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Standing Committee on Improvements Implementation (SCI)

Activities Update to the GNSO CouncilICANN-51 Los Angeles Meeting

11 October 2014

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Summary of Current Activities

• Proposed Changes to GNSO Operating Procedures:– Working Group Consensus Levels for Decision Making– Waiver of the 10-Day Motion Rule– Voting Outside of a Meeting

• Status/Next Steps:– Out for Public Comment ending 08 October, reply ending

30 October (if necessary);– Review any comments and revise text (if necessary);– Submit final version of GNSO Operating Procedure

changes to GNSO with motion for approval.

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Annex: Background on the Standing Committee on Improvements

Implementation (SCI)

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• Revised Charter approved 31 October 2013 by the GNSO Council

• Reviews and assesses the effective functioning of the GNSO Procedures and Working Group Guidelines. – On request, for those procedures and guidelines that have been

identified as presenting immediate problems– On a periodic timescale for all procedures and guidelines in order to

identify possible issues and/or improvements (subject to a clear definition by the SCI on which procedures and guidelines should be reviewed)

• Considers requests concerning issues related to the GNSO Council processes and procedures and to Working Group guidelines identified either by the GNSO Council or a group chartered by the GNSO Council as needing discussion.

Background on the SCI

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Working Group Consensus Levels – Background– Raised by the IGO-INGO in its final report:

• Possible limitation in the currently defined Consensus Levels when assigning “Divergence” to recommendations regarding acronym protections.

• Use of “Divergence” did not adequately represent the lack of support for the proposed recommendation when said recommendation was stated in the affirmative, for example “Do you support...?”

• Concern that not adhering to current Working Group Guidelines could introduce risk to the process, because “Consensus Against” is not formally defined.

Current Activities

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Summary of Proposed Changes

• Proposal on Working Group Consensus Levels:– Addition of a footnote in the Working Group Guidelines to

clarify that consensus can mean both consensus for as well as consensus against a particular working group recommendation.

• Waiver of the 10-day Motion Rule:– Addition of a provision regarding circumstances in which

the general 10-day deadline for the submission of motions for voting at a GNSO Council meeting can be waived.

• Voting Outside of a Meeting:– Addition of a provision allowing the GNSO Council to vote

outside a GNSO Council meeting in certain circumstances.

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Thank You

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