[gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Re: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers

Thu Oct 31 21:57:30 UTC 2013

Dear Anne,

As the Council noted in Durban during its wrap up meeting, the current
procedures do not include a process for the Council to hold a vote outside
of a meeting, although they do allow absentee voting for certain votes and
under certain conditions, but only follow a meeting during which a vote was
taken.  Please see Section 4.0 Voting in the GNSO Council Operating
Procedures (page 11) at:
http://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-13jun13-en.pdf.  Also, the
language in this section presumes that a vote is taking place at a meeting.
For example, Section 4.1 Quorum says, "In order for the GNSO Council to
initiate a vote, a quorum must be present."  The word "present" implies
presence at a meeting.  Section 4.2 Voting Thresholds says, "For all votes
taken, the number of eligible voters in each House shall be fixed to the
number of seats allocated in the Bylaws (a.k.a. the denominator) and is not
affected by the number of members present or absent at the meeting [emphasis
added] in which the motion or other action is initiated."

With respect to waiving requirements, as the Council noted there are no
provisions in the procedures.  One of the issues noted by the Council in
Durban, for example, was that it could not consider a motion that was
submitted after the deadline for submitting reports and motions.  Section
3.3 Notice of Meetings states, "Reports and motions should be submitted to
the GNSO Council for inclusion on the agenda as soon as possible, but no
later than 23h59 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on the day, 10 calendar
days before the GNSO Council meeting."  There is no language in this section
that allows the Council to make an exception to this notice requirement.
Moreover, there is no general statement in the procedures that allows the
Council to waive its procedures or as Jonathan noted below under which
"formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no
objection from the council."

I hope this is helpful, but please let me know if you have additional
questions.

Best regards,
Julie

From:  <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne <AAikman at lrrlaw.com>
Date:  Thursday, October 31, 2013 3:23 PM
To:  Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund at icann.org>,
"gnso-improvem-impl-sc at icann.org" <gnso-improvem-impl-sc at icann.org>
Cc:  "Cover, Cynthia" <CCover at lrrlaw.com>
Subject:  RE: Background on New Issues: Email Voting and Procedural Waivers

Thanks Julie.   I will be coming in over Adobe from Miami Beach (INTA
Leadership) on November 16.  ( For some reason I had an SCI call on my
calendar yesterday, but nobody was there so my mistake.)

Regarding the two new items, can you provide us with the EXISTING rules on
(1)Voting and (2) Waiving requirements in the Operating Procedures?

Thanks and congrats to the Charter team  on the approval of the new Charter!
Anne

Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel
Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP | Suite 700
One South Church Avenue | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611
(T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725
AAikman at LRRLaw.com | www.LRRLaw.com <http://www.lrrlaw.com/>

Lewis and Roca LLP is now Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP.

From: owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc at icann.org
[mailto:owner-gnso-improvem-impl-sc at icann.org] On Behalf Of Julie Hedlund
Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 11:48 AM
To: gnso-improvem-impl-sc at icann.org
Subject: [gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Background on New Issues: Email Voting and
Procedural Waivers

Dear SCI members,

In our last meeting on 08 October Ron Andruff suggested it would be helpful
to frame the two new issues the GNSO Council has asked the SCI to study  ‹
email voting and procedural waivers --  in the format of the questions
listed in the charter.  In addition, for future requests as Mikey O'Conner
suggested staff will create an online form that requesters can complete when
they have issues to bring to the SCI.  The format in the charter is:
1. Which group do you represent? (E.g. Council, WG.)
2. To which rules or processes do you refer?
3. Please outline the problems
4. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems?
5. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes
easier to administer?

In particular, the GNSO Council requested that the SCI should take up these
two new issues in its Wrap Up meeting in Durban on 17 July.   Accordingly,
I've reviewed the transcript from that meeting and pulled out the relevant
information from the brief discussion of these topics.  I've put that
information into the form of the questions from the charter.  Please see the
information below and also on the wiki at:
https://community.icann.org/display/gnsosci/16+November+2013.  These issues
are on the agenda for the SCI's next meeting, which will be held
face-to-face in Buenos Aires on Saturday, 16 November from 0700-0845 local
time.  The GNSO Secretariat will send out a notice and reminders for the
meeting.

Best Regards,

Julie 

Julie Hedlund, Policy Director

Email voting:

1.    Which group do you represent? GNSO Council
2.    To which rules or processes do you refer? Voting
3.    Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to
conduct votes outside of a meeting.
1. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems?
The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a
meeting and under what circumstances.  Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the
Council transcript at the Wrap Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "So I
wanted - an issue I wanted us to consider maybe giving to the SCI and then
to the group or to a committee to look at is I¹d like to rethink about
whether potentially voting by email or something like that is a possibility?
I know we¹ve looked at it on and off over the years.ŠAnd if that would help
speed things along it would be great to just look at that issue in just
maybe we can¹t do it first time around obviously but for future..."  He
raised this issue because the Council was in the process of scheduling a
special meeting in August to conduct a vote.
2. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes
easier to administer? Voting by email could in some circumstances enable the
Council to avoid having to schedule a special meeting for a vote that has to
occur quickly.

Waivers and/or Exceptions to the GNSO Council Operating Procedures

1.    Which group do you represent? GNSO Council
2.    To which rules or processes do you refer? Submitting a motion and
possibly other procedures
1. Please outline the problems: The Council does not have a mechanism to
waive or invoke an exception to and of its operating procedures.  An example
is whether the deadline for submitting motions could be waived in certain
circumstances.  Quote from Jonathan Robinson in the transcript at the Wrap
Up Meeting in Durban on 18 July 2013: "And essentially I wasn¹t empowered as
chair by our rulebook to allow that motion to be put on the table even if
technically although we have done it by precedent and prior practice, even
if no one objected from the council I didn¹t really - there isn¹t really
device in the rulebook to allow that to take place. So I personally I think
that¹s an area we should look at is the - when and under what circumstances
- formal council procedure can be bypassed in the event that there is no
objection from the council?"
2. What specific changes do you propose to address the identified problems?
The SCI should consider whether and how the Council could vote outside of a
meeting and under what circumstances.
3. Do you have any additional suggestion for making the rules/processes
easier to administer? A waiver mechanism could allow the Council to consider
a motion or document after the deadline of notice/submission to the Council
has passed.

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