[council] Conflicts of Interest

[Ross Rader]

Bruce Tonkin wrote:

> I see this being a voluntary initiative as there doesn't seem to be any
> explicit bylaw requirements.

Bruce -

I think this is an excellent proposal. As you know, the registrar 
constituency has had similar practices embodied in its bylaws for a 
number of years.

However, simply because the bylaws is silent on a specific set of 
behaviors, doesn't mean that we can't officially adopt these behaviors 
through other means.

I also believe that it is time for the Council of the GNSO to adopt some 
explicit conflict of interest management processes - but I believe they 
should be mandatory. At first, we should proceed cautiously with these. 
A light-weight approach would seem to be most prudent. Over time, we 
could improve and expand upon the approach in ways that make it more 
useful for our purposes.

My preference would not be to create a "design committee" to come up 
with a comprehensive proposal at this time. As a first step, I think 
your proposal makes eminent sense, and I would like to discuss whether 
or not the rest of the council would be willing to undertake a vote to 
make these requirements mandatory. Is this something that we could add 
to the agenda of our next meeting?

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

-ross