[gnso-osc-ops] Voting Remedies Procedures Map and Abstention Notification Form--UPDATED

["Ken Bour" <ken.bour@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Avri, et al.:

Below I have quoted excerpts from the GNSO Operating Procedures related to
establishing "an affirmative or negative voting position."   Please bear in
mind that the requirement to establish a voting position applies to only two
of the three remedies:  Voting Direction and Proxy.  The Temporary Alternate
remedy was added for situations when a voting position cannot be established
(for any reason).   When executing a Temporary Alternate remedy, a
definitive voting position is not required nor is the alternate obligated to
follow any specific direction.  

As you may recall, the GCOT did amend the original draft language to provide
appointing organizations flexibility in creating their own internal
processes for developing a voting position.  The modifying phrase
"affirmative or negative" implies that a specific position has been
established for a particular measure/motion.   Additionally, the GCOT did
not amend the language that obligates the Councilor to follow the voting
position established.   

Ken Bour
=======

>From Section 4.5.3(a):  Voting Direction

"The first remedy to be considered in avoiding the consequences of an
abstention is for the Councilor at issue to request specific voting
instructions in writing from Councilor's appointing organization.  The
Councilor would then be obligated to follow the voting instruction provided.
This remedy requires that the appointing organization establish an
affirmative or negative voting position, subject to provisions contained in
its Charter or Bylaws, on the applicable Council measure/motion."

>From Section 4.5.3(b):  Proxy

"The appointing organization must be able to establish an affirmative or
negative voting position, subject to provisions contained in its Charter or
Bylaws, on the applicable measure/motion for which one of its Councilors has
declared an intention to abstain.  The Councilor to whom the vote is
transferred shall exercise a vote in line with the appointing organization's
stated position." 


-----Original Message-----
From: Avri Doria [mailto:avri@xxxxxxx] 
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2010 3:20 PM
To: Ken Bour
Cc: 'Gomes, Chuck'; gnso-osc-ops@xxxxxxxxx; Robert Hoggarth; 'Scott Pinzon'
Subject: Re: [gnso-osc-ops] Voting Remedies Procedures Map and Abstention
Notification Form--UPDATED

Hi,

Pretty.

I still have an issue:  the meaning of 'establish voting position'.

I still believe that this phrase carries possibly the wrong implications.
Since the voting position can be : vote as you think is best for the SG/C,
or consult the absent Council member and decide together how to vote in the
manner that you 2 conclude is best for the SG/C.  E.g we have a consultation
with the membership (those who wish to participate) a few days before every
council meeting where the varied community viewpoints on an issue are
discussed.  The council members then take that input, discuss among
themselves and the rest of the policy committee and each separately decide
how to vote in the manner that based on their perceptions is what is best
for the NCSG.  This policy can't seem to preclude that.

We need a note that indicates that the definition of 'define voting
positions is totally charter dependent.'

We cannot allow for this to mean the SG/Cs are forced to enforce some notion
of SG/C voting discipline if that is not the SG/C way of doing things.

a.



On 21 Oct 2010, at 22:54, Ken Bour wrote:

> To:      Chuck Gomes (GNSO Council Chair)
>             GCOT Work Team
>  
> The topic of Voting Remedies (i.e. abstentions, absences, and vacancies)
is currently Item #4 on the GNSO Council agenda scheduled for 28 October
2010 and Ray Fassett, GCOT Chair, has been invited to participate.  
>  
> In preparation for this discussion, I wanted to inform you that I have
made several improvements (outlined below) to both the Voting Remedies
Visual Map and the online Abstention Notification Form based upon feedback
received.   
>  
> Visual Map (http://gnso.icann.org/council/visual-procedures-map-en.htm)
> 1)      Changed title to "Voting Remedies: Abstentions, Absences, and
Vacancies"
> 2)      Removed a redundant step in the Planned Absence structure (per
Chuck's suggestion).
> 3)      Added larger Email Icons to indicate where sample message contents
are provided and located them to the right side of each block for
consistency with the Note icons.  
> 4)      All of the pop-up text is now available to be copied/pasted to
simplify creating an Email message using the sample message contents.
> 5)      Repositioned sections to enable the addition of flow arrows to
make it easier to follow the procedure. 
>  
> Abstention Notification Form (http://gnso.icann.org/node/14119)
> 1)      Changed several field labels to include the word "Officer" to make
clear who completes this form.
> 2)      Reordered the fields based upon feedback (e.g. moved "Officer
Email Address" to top section).
> 3)      Added conditional logic to the form so that, once a particular
voting remedy is selected, only the appropriate fields appear. 
>  
> The above changes are intended to make the procedures map and the online
form easier to understand, follow, and execute.   
>  
> I thank you all for your constructive feedback in helping to make these
tools more useful to the GNSO community.   I also thank our responsive ICANN
Web-Admin team for their flexibility and creativity in implementing the
above design enhancements. 
>  
> For those SGs and Constituencies that have yet to take advantage of the
offer, Staff remains available to provide a tutorial on the new Voting
Remedies including the procedures map and online form.  
>  
> Ken Bour