2021-05-14 Transfer Policy Review PDP WG Call

Notes/ Action Items

Action Items

1. TPR WG members to carefully review the following documents:

• Working Group Charter
• Final Issue Report [gnso.icann.org]
• Transfer Policy
• Consensus Playbook [gnso.icann.org]
• GNSO Working Group Guidelines [gnso.icann.org] & PDP Manual [gnso.icann.org]
• ICANN70 session providing an introduction to the PDP [icann.zoom.us]

     2. TPR Support Staff to send doodle poll to identify a new meeting time for the TPR WG.

Meeting Notes

Transfer Policy Review PDP

Meeting #1

14 May 2021, 18:00 UTC

1. Introductions

      2. Vice Chair The WG has the opportunity to select one or two Vice Chairs for this Working Group, but is not required to do so.

• Chair recommend not appointing a vice-chair
• Do not see any chair availability issues, and in the event of an unforeseen absence, Support Staff may assist
• The vice-chair would need to be an impartial party, likely outside of this group
• No objections to proceeding with no vice-chair at this time

      3. Charter: It would be helpful if everyone could read through the Charter before the first call. We will briefly go over some key points and answer any questions that members have.

• Objective to conduct a holistic review of the Transfer Policy
• The PDP is divided into two phases
• Phase 1 will divided into two parts, Phase 1A and 1B – the division is to divide the work into more manageable, distinct chunks
• Phase 1A will cover two issues – Form of Authorization (FOA) and Auth-info codes
• Phase 1B will cover Change of Registrant
• Phase 2 will cover multiple topics including Transfer Emergency Action Contact and reversing inter-registrar transfers, Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy (including Rec. 27, Wave 1 TDRP issues), NACKing transfers, ICANN-approved transfers
• The WG’s Charter outlines a series of milestones – because of the way this is phased, the full PDP is initiated under a single charter. There will be an initial report for both Phase 1A and 1B, and there will be a combined Phase 1 Final Report. Following this, there will be a charter review, and then Phase 2 will begin. There will be one Initial Report for Phase 2.
• If Phase 1 recs are approved by the GNSO Council, implementation of Phase 1 recs can begin to occur in parallel of Phase 2 work.
• With respect to WG composition, all SOs/ACs/SGs/Cs were invited to appoint members and alternates. The numbers of members and alternates are different for different groups.
• Membership structure:
• Chair (Roger Carney), who serves as a neutral facilitator;
• Members, who are responsible for active participation, preliminary deliberations, and consensus. Members represent the views of their appointing organizations in deliberations and consensus calls;
• Alternates, who only participate if a Member is not available, but will be responsible for keeping up with Working Group. Alternates may always join calls but may only speak if they are "standing in" for a Member who is absent;
• Observers, who may follow the work by listening to calls and following email traffic on the mailing lists;
• GNSO Council Liaison, who is a neutral link to the GNSO Council. Greg DiBiase will serve as GNSO Council Liaison for this PDP, though he is currently on leave.

     4. Operating Mode/Working Methods: 

Working Methods:

• Regular Working Group meetings via Zoom.
• Offline assignments between calls.
• Sessions during ICANN meetings, as needed.
• Community input through request for input from SO/AC/SG/Cs, as well as public comment on the Initial Reports.

Member Roles:

• Reminder: members represent the views of their appointing organizations, don't "switch hats."

Transparency:

• Mailing lists are publicly archived.
• Calls are recorded and transcribed.

Decision-making:

• As outlined in the Charter, the Working Group will follow Working Group Guidelines Section 3.6:  Standard Methodology for Making Decisions.
• In addition, the Charter states:

“The subject matter of this PDP is not equally of interest to and impactful on all SG/C/SO/ACs. As a result, the membership structure more heavily represents ICANN’s contracted parties, and specifically registrars. At the same time, the registrant’s perspective will be important to factor into the Working Group’s deliberations and final outputs. The Chair shall ensure that all perspectives are appropriately taken into account in assessing Consensus designations on the final recommendations.”

Statement of Participation Highlights

Members agree to:

• Work cooperatively towards consensus.
• Treat all members of the Working Group with civility, respecting their time and commitment.
• Regularly attend all scheduled meetings and send apologies in advance when unable to attend.
• Follow through on completing assignments between calls and meeting agreed deadlines.
• As and when appropriate, seek to be replaced by a designated Alternate in accordance with the wishes of appointing organization.
• Abide by working methods and rules of engagement outlined in the Charter.

     5. Work Plan: The WG’s initial areas of focus will be:

1. High-level review of the topics within the Charter for Phase 1
2. Prepare to request input from SO/AC/SG/Cs on topics in Phase 1
3. Deliver Phase 1 Work Plan to GNSO Council

• GNSO Council is the manager of the PDP
• This WG is responsible for submitting a work plan to the GNSO Council
• The WG will discuss the topics sequentially, with the Charter as its guide
• Will lift the key charter topics and subsequent charter questions into a project plan and will highlight the key dependencies
• This group will do a high-level review of all of the topics and questions – this is to get a better understanding of if one topic is more complex than another. This will help to inform the project schedule so that we can assign durations for each topic. Once we have completed the duration and dependency exercise, we will provide a date for when we can deliver an Initial Report. Once the group is satisfied with the proposed dates, Leadership will submit the project plan to the GNSO Council.
• There are relief mechanisms if a date shift is required; (1) the Team can add additional slack time for its work plan. (2) The group could also provide a formal project change request to the GNSO Council – please note, though, this is not a guaranteed extension. The group would have to provide a rationale as to why more time is required.
• Trying to determine duration is difficult, but one thing the group can do is utilize “the crank”. Each policy question will correspond to a block or chunk of work. As the WG review each question, the process for review will be the same. There will be an introduction, and the group will deliberate and form draft agreements, conclusions, recommendations, etc. Then, there will then be a first reading where the group will then deliberate further following by a second reading – after which, the topic remains stable. The WG will then move on to the next topic and will not return to previous topics unless new information becomes available.

     6. Meeting Frequency and Schedule: We’ll have an opportunity to discuss the meeting frequency and the proposed day/time of the calls.

• Support Staff to send out Doodle Poll to identify a time to meet
• Use this time for one more week, with apologies to everyone in Europe