RE: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers

[Ron Andruff <randruff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thank you, Julie.

RA



Ron Andruff
www.lifedotsport.com 

-------- Original message --------
From: Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@xxxxxxxxx> 
Date: 10/31/2013  14:47  (GMT-05:00) 
To: gnso-improvem-impl-sc@xxxxxxxxx 
Subject: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Background on New Issues: Email Voting and 
Procedural Waivers 
 
Dear SCI members,

In our last meeting on 08 October Ron Andruff suggested it would be helpful to 
frame the two new issues the GNSO Council has asked the SCI to study  — email 
voting and procedural waivers --  in the format of the questions listed in the 
charter.  In addition, for future requests as Mikey O'Conner suggested staff 
will create an online form that requesters can complete when they have issues 
to bring to the SCI.  The format in the charter is:
Which group do you represent? (E.g. Council, WG.)
To which rules or processes do you refer?
Please outline the problems
What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems?
Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to 
administer?

In particular, the GNSO Council requested that the SCI should take up these two 
new issues in its Wrap Up meeting in Durban on 17 July.   Accordingly, I've 
reviewed the transcript from that meeting and pulled out the relevant 
information from the brief discussion of these topics.  I've put that 
information into the form of the questions from the charter.  Please see the 
information below and also on the wiki 
at: https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/16+November+2013.  These issues 
are on the agenda for the SCI's next meeting, which will be held face-to-face 
in Buenos Aires on Saturday, 16 November from 0700-0845 local time.  The GNSO 
Secretariat will send out a notice and reminders for the meeting.

Best Regards,

Julie 

Julie Hedlund, Policy Director

Email voting:
Which group do you represent? GNSO Council
To which rules or processes do you refer? Voting
Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to conduct 
votes outside of a meeting.
What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems?  The 
SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting 
and under what circumstances.  Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the Council 
transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "So I wanted - an 
issue I wanted us to consider maybe giving to the SCI and then to the group or 
to a committee to look at is I’d like to rethink about whether potentially 
voting by email or something like that is a possibility? I know we’ve looked at 
it on and off over the years.…And if that would help speed things along it 
would be great to just look at that issue in just maybe we can’t do it first 
time around obviously but for future..."  He raised this issue because the 
Council was in the process of scheduling a special meeting in August to conduct 
a vote.
Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to 
administer? Voting by email could in some circumstances enable the Council to 
avoid having to schedule a special meeting for a vote that has to occur quickly.

Waivers and/or Exceptions to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures
Which group do you represent? GNSO Council
To which rules or processes do you refer? Submitting a motion and possibly 
other procedures
Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to waive or 
invoke an exception to and of its operating procedures.  An example is whether 
the deadline for submitting motions could be waived in certain circumstances.  
Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban 
on 18 July 2013: "And essentially I wasn’t empowered as chair by our rulebook 
to allow that motion to be put on the table even if technically although we 
have done it by precedent and prior practice, even if no one objected from the 
council I didn’t really - there isn’t really device in the rulebook to allow 
that to take place. So I personally I think that’s an area we should look at is 
the - when and under what circumstances - formal council procedure can be 
bypassed in the event that there is no objection from the council?"
What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems?  The 
SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a meeting 
and under what circumstances.
Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes easier to 
administer? A waiver mechanism could allow the Council to consider a motion or 
document after the deadline of notice/submission to the Council has passed.