[gnso-improvem-impl-sc] Re: Request to the SCI - Vote switching

Thu Feb 26 23:05:30 UTC 2015

Hello Anne and everyone,

As an integral part of the bottom up consensus model, issues of voting and
membership in each Stakeholder Group and Constituency are determined by
their respective charters. Each SG or C develops and approves its own
charter (as appropriate) and the Bylaws merely provide that the Board can
review a group¹s charter periodically. It therefore follows that the GNSO
Operating Procedures do not provide for the review, amendment or approval of
an SG¹s or C¹s charter by a body other than that particular SG/C. The GNSO
Operating Procedures do, however, prescribe certain common standards to be
followed by each SG and C in its charter and operations, such as
transparency, accountability, inclusiveness and representation. Accordingly,
the Operating Procedures also specify that a group member¹s voting rights
must be spelled out clearly in the group¹s charter, and that a legal or
natural person may not be a voting member of more than one group.

In line with the above-noted principles, the issue that Martin raises would
seem to be something that the SGs and Cs will need to work out for and
amongst themselves. As such, we suggest that the BC leadership consider
initiating a discussion with other SG/C leaders on this point, to see if
this is a matter that warrants either a revision of or addition to each
group¹s charter. In addition, the BC itself may internally wish to propose
such an update to its own charter, which it is of course at liberty to do as
part of its ongoing self-governance (regardless of whether other SG/Cs wish
to revise their own charters in the same way).

As to your second question, staff has begun working on the action items
noted in Singapore,, as we offered to do, and we will shortly be providing
Avri with the basic template that she can use to present the topic to the
GNSO Council for its consideration. At the moment, I do not know if it will
be on the Council¹s agenda for its March meeting, as that will depend on the
Council chairs¹ determination as to urgency and deadlines of other projects
and topics. I expect that if it does not make it on to the agenda for the
March meeting, it will likely be on the list for inclusion at the next one.

I hope this helps!

Cheers
Mary

Mary Wong
Senior Policy Director
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN)
Telephone: +1 603 574 4892
Email: mary.wong at icann.org

From:  <Aikman-Scalese>, Anne <AAikman at lrrlaw.com>
Date:  Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 15:42
To:  "<gnso-improvem-impl-sc at icann.org>" <gnso-improvem-impl-sc at icann.org>
Cc:  Mary Wong <mary.wong at icann.org>, Julie Hedlund
<julie.hedlund at icann.org>, 'Avri Doria' <avri at acm.org>
Subject:  FW: Request to the SCI - Vote switching

> Dear SCI members,
>  
> Below is a written request to SCI from a member of the Business Constituency
> Charter Review Team.  I am wondering whether this request must come officially
> from the BC in order to be considered by SCI.
>  
> Separately, in the Singapore meeting, after delivery of the SCI report, Avri
> volunteered to draft a template for GNSO requests to SCI and to prepare drafts
> for Council of the two ³immediate issue² requests mentioned in the SCI report,
> that is (1) friendly amendments to motions and (2) whether or not resubmitted
> motions are eligible for waiver of the ten day advance notice for motions.  I
> understand that Avri will be reviewing draft language for these requests with
> the Council.   It may make sense for us to see a draft and provide some
> comments, but that is up to Avri.
>  
> So the questions for staff are:
>  
> 1.      Do I need to tell Martin Sutton (see note below) that the request must
> be submitted by the BC itself?
> 
> 2.      Where do the ³friendly amendment² and ³applicability of 10 day waiver
> to resubmitted motions² action items from the GNSO Council meeting in
> Singapore stand at this time?
> 
>  
> Thank you,
> Anne
>  
>  
>  
> Anne E. Aikman-Scalese, Of Counsel
> Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP |
> One South Church Avenue Suite 700 | Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611
> (T) 520.629.4428 | (F) 520.879.4725
> AAikman at LRRLaw.com | www.LRRLaw.com <http://www.lrrlaw.com/>
>  
>  
>  
> From: martinsutton at hsbc.com [mailto:martinsutton at hsbc.com]
> Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 12:30 PM
> To: Aikman-Scalese, Anne
> Subject: Request to the SCI - Vote switching
>  
> Dear Anne,
> 
> I am a member of the Business Constituency and currently working with the BC
> Charter Review team.  During our recent discussions, we identified a potential
> issue that may affect GNSO Stakeholder Groups (SGs) and Constituencies (Cs)
> which may warrant the attention of the SCI, which I understand you currently
> chair.
> 
> With the introduction of New gTLDs, an increasing number of organisations now
> meet the criteria of membership within multiple groups, even across the
> contracting and non-contracting parties divide.  The point in question is in
> relation to the ability for a member of multiple SGs and Cs to regularly
> switch their voting rights between these groups in a tactical manner, so as to
> apply votes for elections/decisions where they may have concerns with lack of
> representation within a specific group, at a specific time. Whilst they may
> only vote in one of the SGs or Cs, there is no restriction as to when and how
> frequently they may switch their voting power between these groups.  This
> could be too flexible and potentially allow the system to be exploited.
> 
> I am pleased to say that there is no evidence that this is occurring but as
> new members continue to increase, it seems sensible to consider preventative
> measures be put in place to protect the GNSO for the future.  As an example, a
> multi-member organisation could be obliged to commit  holding it's voting
> rights within one group for a minimum term of 12 months before switching to
> another group.  Of course, this would need to be uniform across all of the SGs
> and Cs, hence, we think it is appropriate to raise this issue with the SCI for
> consideration.
> 
> I would be happy to discuss further and interested to know if you feel this
> would be appropriate and worthwhile for the SCI to assess.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Martin 
> Martin C SUTTON 
> Manager, Group Fraud Risk & Intelligence
> Global Security & Fraud Risk
> Level 8,1 Canada Square,Canary Wharf,London,E14 5AB,United Kingdom
> __________________________________________________________________
> Phone+44 (0)207 991 8074
> Mobile+44 (0)777 4556680
> Emailmartinsutton at hsbc.com <mailto:martinsutton at hsbc.com>
> Websitewww.hsbc.com <http://www.hsbc.com/>
> 
> 
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