[council] Procedures for working groups and chairing working groups

[Bruce Tonkin]

Hello All,

With respect to the GNSO IDN working group, questions are starting to
arise about how the chair should be selected, membership, and rules of
procedures.

The ICANN Bylaws have various rules relating to formal GNSO task forces.

See: http://www.icann.org/general/bylaws.htm#AnnexA 

We are currently operating under the old NamesCouncil rules and
procedures for matters not otherwise covered in the bylaws.

From:  http://www.gnso.icann.org/council/names-proceduresv7.shtml 

There is a section on Working Groups.  Generally anyone member of the
GNSO can join a working group.
There is a concept of a Supervisory Chair and a Working Group chair.
The Working Group chair is elected from within the Working group.  I
assume the Supervisory Chair might be appointed by the Council.  I guess
I have been acting as the default Supervisory Chair as Chair of the
Council, until the Council chooses otherwise.

Given the recent review of the GNSO - it is probably worth revisiting
the old rules and procedures, as there are probably useful concepts here
that did not find their way into the bylaws.

See below.

Comments welcome.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin





10. Procedures for working groups

10.1 Definition of working group

A working group is a group established by the Names Council (NC) of the
Domain Name Supporting Organisation (DNSO) of the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at its own initiative or by way
of considering a petition from the General Assembly, and charged with a
specific task.

10.2 Objective

The objective of a Working Group is to: 

1. formulate positions on policies, 
2. facilitate the development of consensus support for policies 
3. produce a report to the NC highlighting these positions and level of
support. 

10.3 Membership

Working Groups are open to all DNSO participants defined as follows: -
members of the Names Council - the Names Council secretariat - members
of the ICANN Board - the ICANN officers and staff - the GA Chair and
Co-Chair - members of the General Assembly (GA) defined as subscribers
to the ga at dnso.org, announce at dnso.org or the GA voting register. 

Persons new to the ICANN process who wish to participate in a working
group will be asked to join the ga-announce list to qualify for
membership.

Working Group membership is open throughout the life of the Working
Group.

10.4 Criteria

Before establishing a working group the Names Council will consider the
following criteria: a) whether the issue is relevant to the mission of
the DNSO b) the need for a consensus policy c) whether the issue
overlaps with that of an existing Working Group d) whether there is
sufficient interest within the DNSO in the issue and enough people
willing to expend the effort to produce the desired result e) whether
there is enough expertise within the DNSO on the issue.

10.5 Terms of reference

The Names Council will nominate an individual or establish a small
interim committee to draft terms of reference (a charter) which will at
minimum specify:

- a narrow and achievable objective 
- a timeframe for achieving the objective 
- a set of interim objectives by which to measure progress 
- a member of the Names Council who will act as a Supervisory Chair 
- a short descriptive name for the Working Group 

The draft terms will be posted to the NC list and the DNSO ga-announce
mailing list as a public notice that the formation of the Working Group
is being considered. After a review period lasting at least a week the
NC, after reviewing comments, will approve the original or modified
terms. Following this the DNSO secretariat will establish:

- a mailing list or such other electronic forum 
- a procedure for subscribing and un-subscribing to the Working Group 
- a dedicated web page on the DNSO web site (www.dnso.org) 
- an accessible mailing list archive 

10.6 Supervisory Chair and WG Chair

The Supervisory Chair has five key functions:

1. to be responsible for the initial establishment of the WG 
2.to act as returning officer for holding elections for a WG chair.
These elections should take place early but not too early once WG
participants have got to know one another. Specifically, a vote to
choose such a person from early group participants whose chairing
abilities may be unknown should be avoided. The Supervisory Chair may
themselves stand for election in which case another NC member will
supervise the election 
3. to take on all the responsibilities of the Chair especially including
the start of substantive discussion, until the election is complete 
4. to provide frequent liaison with the Names Council 
5. to ensure the WG Chair is fulfilling his/her responsibilities 


The WG Chair's key functions are:

1. to be responsible for fulfilling the terms of reference in the time
specified, 
2. to be responsible for working group discipline, focus and
achievements, 
3. to prepare and chair face-to-face and on-line sessions, 
4. to ensure that the Working Group operates in an open and fair manner,

5. to ensure that discussions are relevant (the Chair should propose a
set of topics for e-mail subject headers), 
6. to intervene to stop off-topic communication, 
7. to summarise outcomes of each issue, 
8. to achieve interim and final objectives in conformance with the terms
of reference. 
And for face to face meetings the WG Chair is required:

9. to ensure an attendance list is made, 
10. to publish a short report on the session within 10 days. 

The WG Chair and the Supervisory Chair report to the Names Council.

10.7 Removal of the Supervisory Chair or Working Group Chair

In the event that the WG Chair:

acts contrary to these rules and procedures or beyond the scope set
forth in the Working Group's terms of reference, or 
fails to achieve interim results 
then the Supervisory Chair after consultation with the Names Council,
upon the reasonable request of one or more Working Group members, shall
have the authority to remove and hold elections for another WG Chair.

In the event that the Supervisory Chair:

acts contrary to these rules and procedures or beyond the scope set
forth in the Working Group's terms of reference, or 
fails to fulfil the responsibilities of a Supervisory Chair, as set
forth above, 
then the Names Council shall have the authority to remove and appoint
another Supervisory Chair.