Comment on behalf of the GNSO Review Working Party

[Jen Wolfe <jwolfe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On behalf of the GNSO Review Working Party, I appreciate the opportunity to 
submit this public comment regarding the schedule and process for Reviews 
mandated by the Affirmation of Commitments and the ICANN Bylaws.  The GNSO 
Review began approximately one year ago following the ICANN 50 meeting in 
London.   Since that time, the members of the GNSO Review Working Party have 
requested two extensions of time in order to allow for the necessary time to 
review, contemplate and provide thoughtful and meaningful feedback to ICANN 
staff and the independent examiner.

As a result of these extensions of time, we were able to provide important 
feedback into the scope of the questions asked in the 360 survey and to provide 
additional time for announcements and outreach during the ICANN 51 Los Angeles 
meeting to encourage more participation.  This allowed for more meaningful 
results from the community.  We also requested an extension of time to review 
the initial draft report provided by the independent examiner.  This extension 
gave members of the Working Party additional time to consider the voluminous 
information and track more than 120 comments to the report.  This feedback was 
documented and responses were provided by the independent examiner.

We believe this additional time allowed for a better outcome and end result.  
Accordingly, we urge you to consider allotting additional time for other 
Reviews and their respective Working Parties so that the time and consideration 
can be given to obtain quality results in the survey and interview process and 
quality feedback to the report produced by the independent examiner.

Additionally, we ask you to consider the impact of scheduled reviews on the 
volunteer workload. Qualified, experienced and knowledgeable community members 
willing to dedicate focused and significant effort are an essential component 
of this important accountability mechanism functioning effectively.  As the 
GNSO Review Working Party, our group of 20 volunteers has put in significant 
energy and time to help make the GNSO Review and recommendations useful and 
supportive of continuous improvement - 17 meetings and two rounds of nearly 120 
comments leading up to the Draft Report.   The broader community also 
contributed to the GNSO Review in important ways by offering their views and 
feedback - 178 people completed online surveys and 40 people participated in 
one on one interviews.  As we begin planning for the implementation phase, we 
expect significant volunteer time to be invested into planning and implementing 
 needed improvements.  We fully support this approach to conducting future 
Organizational Reviews and urge you to ensure that adequate time and volunteer 
resources are available not just to conduct each Review, but as importantly, to 
contribute to a productive implementation of Review recommendations and 
applying lessons learned to future reviews.

I thank you for the opportunity to provide this public comment and share our 
experiences in the GNSO Review.

The GNSO Review Working Party




jennifer c. WOLFE, esq., apr, SSBB
Founder & President, wolfe domain, a digital brand strategy advisory firm
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