[gnso-improvem-impl-sc] RE: Request to the SCI - Vote switching

["Aikman-Scalese, Anne" <AAikman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Martin,
Thank you for your communication of February 26 raising the issue of potential 
“vote switching” among constituencies.  The SCI response to your question was 
developed after full discussion on the SCI list.  Although it took a while to 
sort out the procedural issues, we believe we have arrived at the appropriate 
answer.

Although the BC Charter team presents an interesting issue, the question is not 
properly before the SCI at this time since (1) we did not receive the question 
from the GNSO Council or a group chartered by the GNSO Council and (2) we have 
not yet formulated or presented to Council a plan for periodic review of the 
Operating Procedures which might involve review of issues related to 6.1.2(j)  
and 6.2.6(d) of these Procedures, both of which address the rule that "No legal 
or natural person should be a voting member of more than one Group."

Angie Graves is the primary BC representative to the SCI and has volunteered to 
discuss this topic with you informally so that it can be explored further 
within the BC.

Although the SCI is unable to take up consideration of the issue raised by the 
BC Charter Review Team at this time, we recognize the potential problem that 
this could cause. Since the question arose during the BC subteam’s discussion 
of a revision of its Charter, it may be helpful for the BC - as part of its 
internal deliberations and process - to determine whether to seek external 
input and suggestions for mitigation of this potential problem. For instance, 
BC leadership could reach out to other SG/C leaders to see if a common GNSO 
position can be developed around the issue. While we do not ourselves know if 
other SG/Cs are going to be reviewing their charters at this time, we note that 
each SG/C charter is charged with specifying its own process for charter 
amendment.

We hope the above is helpful to the BC’s Charter Review Team’s deliberations.
Thank you,
Anne
GNSO SCI Chair, 2015


[cid:image001.gif@01D0663E.C830C7F0]

Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel

Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP |

One South Church Avenue Suite 700 | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611

(T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725

AAikman@xxxxxxxxxx<mailto:AAikman@xxxxxxxxxx> | 
www.LRRLaw.com<http://www.lrrlaw.com/>







From: martinsutton@xxxxxxxx<mailto:martinsutton@xxxxxxxx> 
[mailto:martinsutton@xxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 12:30 PM
To: Aikman-Scalese, Anne
Subject: Request to the SCI - Vote switching

Dear Anne,

I am a member of the Business Constituency and currently working with the BC 
Charter Review team.  During our recent discussions, we identified a potential 
issue that may affect GNSO Stakeholder Groups (SGs) and Constituencies (Cs) 
which may warrant the attention of the SCI, which I understand you currently 
chair.

With the introduction of New gTLDs, an increasing number of organisations now 
meet the criteria of membership within multiple groups, even across the 
contracting and non-contracting parties divide.  The point in question is in 
relation to the ability for a member of multiple SGs and Cs to regularly switch 
their voting rights between these groups in a tactical manner, so as to apply 
votes for elections/decisions where they may have concerns with lack of 
representation within a specific group, at a specific time. Whilst they may 
only vote in one of the SGs or Cs, there is no restriction as to when and how 
frequently they may switch their voting power between these groups.  This could 
be too flexible and potentially allow the system to be exploited.

I am pleased to say that there is no evidence that this is occurring but as new 
members continue to increase, it seems sensible to consider preventative 
measures be put in place to protect the GNSO for the future.  As an example, a 
multi-member organisation could be obliged to commit  holding it's voting 
rights within one group for a minimum term of 12 months before switching to 
another group.  Of course, this would need to be uniform across all of the SGs 
and Cs, hence, we think it is appropriate to raise this issue with the SCI for 
consideration.

I would be happy to discuss further and interested to know if you feel this 
would be appropriate and worthwhile for the SCI to assess.

Kind regards,

Martin
Martin C SUTTON
Manager, Group Fraud Risk & Intelligence
Global Security & Fraud Risk
Level 8,1 Canada Square,Canary Wharf,London,E14 5AB,United Kingdom
__________________________________________________________________

Phone

+44 (0)207 991 8074

Mobile

+44 (0)777 4556680

Email

martinsutton@xxxxxxxx<mailto:martinsutton@xxxxxxxx>

Website

www.hsbc.com<http://www.hsbc.com/>



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