[registrars] Constituency Input Required

[Ross Rader]

Greetings all,

The GNSO Council has embarked upon a policy development process 
concerning new gTLDs. As part of this process, the constituency is 
required to put forward a representative to solicit the views of the 
constituency and draft a position paper on behalf of the constituency in 
accordance with the standard policy development process:

ICANN bylaws section 8: "Procedure if No Task Force is Formed
http://www.icann.org/general/archive-bylaws/bylaws-08apr05.htm#AnnexA

a. If the Council decides not to convene a task force, the Council will
request that, within ten (10) calendar days thereafter, each
constituency appoint a representative to solicit the constituency's
views on the issue. Each such representative shall be asked to submit a
Constituency Statement to the Staff Manager within thirty-five (35)
calendar days after initiation of the PDP.


In order to facilitate this, your council members recommend the 
following process;


(a) Select a constituency representative.

(b) Develop a simple questionnaire based on the New gTLD Task Force 
terms of reference to send to all members
- e.g do you think there should be more TLDs, if so why?
- how do you think names should be allocated?
- should single letter domains be allowed?
- TOR can be found here: 
http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-06dec05.htm

(c) Arrange for a registrars constituency teleconference
- maybe do two at different times to accommodate more registrars, or 
simply choose 19:00 UTC as used for Council calls at the moment.
- ask for position papers in advance, and allow each person that has 
submitted a position paper to present it during the teleconference
- ask for the views of each person on the teleconference
- get each teleconference transcribed for the record (use constituency
funds to pay for this), it will be important that we are on the public 
record as having consulted widely.

(d) Write a draft position statement

(e) Have a follow up teleconference to discuss the position statement,
then produce a final position statement

(f) Vote on the constituency statement

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask Bruce, Tom or I.

-ross