Subject: GNSO Operations Work Team Charter
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Date: 2011-03-07 06:56:26 GMT
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Summary: Link to: GNSO Operations Work Team Board Recommendations Draft Checklist GNSO OPERATIONS TEAM (GOT) - DRAFT CHARTER (DRAFT 22DEC08)(as amended 01APR09)(as amended 23APR09)(as approved 28APR09) Chair - Ray Fassett Vice Chair - Avri Doria I. TEAM CHARTER/GOALS The GNSO Operations Work Team will develop proposals for Council consideration based on th...
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Link to: GNSO Operations Work Team Board Recommendations Draft Checklist
GNSO OPERATIONS TEAM (GOT) - DRAFT CHARTER
(DRAFT 22DEC08)(as amended 01APR09)(as amended 23APR09)(as approved 28APR09)
Chair - Ray Fassett
Vice Chair - Avri Doria
I. TEAM CHARTER/GOALS
The GNSO Operations Work Team will develop proposals for Council consideration based on the Board's endorsement of GNSO operations-related recommendations outlined in the 3 February 2008 Report of the Board Governance Committee GNSO Review Working Group on GNSO Improvements (BGC WG Report). Those recommendations include but are not limited to:
• Determine what steps are needed to establish the role of the Council as a "strategic manager of the policy process."
• Define and develop scope and responsibilities of any other standing "committees" as recommended by the BGC WG (those suggested to date: committee to analyze trends; committee to benchmark policy implementation)
• Develop "Statement of Interest" and "Declaration of Interest" forms.
• Develop curriculum for training Council members, constituents, facilitators and others.
• Review the current specifications and recommend rules for the establishment of new constituencies within stakeholder groups, while recognizing that differences exist between stakeholder groups and constituencies.
• Review and recommend amendments as appropriate regarding methods for encouraging, promoting and introducing new constituencies, while recognizing that differences exist between stakeholder groups and constituencies.
II. TEAM MEMBERSHIP
The team will be composed of participants drawn from the GNSO council, the GNSO constituencies and the larger ICANN/Internet community. It is recommended that:
1. There be a minimum of one GNSO Councilor and preferably two Councilors to serve as liaisons between this team and the Council
2. The number of Councilors be limited to at most three to maintain separation between the team's work and the Council's oversight role.
3. There be at least one representative from each Constituency.
4. Each Advisory Committee and Supporting Organization be given the opportunity to have a representative (or representatives)
5. There be members from the community who are not associated with a Constituency or Advisory Committee (other than NomCom appointed Councilors)
6. Participation by team members on other teams should be minimized if not totally avoided in order to: spread the total GNSO Improvements Project workload across a wider group of people; minimize scheduling conflicts that are more likely to occur when team members are involved in multiple groups at the same time; and encourage involvement by new community members.
7. The initial/interim chair of the team should be someone from the associated steering committing.
III. WORK TEAM RULES
While formal and complete guidelines for Working Group (WG) operations are still to be developed by the Working Group Model work team, the following rules will apply for this Work Team (WT):
Statements of Interest: Each participant in the WT will provide a Statement of Interest including the following information:
• The participant's current vocation, employer and position
• The type of work performed in the bullet above
• Identify any financial ownership or senior management/leadership interest in registries, registrars or other firms that are interested parties in ICANN policy or any entity with which ICANN has a transaction, contract, or other arrangement
• Identify any type of commercial interest in ICANN GNSO policy development outcomes. Is the participant representing other parties?
• Describe any arrangements or agreements between the participant and any other group, constituency or person(s) regarding the participant's selection as a WT member.
Decision Making: The WT shall function on the basis of "rough consensus" meaning that all points of view will be discussed until the Chair can ascertain that the point of view is understood and has been covered. That consensus viewpoint will be reported to the OSC in the form of a WT Report. Anyone with a minority view will be invited to include a discussion in the WT Report. The minority view should include the names and affiliations of those contributing to that part of the report.
