Summary and Analysis of Comments

[Patrick Jones <patrick.jones@xxxxxxxxx>]

Summary and Analysis of Comments For:
Proposed Bylaws Revision from ICANN Nominating Committee

24 October 2008

ICANN staff has prepared this summary and analysis of comments received on the 
proposed Bylaws amendment from the 2008 ICANN Nominating Committee to update 
the diversity requirements for selecting ICANN Board members to include 
domicile with country of citizenship. The comment period ran from 23 September 
to 23 October 2008. 15 comments were received from 14 individuals (1 
individuals commented twice). The public comments on this forum are archived at 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/.

High Level Summary

Ten of the 14 individuals commenting on the proposed bylaws amendment were 
generally supportive of the amendment for permitting domicile to be considered 
along with citizenship.

One of the commenters who did not support the amendment wrote that 
consideration was premature until a community-wide working group on ICANN's 
Geographic Regions has a chance to make recommendations to the Board.

Four current or former Nom Com members supplied comments. One GNSO constituency 
(Registrars Constituency) provided comments.

General Comments

Andrew Mancey noted that the proposed change made sense to him, and that he has 
dual citizenship in the country of his domicile (Guyana). See 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00000.html.

David Archbold of the .ky registry noted that "while the proposal appears 
reasonable, it should not be forgotten that the diversity criteria for Board 
selection is
intimately tied in with the whole question of ICANN's Geographical Regions." 
Archbold noted it would be premature to consider the NonCom sponsored 
amendments in advance of establishing a community-wide working group to make 
recommendations to the Board on ICANN's Geographic Regions. He also mentioned 
that the proposed wording does not take into account the situation of overseas 
territories.

Archbold also noted that "that the proposed working group be given a chance to 
identify a new and simpler method of ensuring diversity. See 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00001.html.

Michele Neylon of Blacknight Solutions wrote in support of the proposed change, 
and noted that it did not strike him as logical to ignore that people change 
domicile from the country in which they were born. See 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00002.html.

Robert Guerra of Privaterra expressed his support for the proposed change. See 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00003.html.

Alan Levin (Associate Chair of the 2009 Nom Com and ISOC-South Africa 
representative to AFRALO/ALAC) agreed with the proposed amendment. See 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00004.html.

Jeff Williams wrote that "domicile or citizenship is far less important for any 
Bod member than is expertise and the choice of the stakeholders/users." See 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00006.html.

Elisabeth Porteneuve noted that she respectfully disagreed with the proposed 
amendment (see 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00005.html). She wrote 
that "the criteria of residency could permit to the Nominating Committee to 
forget about geographic and cultural diversity" in the selection of candidates 
to the Board.

Jason Butcher submitted two identical comments of support (see 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00007.html) and noted 
that "there are benefits of have well rounded board members representing 
diverse countries."

Ole Jacobsen (a member of the 2008 and 2009 Nom Com) expressed his support for 
the proposed amendment, and noted that the current Bylaws have unintended 
consequences that hinder the Nom Com in its work (see 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00009.html). He also 
described a hypothetical scenario in which the Nom Com is considering a 
candidate who has dual citizenship, and that individual must be counted against 
the diversity requirements for both regions. Under this scenario, the candidate 
may be ineligible, even if they only obtained dual citizenship to work in a 
country for a short period of time and have not lived there for over 20 years.

Eduardo Diaz wrote that the Internet Society of Puerto Rico also supports the 
proposed change (see 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00010.html).

Thomas Roessler (previous Nom Com member) noted that the proposed amendment 
might need some fine tuning (see 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00011.html). He wrote that

 *   any change made may also need to be made to article VI section 5 as well 
(the article that defines the geographic regions)
 *   current text sounds as if it takes all citizenships *and* the country of 
residence into account
 *   the proposed change is phrased in terms of 'countries' of residence, and 
that it may make more sense to phrase the bylaw rule in terms of geographic 
regions, not countries, and leave details to the Nominating Committee's judgment
 *   it is not necessarily the case that a candidate will have only one domicile
 *   He also asked if it was intended that the proposed amendment only apply to 
the selection of Board members

Roessler also thought "It might be worthwhile to look into a simpler approach 
by which candidates with multiple passports (and expats) can pick any of the 
relevant countries or regions as the one that they want to be considered for; 
criteria could be as loose as requiring either a passport of a relevant 
country, or a residence in the relevant region over five years."

Vijaya Sree Nidadhavolu wrote that the proposed amendment was not appropriate, 
and that domicile should be associated with the country of the candidate's 
birth plus 20 years of residing there (see 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00012.html).

Khaled Koubaa (ISOC-Tunisia, AFRALO member and member of the 2008 and 2009 Nom 
Com) wrote in support of the proposed amendment, as "the revision is needed to 
ensure regional and cultural diversity within the ICANN constituencies." See 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00013.html.

Clarke D. Walton submitted a comment on behalf of the Registrar Constituency 
(RC) (see http://forum.icann.org/lists/nomcom-bylaw-revision/msg00014.html). 
The comment "captures the overall sentiment expressed by the RC members who 
provided feedback about this matter and seems to reflect the general sense of 
the RC." The Registrars support the proposed Bylaws amendment and "strongly 
agrees agrees that it is in the best interests of the ICANN community to have 
an ICANN Board comprised of well-informed, geographically diverse members.  The 
most qualified candidates, however, do not necessarily need citizen status in 
their respective regions.  In the RC's view, a candidate who is domiciled in a 
region and has been actively involved in the ICANN community may be the most 
appropriate representative of that particular region, regardless of that 
candidate's citizenship."

Next Steps

The Board will consider the public comments along with the proposed Bylaws 
amendment at its next available Board meeting.

Contributors

Andrew Mancey
David Archbold
Michele Neylon
Robert Guerra
Alan Levin
Jeff Williams
Elisabeth Porteneuve
Jason Butcher
Ole Jacobsen
Eduardo Diaz
Thomas Roessler
Vijaya Sree Nidadhavolu
Khaled Koubaa
Clarke Walton (on behalf of Registrars Constituency)

--
Patrick L. Jones
Registry Liaison Manager &
Staff Manager, ICANN Nominating Committee
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, CA 90292
Tel: +1 310 301 3861
Fax: +1 310 823 8649
patrick.jones@xxxxxxxxx