RE: [gnso-osc] FOR ADOPTION June 4 GCOT Ops Section 3.8 - absences

["Gomes, Chuck" <cgomes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry for being late.  I approve these procedures with the edits I
suggested in Section 4, Voting.

 

Chuck

 

From: owner-gnso-osc@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-gnso-osc@xxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Philip Sheppard
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 4:07 AM
To: gnso-osc@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gnso-osc] FOR ADOPTION June 4 GCOT Ops Section 3.8 - absences

 

Dear OSC members,

FOR REVIEW AND ADOPTION by June 4

 

Please find attached Section 3.8 of the GNSO operating manual on
absences and vacancies.

 

Below are notes from GCOT on how they addressed the issues raised (some
of which overlap with section 4 on voting.

But for the process of OSC adoption this will be the subject of a
separate mail).

Philip

 

________________________________

To:  OSC Members

 

In early March 2010, in preparation for the ICANN Nairobi meetings, the
GNSO Council Operations Team (GCOT) submitted to the OSC a new Chapter
4.0-Voting that it recommended be included within the GNSO Operating
Procedures (GOP).   As you will recall, the major purpose of that
document was a new set of provisions for handling abstentions.
Accompanying the new GOP chapter, the GCOT also attached an Executive
Summary which discussed the major implications of abstentions as they
apply to GNSO Council voting and explained the GCOT's rationale in
developing its recommendations.   

 

During the OSC's Nairobi session, several questions were raised by OSC
members that caused the GCOT to revisit and revise certain sections of
the document.   In addition, as a result of the team's continued
deliberations, additional changes have been made although the underlying
architecture of the abstention remedies remains intact.   

 

For the purposes of informing the OSC as to the revisions made, we
thought it might be useful to outline them in the following section
versus attempting to rewrite the original Executive Summary (attached),
which otherwise continues to be an accurate rationale for the GCOT's
work on abstentions. 

 

Summary of GCOT Amendments since Nairobi: 

 

1)      New Section 3.8-Absences and Vacancies

 

At the time the original Section 4.5-Abstentions was drafted, it
included applying the Temporary Alternate remedy for certain absence
conditions.   During its review, the General Counsel's office
recommended that, instead of confusing absences and abstentions, a new
section be added to the GOP to cover absences.  That section was not
completed prior to Nairobi; however, it is included in this
transmission.   The title was subsequently changed to, "Section
3.8-Absences and Vacancies" as a result of a question raised during
Nairobi, that is, "Do Councilor vacancies cause the voting denominator
to change?" 

 

The GCOT recognized that, while vacancy procedures exist in the Bylaws
{Article X, Section 3(3)}, nothing is stated about what happens to the
voting thresholds in such situations.  Certainly a permanent vacancy
would ultimately be resolved by electing a replacement; however, there
might be a period of vacancy before the new Councilor takes his/her
seat.  During such transitions, the GCOT is recommending that the
Temporary Alternate remedy be made available to appointing
organizations.  Section 3.8 was amended to address temporary vacancies
and, as OCS members will note, it also covers planned and unplanned
absences as well as leaves of absence.  

 

2)      A second issue raised in Nairobi was the need for a procedure
that allows Councilors to provide a reason or explanation when voting
"Yes" or "No."  There is a prevailing perception that to offer an
explanation requires an abstention.   To clarify this subject, the GCOT
elected to modify the GOP (see Section 4.3.2) to provide that, while
Councilors are not required to give a reason for a "No" or "Yes" vote,
it is permissible and such explanations will be recorded in the minutes.


 

3)      A third question raised in Nairobi was, "Did the GCOT consider
the concept of a 'Permanent' Alternate?  Staff responded that General
Counsel's advice was to ensure that any application of "Temporary
Alternate" be incident specific and limited in duration; however, there
is nothing in the procedures that would prevent a SG/C from selecting an
individual who is, more or less, "on call" to become a TA whenever that
remedy is needed.   

 

4)      After further deliberation, the GCOT determined that, due to the
unique challenges presented by the Nominating Committee Appointees (NCA)
in not having "appointing organizations" as defined in the procedures,
it would be logistically impractical to involve the Houses in approving
remedies for abstentions.  The team decided to rewrite the provisions
for House NCAs to permit Proxy Voting and Temporary Alternate remedies
that are automatically activated (based on conditions and rules) without
requiring action by the Houses or the Nominating Committee.  

 

5)      The term "Appointing Organization" was needed in Section 3.8,
but it had only been defined in Section 4.5.   In order to permit the
use of this terminology throughout the GOP, Staff will be recommending a
new "Definitions" section to be included in Chapter 1.0.  Staff will
also be recommending several additional GOP improvements including a
Table of Contents, a Document Revisions section, and placeholders for
new chapters that are in process (e.g. Chapter 5.0-Statements and
Disclosures of Interest and Chapter 6.0-GNSO Work Prioritization).  

 

The GCOT hopes that the above summary of changes will be instructive for
OSC members in reviewing the revised Chapter 4.0-Voting and Section
3.8-Absences & Vacancies.  

 

The GCOT's expectation is that the OSC, in its review process, may make
certain non-substantive amendments to these documents; however, it
requests that any substantive changes be remanded to the team for
further deliberation.  

 

If the OSC needs additional explanation or rationale for any of attached
procedures, please let us know.  On behalf of the GCOT members, we would
like to thank the members of the OSC for their support and feedback to
our efforts over the past 15 months.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ray Fassett

Chair

GCOT