RE: [gnso-osc] Final OSC review - GNSO procedures - section 5 statements of interest

["Metalitz, Steven" <met@xxxxxxx>]

I have a few concerns about this document.  
 
First, I suggest that "investment interest" be defined to exclude
ownership of a de minimis number of shares in a publicly traded company.
Otherwise, anyone who neglected to mention (or perhaps even to know)
that s/he owned a share of Microsoft, Google (both accredited
registrars) or Verisign (among others) might run afoul of section
5.3.3.3.i.  
 
Second,  we need to recognize that there will be circumstances in which
a requirement (under section 5.3.3.3.ii) to disclose that (for example)
a lawyer represents Google in a matter totally unrelated to anything in
the ICANN purview could present a problem or at least a considerable
delay in getting permission to disclose the representation.  I suppose
these could be treated as an "extenuating circumstance" under 5.5.1 and
I do not have an amendment to propose at this point but just wanted to
flag the problem.  
 
Third, the requirement to disclose "potential ... investment interest in
or compensation arrangement with...." contracted parties (section
5.3.3.3.iii) will need to be administered in a common-sense manner.
Potentially, almost anything could happen.  A potential that is concrete
and imminent ought to be distinguished from the broader range of
potential occurrences.  I hope we can assume common sense but that
assumption is not always well founded.  
 
Fourth, is the reference to "nomination/selection as a work team member"
in section 5.3.3.5.v still relevant now that participation in many of
the GNSO entities is completely self-selected, with no other nomination
or selection process?  Shouldn't this be changed to "participation"?  
 
Fifth, I believe the reference to "Declarations of Interest" in section
5.2.1 should be changed to "Disclosures of Interest" which is the term
used throughout the rest of the document.  
 
In view of where this stands in the process,  I won't press the second
or third point above, but ask that the simple amendments proposed in 1,
2, and 5 above be made before the document is passed to the Council. I
have also asked my constituency leadership for any further input they
can provide by the Sunday deadline. 
 
In my defense, I will note that the deadline for comments on this
document was the 16th until it was accelerated today to the 11th.   I
would love to have the luxury of attending to these documents as soon as
I receive them but the nature of the ICANN public comment decathlon does
not permit that and I have no choice but to deal with these roughly in
the order of their impending deadlines.   
 
Steve Metalitz

________________________________

From: owner-gnso-osc@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-gnso-osc@xxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Philip Sheppard
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 5:05 AM
To: gnso-osc@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gnso-osc] Final OSC review - GNSO procedures - section 5
statements of interest


Dear OSC members,
in view of Council's deadline for their next meeting and the absence of
further comments from the OSC I am bringing forward the end of our
review period to 11 April.
 
Please find attached a proposed final OSC approved version of the GCOT
teams work on section 5 of the GNSO operating procedures manual dealing
with statements of interest.
The final version includes the OSC clarifications proposed by Philip and
Chuck.
 
In the absence of a chorus of disapproval I will submit the attached to
Council on Monday 12 April.
 
Philip
OSC Chair
 
<http://www.aim.be/>