[bc-gnso] Information regarding Executive Committee Elections

["BC Secretariat" <secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Members

For your information, below are the relevant sections of the Charter regarding 
the election of an Executive Committee.

A point of clarity regarding clause 5.1 in reference to 'members'. This is an 
exceptional membership year; the decision has been taken to delay invoicing for 
2010 until the newly-elected Executive Committee has drawn up a budget and set 
fees. For the purpose of these elections, BC members as of 31 December 2009 are 
eligible to stand for election, to nominate and to vote.

Best wishes
Gary
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4.2. Executive Committee
The Constituency will have an Executive Committee comprised as follows:
  a.. A Chair 
  b.. A Vice Chair for policy coordination 
  c.. A Vice Chair for finance and operations 
  d.. A representative to the Commercial Stakeholder Group 
  e.. Any Constituency members selected as Council members.
4.7 Terms and eligibility
The terms of office of the Chair, Vice Chairs and CSG representative shall be 
one year. The terms of the GNSO council representative shall be as specified in 
the ICANN by-laws. To be eligible to stand for a position on the Executive 
Committee the candidate must have been a member of the Constituency for at 
least the immediately preceding 12 months.

5. Elections
5.1. The election process for the Executive Committee will be initiated by a 
nomination period of two weeks. The Chair, Vice Chairs and CSG representative 
will be elected at the same time. The timing of elections for GNSO 
representatives and Nominating Committee delegates will be determined by the 
ICANN by-laws. Any member of the Business Constituency may nominate one other 
member. This process (including receiving nominations, communicating 
nominations and publishing an overview of results) will be initiated and 
managed by the Secretariat. If at the close of nominations, it would result in 
all Executive Committee except Council representatives, or all Council 
representatives, being from the same region, the nomination period may be 
extended to improve geographic diversity. 

5.2. Immediately following the nomination period, and a one week discussion 
period to talk with the candidates if time allows, the Secretariat will open an 
election period of one week, during which it will receive votes from members of 
the Constituency electronically, typically via e-mail.

5.3. Depending on category BC members have 3, 2 or 1 vote(s). Votes are cast as 
a block and are not divisible. The Secretariat will allocate votes cast 
according to category.

5.4. Proxy votes are allowed subject to written notification to the Secretariat 
by the designated representative of the member after the nomination period and 
before the start of the voting period and subject to the proxy conditions of 
article 3.6.

5.5. The winner(s) will be candidates receiving the largest number of votes. To 
ensure geographical diversity the Executive Committee may impose elimination 
rules based on ICANN geographical regions. Such rules will be made known before 
the start of voting.

5.6. In case of a tie a new election will be held among the nominees in the tie.

8. Communication Guidelines 
8.2.3. Special rules for elections 
During elections there is a need for special rules in line with Article 5 of 
the Charter to ensure the integrity of the process and fairness to all 
candidates. This means inter alia that the returning officer for the election 
will unless otherwise agreed instruct the list administrator as follows: 
to open a nomination period but only publish nominations to the list at the 
close of that period;
to open a discussion period (where the external timetable allows) but to 
monitor air time to ensure fairness to all candidates, and if necessary delete 
or suspend postings;
to open a voting period and suspend all election and candidate related list 
mail during that period. 
8.2.4 Types of list
the BC will operate an open list with direct posting facility for BC members 
which is archived and available to members. This list is intended for dynamic 
discussions such as on policy.
the BC will also operate an internal list for indirect posting via the BC 
Secretariat. This list is intended for administrative matters such as elections.