[council] Fwd: GNSO Closed Meeting

Fri Sep 18 06:17:45 UTC 2009

I can't see how spending time working on and fostering better relations is wasted.

I would have thought it might have, indeed, saved time with decision making and with discussions if we had a better understanding between each other.

No matter - let's focus on our "Community time" on Saturday and Sunday. I certainly wouldn't want to offend them. I will send an email shortly regarding my thoughts on the "HUGE amount of policy topics and discussions that need to take place on Saturday and Sunday".

The Registrars will be at the bar on Saturday night and will happily buy any other Council members a drink and discuss any issues they have with us. We will do it in a closed area and you will be patted down for listening or recording devices. You must sign a Confidentiality Agreement and you will be supplied with tissues should we bring you to tears with our "gripes" (or to wipe away tears of laughter). We will also have our Legal Counsel on hand should you with to litigate.

Looking forward to Seoul.

Adrian Kinderis

From: owner-council at gnso.icann.org [mailto:owner-council at gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Avri Doria
Sent: Friday, 18 September 2009 2:54 AM
To: Council GNSO
Subject: [council] Fwd: GNSO Closed Meeting

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Neuman, Jeff" <Jeff.Neuman at neustar.us<mailto:Jeff.Neuman at neustar.us>>
Date: 17 September 2009 17:31:03 GMT+02:00
Subject: GNSO Closed Meeting

Chuck, Adrian, Avri, Mary, Stephane & Kristina

I cannot post on the Council list, but would appreciate this getting forwarded.

I strongly object to any closed formal meetings of the Council during the weekend preceding the ICANN meeting for a gripe session or frankly for any reason.  I have attended each of the pre-meetings of the ICANN meetings for the past I am not sure how many meetings despite not being on the Council.  I am technically an officer of a constituency, but never attend those meetings in that capacity and would still object even if I were included.

I participate in these meetings because I truly believe it is where a lot of the real discussion takes place.  The formal GNSO Council meetings on the Wednesday are more show than discussion.  Maybe it is because there has been so much discussion prior to the Wednesday meeting that everyone has formulated their opinions, or maybe Councilors are not comfortable having the discussions up on the stage, who knows.  The reason is not so important.

But there is a HUGE amount of policy topics and discussions that need to take place on Saturday and Sunday.  Its hard enough to find time to schedule working group meetings during those days (where many Councilors participate).  To take up this precious time to do a closed gripe session is not only bad for the reasons stated by Avri and others, but may also disrespectful to other members of the GNSO Community that do come early to the meetings to work on policy.

If you want to have dinner (after the end of the formal day "on your own time"), I have no objection to that.  That may be a good idea.  But I ask that we not use valuable policy development time for this.  After all, its not really GNSO Council Time, but technically, GNSO Community time.

There is just too much to do.

Thanks.

Jeffrey J. Neuman
Neustar, Inc. / Vice President, Law & Policy
46000 Center Oak Plaza Sterling, VA 20166
Office: +1.571.434.5772  Mobile: +1.202.549.5079  Fax: +1.703.738.7965 / jeff.neuman at neustar.biz<mailto:jeff.neuman at neustar.biz>  / www.neustar.biz<http://www.neustar.biz/>
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