[council] Proposed Agenda Item - Elimination of Friday Public Board Meetings

[Stéphane Van Gelder]

Thanks Margie, much appreciated.

In the meantime, let me add some more context for the benefit of the Council.

In CR, Steve asked me what I would think of the idea of shortening the ICANN meeting week by doing away with the Friday. This was floated to me as just an idea. I was given no indication that it would be implemented one day, let alone in Prague. And I was given no details on its possible implementation.

When Steve discussed this with me, I did not get the sense that he meant to do a public consultation on this decision. This was a private conversation and not one where it was at any time made clear to me that I should break Steve's confidence and discuss this publicly. That is why I did not discuss this here.

This week's announcement has, as Jeff says, generated some negative comments. Those that I have seen are that this decision was taken without any consultation and that doing away with the Friday Board meeting is detrimental to transparency.

My own personal view is otherwise. I believe that cutting the Friday out of the ICANN week is a step in the right direction towards reducing costs and time challenges for meeting participants, including the Board. Over the past year, I have seen the Board work hard to improve its transparency. We now have detailed rationale on votes at every meeting and explanations of the issues being considered. So I am comfortable with giving the Board a little of the benefit of the doubt in trying out new ideas such as this one.

Stéphane



Le 2 mai 2012 à 22:10, Margie Milam a écrit :

> Hi Stéphane,
> I’ll follow up internally to provide the requested information.
>  
> Best regards,
> Margie
>  
> From: owner-council at gnso.icann.org [mailto:owner-council at gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Stéphane Van Gelder
> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 2:08 PM
> To: council at gnso.icann.org Council
> Subject: Re: [council] Proposed Agenda Item - Elimination of Friday Public Board Meetings
>  
> Is someone from Staff able to provide the requested information, whether it be on the list or during the next Council meeting?
>  
> Stéphane
>  
>  
>  
> Le 2 mai 2012 à 20:38, Neuman, Jeff a écrit :
> 
> 
> All,
>  
> Given the announcement yesterday of the elimination of the public Board meetings at ICANN, I would like to put this on the Council agenda as a discussion item.  I would like it if someone from ICANN that is familiar with the rationale behind this decision could give us an explanation of how and why that decision was made. 
>  
> Also, if the ICANN Board can unilaterally declare that all of its meetings will be private, does this set a precedent for its Supporting Organizations to do the same thing?  I have not reviewed the bylaws with respect to the Council in a little bit, but does the Council have the discretion to declare that it will no longer hold a public GNSO Council meeting at ICANN?
> 
> I think there has been enough disapproval expressed within the community in the last day or so that at least merits a discussion of this decision at the Council level.
> 
> Thanks.
>  
> Jeffrey J. Neuman 
> Neustar, Inc. / Vice President, Business Affairs
> 21575 Ridgetop Circle, Sterling, VA 20166
> Office: +1.571.434.5772  Mobile: +1.202.549.5079  Fax: +1.703.738.7965 / jeff.neuman at neustar.biz  / www.neustar.biz

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