[CCWG-ACCT] Questions about Members

[Alan Greenberg]

I tend to relate to many of Chris' concerns about Members, but 
putting that aside, I am side a bit confused about the concept itself.

I understand that to be Members, the ACs and SOs concerned would need 
to have legal status (unincorporated associations in this case). But 
this is where it becomes messy in my mind. The ACs and SOs are in 
fact creatures of (inventions of?) the ICANN Bylaws. Now we take 
those entities, give them status as associations, and make them 
Members of ICANN under its new Bylaws.

In my previous involvement with Membership organizations, the Members 
were arms-length-removed from the organization of which they were members.

This sounds sort of like a circular definition - entities created by 
the ICANN Bylaws become its controlling Members.

In the past, ICANN could alter its Bylaws and create new ACs or SOs 
and make others go away (DNSO --> GNSO + ccNSO, for example). Could 
it still do that? If the GNSO was replaced by the XNSO, would the 
GNSO Unincorporated Association still be a Member?

Could ICANN mandate changes in an AC or SO as it now can?

The questions keep on coming...

Alan