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<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Council Colleagues -</div>
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<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Donna, Heather, and I have been working with Staff to do a bit of “spring cleaning” on our Action Items list. One of the open items from last year calls for the SCI to review GNSO Council Voting Thresholds.</div>
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The default voting threshold for the GNSO is a simple majority, >50% of each House. Some specific votes (see ICANN Bylaws, Article X, Sec.3(9)) require a different voting threshold such as, for example, a “supermajority” <font>threshold</font> or <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Calibri">an
affirmative vote of more than one-fourth (1/4) vote of each House or majority of one House (create an Issue Report)</font></span>. All the current <font>non-standard</font>voting thresholds relate to votes that are linked to a Policy Development Process, including
for example: terminating an existing PDP, or modifying a PDP recommendation before sending it on to the Board.</span><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: medium;"></span>
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<font face="Calibri,sans-serif">Currently, any vote that is not specifically excluded defaults to the simple majority vote. There was some discussion a while back (regarding Council adoption of Spec 13) </font><font face="Calibri,sans-serif">that passing some
motions with a simple majority were equivalent to amending existing (2007) PDPs, which would require a supermajority. </font></div>
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<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: -webkit-standard;">Also, Council noted that we were frequently voting on situations that weren’t otherwise covered, including motions related to the IANA transition and Accountability work. Some<font face="Calibri,sans-serif"> suggested
that these topics warranted a supermajority threshold, and the Action Item to send this over to the SCI was born. </font><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">The Councilors who initially raised this issue have since moved on, and we completed the
votes on IANA and Accountability using our existing procedures, so this item has been marked “pending" for several months. </span></div>
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<div><font face="Calibri,sans-serif">But I’d like to disposition the action item one way or the other. So, if you believe this topic is still a concern and would like to volunteer to take the lead (see attached </font><font style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">SCI
Review Request)</font><font face="Calibri,sans-serif">, </font><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">please respond by Friday 22 APR. </b><font face="Calibri,sans-serif"> </font></div>
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<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Otherwise, if there’s no further interest, we'll close out the action item. </div>
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<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Thanks—</div>
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<div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">J.</div>
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