[CCWG-Accountability] how Board members are appointed

[Bruce Tonkin]

Hello Kavouss,

Just providing some answers to questions posed over the last week or so.


>>   Which community and Under Which Legal representation  and using Which criteria designate the Board Members ?

From the bylaws, the Board is appointed by:

a. Eight voting members selected by the Nominating Committee established by Article VII of these Bylaws. These seats on the Board of Directors are referred to in these Bylaws as Seats 1 through 8.

     The voting members of the Nominating Committee itself comprises of people appointed as follows:

	Five voting delegates selected by the At-Large Advisory Committee

	One delegate from the Registries Stakeholder Group;

	One delegate from the Registrars Stakeholder Group;

	Two delegates from the Business Constituency, one representing small business users and one representing large business users;

	One delegate from the Internet Service Providers Constituency;

	One delegate from the Intellectual Property Constituency; and

	One delegate from consumer and civil society groups, selected by the Non-Commercial Users Constituency.

	One voting delegate each selected by the ccNSO, ASO and IETF


b. Two voting members selected by the Address Supporting Organization 

c. Two voting members selected by the Country-Code Names Supporting Organization 

d. Two voting members selected by the Generic Names Supporting Organization 

e. One voting member selected by the At-Large Community 

f. The President ex officio, who shall be a voting member.



Ultimately the legitimacy of this selection model comes down to the level of membership in the underlying groups.   For example business users from around the world can join the business constituency.   They in turn can particulate in elections to appoint people to the GNSO Council and the nominating committee, which in turn appoint ICANN directors.      The limitation of course is that only a small percentage of the possible business users in the world are sufficiently interested in domain names and IP addresses to join the business constituency, and probably only a percentage of the members actually vote in elections to appoint people to the GNSO Council or Nominating Committee.     

Groups that have a higher interest in ICANN (e.g. gTLD registrar or gTLD registry) tend to have a higher level of participating in the ICANN Stakeholder Groups and participate in voting.


>>  using Which criteria

The general criteria for selection Board members is:

ICANN Directors shall be:

1. Accomplished persons of integrity, objectivity, and intelligence, with reputations for sound judgment and open minds, and a demonstrated capacity for thoughtful group decision-making;

2. Persons with an understanding of ICANN's mission and the potential impact of ICANN decisions on the global Internet community, and committed to the success of ICANN;

3. Persons who will produce the broadest cultural and geographic diversity on the Board consistent with meeting the other criteria set forth in this Section;

4. Persons who, in the aggregate, have personal familiarity with the operation of gTLD registries and registrars; with ccTLD registries; with IP address registries; with Internet technical standards and protocols; with policy-development procedures, legal traditions, and the public interest; and with the broad range of business, individual, academic, and non-commercial users of the Internet; and

5. Persons who are able to work and communicate in written and spoken English.

The additional criteria is:

1. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, no official of a national government or a multinational entity established by treaty or other agreement between national governments may serve as a Director. As used herein, the term "official" means a person (i) who holds an elective governmental office or (ii) who is employed by such government or multinational entity and whose primary function with such government or entity is to develop or influence governmental or public policies.

2. No person who serves in any capacity (including as a liaison) on any Supporting Organization Council shall simultaneously serve as a Director or liaison to the Board. If such a person accepts a nomination to be considered for selection by the Supporting Organization Council or the At-Large Community to be a Director, the person shall not, following such nomination, participate in any discussion of, or vote by, the Supporting Organization Council or the committee designated by the At-Large Community relating to the selection of Directors by the Council or Community, until the Council or committee(s) designated by the At-Large Community has selected the full complement of Directors it is responsible for selecting. In the event that a person serving in any capacity on a Supporting Organization Council accepts a nomination to be considered for selection as a Director, the constituency group or other group or entity that selected the person may select a replacement for purposes of the Council's selection process. In the event that a person serving in any capacity on the At-Large Advisory Committee accepts a nomination to be considered for selection by the At-Large Community as a Director, the Regional At-Large Organization or other group or entity that selected the person may select a replacement for purposes of the Community's selection process.

3. Persons serving in any capacity on the Nominating Committee shall be ineligible for selection to positions on the Board as provided by Article VII, Section 8.


>>  Do you believe that the current designation fully respecting  the notion of inclusiveness and full democracy?

It is democratic in the sense that there is a mechanism for all parties that are interested in ICANN's mission to join a group that  aligns with their interests.   However exactly how to accomplish this is probably not obvious due to the complex array of structures that make up the ICANN community.   Once joining a group they can participate in elections of officials which in turn participate in appointing ICANN Board members.

See:  https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/beginners-guides-2012-03-06-en for the current beginner's guides for how to participate in ICANN.

As mentioned earlier,  the limitation is in the level of participation of members in the underlying bodies, and the level of geographic diversity of members.    Over the last few years ICANN has sought to broaden participation through the Fellowship program:    https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/fellowships-2012-02-25-en



Regards,
Bruce Tonkin