In producing the WT Report, the Chair will be responsible for designating each position as having one of the following designations:
• Unanimous consensus position
• Rough consensus position where a small minority disagrees but most agree
• Strong support, but significant opposition
• Minority viewpoint(s)
In all cases, the Chair will include the names and affiliations of those in support of each position and for participants representing a group of stakeholders (e.g., constituencies, stakeholder groups, other groups) will indicate if their support represents the consensus view of their constituency.
If any participant in a WT disagrees with the designation given to a position by the Chair or any other rough consensus call, they can follow these steps sequentially:
1. Send an email to the Chair, copying the WT explaining why the decision is believed to be in error.
2. If the Chair still disagrees, forward the appeal to the OSC. The Chair must explain his or her reasoning in the response.
3. If the OSC supports the Chair, the participants may attach a statement of the appeal to the GNSO Council Report generated by the OSC. This statement should include the documentation from all steps in the appeals process and should include a statement from the OSC.
Restricting Participation: The Chair in consultation with the OSC is empowered to restrict the participation of someone who seriously disrupts the WT. Any such restriction will be reviewed by the OSC. Generally, the participant should first be warned privately, and then warned publicly, before such a restriction is put into place; in extreme circumstances these steps may be bypassed.
Record Keeping: The WT will have an archived mailing list. The mailing list will be open for reading by the community. All WT meetings will be recorded and all recordings will be available to the public. A SocialText Wiki will be provided for WT usage. If the guidelines for WT processes change during the course of the WT, the WT may continue to work under the guidelines active at the time it was (re)chartered or use the new guidelines.
Reporting: The WT Chair will be asked to report on the WT status on a regular basis to the OSC.
Milestones: WT Milestones (to be developed by the WT, proposed to the OSC for approval and added after OSC approval)
Modifications: At any time during the tenure of the WT, the Chair should communicate to the OSC if the WT believes that changes or clarifications are needed regarding the WT Charter, including these rules.
IV. CALENDAR/TIMETABLES
As the ICANN community considers the various recommendations set forth in the GNSO Improvements Report, it is important to keep in mind that this is an evolutionary process intended to reflect the importance of the GNSO to ICANN and to build upon the GNSO's successes to date. But at the same time, the Board expects to see prompt significant and expeditious efforts being taken to implement the Reform recommendations. A timeline will need to be developed for Council approval and ICANN Board endorsement. The detailed timetable, milestones and work program of the WT will be accessible at the following link on the OSC SocialText wiki – gnso operations team.
V. STAFF SUPPORT
The ICANN Staff assigned to the work team will fully support the work of the teams as directed by the Chair including meeting support, document drafting, editing and distribution and other substantive contributions when appropriate.
VI. POTENTIAL INITIAL ACTION STEPS
Set forth below are a number of potential action steps to establish and begin the work of the GNSO Council Restructuring Team (GOT).
1. Priority Action Items
• Review and discussion of the Work Team charter (delineation of current problems, desired outcomes and deliverables) including timeline to finalize
• Identify initial projects based on Board Recommendations and agree on timeline for completion (see #2 below)
2. ICANN Board Recommendations/Suggested Projects
See GNSO Operations Work Team Board Recommendation Checklist
• Determine what steps are needed to establish the role of the Council as a "strategic manager of the policy process."
--Create a set of operating principles for the Council that will allow it to be the strategic manager of the policy development process rather than a legislative body.
--Include the ideas and participation of existing constituencies.
• Define and develop scope and responsibilities of any other standing "committees" as recommended by the BGC WG (those suggested to date: committee to analyze trends; committee to benchmark policy implementation).
--Analyze trends and changes in the gTLD arena and, as a consequence, provide advice on the use of ICANN resources affecting the gTLD name space.
--Begin a constructive dialogue with a broad range of Internet stakeholders in order to fully understand DNS-related technologies, trends, and markets.
--Establish committees of 4-5 members to guide work in a certain area where focused attention and follow-up are required, such as benchmarking and trends analysis.
• Develop "Statement of Interest" and "Declaration of Interest" forms.
--Forms should be real-time, updated, and similar to what is required for members of the Board and should be in a standardized format that is publicly accessible.
