[council] RAA amendment process

[Alan Greenberg]

I have put off raising this issue until I had a chance to re-listen 
to the last Council meeting MP3, which I have now done.

I have to admit that I was quite astounded when we were told that if 
the GNSO approved, this set of amendments would take effect over a 
five year period as contracts were renewed (with a possibility that 
some registrars could volunteer to amend their contract prior to expiration).

The rationale given was that this is because the form of the contract 
was being changed, and that some of the new terms were outside of 
those eligible for consensus policy (that is, outside of the 
proverbial picket fence). I was one of the people who previously 
questioned how this new package could be considered a "consensus 
policy" since some terms were arguably outside of the eligible areas, 
so the rationale does make some sense.

However, I find it hard to accept that this was the first time that 
this has been mentioned (in any of the three briefings that I have 
attended). In fact, during previous discussions, the ALTERNATIVE to 
approving this amendment package was to either renegotiate with 
registrars one-by-one (those who were amenable, that is), or to 
implement the changes as contracts expired. Since those options were 
clearly less desirable, the GNSO route was being pursued.

Am I the only one who feels that the ground-rules were changed at the 
last moment?

Alan