement.
Starting in early January, our group will increase the frequency of its plenary sessions to two per week. The calls will be open to all, and include topic based agendas to facilitate participation of interested parties. We hope that, beyond our Board liaison, the interested Board members will actively engage in this process.
Beyond this first role, the latest Board's comment on our Draft Report stressed the importance of some of its concerns by stating that, unless theses concerns are addressed, the Board would have to consider "whether it believes the specifics of the recommendation meet the global public interest".
Understanding and taking into account these global public interest concerns as part of our deliberations is a very high priority for our group. Chartering Organizations should be informed of any such remaining concern before they are requested to endorse our final recommendations. That is the reason why we had requested some clarification from the Board, through our Board liaison. We appreciate the response that was provided.
Beyond these clarifications, since the next few weeks will be key in finalizing our recommendations, we would like to offer the following practical suggestions to establish a constructive dialogue around these issues :
- the Board could appoint specific Board correspondents for each of the global public interest concerns raised. These correspondents would engage in the respective CCWG Accountability discussions in order to clarify the Board's concerns and provide rapid, of not real-time, feedback on whether potential refinements are addressing these concerns ;
- as the CCWG-Accountability finalizes each of its recommendation, the Board could hold short, regular (for instance, weekly) meetings to collectively confirm these views (through the Board liaison or these correspondents).
- should there be remaining concerns from the Board when a Report is sent to the Chartering Organizations, these could be documented in our Report, just like we currently document minority statements.
This approach would not only significantly enhance the cooperation between the CCWG Accountability and the Icann Board. It would also enable all involved parties, including the Chartering Organizations, to make a fully informed decision. Last, but not least, this approach effectively addresses the need to deliver a fully thought-through proposal while at the same time improving the timeliness of the delivery of a consolidated IANA Stewardship Transition to NTIA.
We are looking forward to working with you and the Board to a successful conclusion of these important efforts, and hope that you and the Board can take a few days rest over this holiday season.
Best wishes and happy holidays,
Leon, Thomas & Mathieu
CCWG Accountability co-chairs