--ICANN Staff should develop a basic template of information that GNSO Councilors, constituency leaders and others participating in policy development activities must first complete
--Statements of Interest should be supplemented by Declarations of Interest that pertain to specific matters under discussion
--ICANN Staff should also implement a mechanism for publishing and updating this information in a manner consistent with protecting the privacy of members.
........ The draft text below was created prior to the Paris ICANN Meeting. It was used as a starting point for discussions of the new Operations Steering Committee (OSC).
Original Concept of GNSO IPT
GNSO OPERATIONS TEAM (GOT)
I. TEAM CHARTER/GOALS: Develop and Implement operating procedures for the new GNSO Council Structure that moves the Council toward a more strategically focused direction with:
• the tools it needs to oversee the policy development process;
• the application of bicameral voting; and
• a training and development curriculum for Council members.
According to the ICANN Board Governance Committee Working Group (BGC-WG) in its 3 February 2008 Report to the ICANN Board of Directors (see, GNSO Improvements Report; < http://www.icann.org/topics/gnso-improvements/gnso-improvements-report-03feb08.pdf>), a restructured GNSO Council should move away from being a legislative body concerned primarily with voting towards becoming a smaller, more focused strategic entity, composed of four broad stakeholder groups, with strengthened management and oversight of the policy development process, term limits for members of the Council, the elimination of weighted voting and a training and development curriculum for Council members. The BGC WG deliberated extensively as to the most appropriate way to restructure constituency representation on the Council. That portion of the BGC-WG's recommendation scheme remains a contentious one among the ICANN community and is beyond the scope of the current team's charter/goals. We also note that the restructuring plan suggests the need to establish clear rules for the establishment of stakeholder groups. This is also beyond the team's current charter at this time. (Liz G.)
In addition, the BGC-WG believes that as the Council moves from being a legislative body to a strategic manager overseeing policy development, the current emphasis on formal voting should be significantly reduced.
II. POTENTIAL TEAM PARTICIPANTS:
The specific mechanisms for participation on the team are yet to be determined, but ideally the team will be composed of participants drawn from the GNSO council, the GNSO constituencies and the larger ICANN/Internet community.
7.
III. POTENTIAL INITIAL ACTION STEPS:
Set forth below are a number of potential action steps necessary to establish and begin the work of the GNSO Council Restructuring Team (GOT).
1. Confirm Charter/Goals of GOT with the GNSO Operations Steering Committee and the GNSO Council
2. Formation of GOT:
• Announce commencement of process
• Solicit and provide appropriate opportunities for public comments on the formulation and potential operating procedures of the GOT.
• Invite and recruit GOT members
• Schedule initial team meeting
• Prepare and circulate preparation materials for initial meeting
3. Initial GOT meeting/correspondence:
• Draft guidelines for operation of the group,
• Develop and agree on a more precise timeline for completion of draft Council restructuring.
• Set up email/contact list of all GOT members. Discuss/confirm ground rules
• Define roles of Council, staff, constituencies, new implementation consulting group (the former BGC-WG) and other outside parties
• Formulate standard check sheet for each decision (e.g., ask what, if any, by-law changes necessary)
• Identify and define public comment opportunities
• Announce comment opportunities, collect comments and openly discuss various ideas, recommendations and suggestions.
4. Subsequent GOT meetings:
• Review, discuss and consider recommendations and proposed action items provided by GNSO Improvements Report, community/public comments and staff implementation notes
• Consistent reporting mechanisms regarding progress
IV. CALENDAR/TIMETABLES
As the ICANN community considers the various recommendations set forth in the GNSO Improvements Report, it is important to keep in mind that this is an evolutionary process intended to reflect the importance of the GNSO to ICANN and to build upon the GNSO's successes to date. But at the same time, the Board expects to see prompt significant and expeditious efforts being taken to implement the Reform recommendations. A timeline will need to be developed for Council approval and ICANN Board endorsement.
Operations Steering Committee (OSC)
Original OSC Draft Work of GNSO IPT
Constituency Operations Team
OSC Communications Team
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