[council] Committee on ICANN Evolution and Reform Seeks Public Submissions

[Louis Touton <touton@icann.org>]

To the Names Council:

At the ICANN Board meeting held in Accra on 14 March 2002, the Committee
on ICANN Evolution and Reform was charged with consulting with the
community concerning reform proposals and reporting back with
recommendations to be considered by the Board at its Bucharest meeting
on 28 June 2002.  As part of its work to meet this challenge, today the
Evolution and Reform Committee made the following announcement to the 
community.  The Committee looks forward to working with the Names 
Council in developing a sound approach to meeting the challenges that 
face the entire ICANN community.

Louis Touton
ICANN Secretary

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  Committee on ICANN Evolution and Reform Seeks Public Submissions

The Committee on ICANN Evolution and Reform welcomes public input from
all interested persons or entities on the presently ongoing review of 
ICANN's mission, structure, and processes. The earlier the input, the 
more useful it will be in helping the Committee, so it encourages all 
input as soon as possible. The Committee will of course consider all 
comments received, but the expedited schedule that the Committee is 
required to meet means that earlier comments will inevitably be more 
useful than later ones. Any comments received after 29 April 2002 are 
likely to be significantly less useful than those received by that date.

While the Committee has not reached any conclusion that the proposal put
forth by Stuart Lynn is in whole or in part the most appropriate way to
meet this goal, it believes that proposal can serve as a useful point 
of reference for analysis and discussion. Thus, it would be helpful for 
comments to make reference to that document, and point out areas of 
agreement and disagreement. The Committee would particularly benefit 
from hearing views on:

   (1) What is or should be ICANN's mission? In this regard, please use
the recent staff posting as your starting point, and tell us (a) which
if any of the activities listed there should not be part of ICANN's
mission, (b) whether there are additional activities not listed that
should be part of ICANN's mission, and (c) what mechanisms are
available, once ICANN's mission statement is finalized, to minimize the
risk that ICANN will stray beyond those boundaries.

   (2) Are the issues raised in Stuart Lynn's report a correct
perception of the problems facing ICANN? If not, why not? What are the
real problems?

   (3) Are the specific suggested reforms set forth in that report
appropriate, and likely to be workable and effective? If not, why not?
What are your ideas for workable and effective alternatives?

   (4) Assuming you believe that structural and procedural reforms are
necessary to ensure that ICANN carries out its mission, what transition
mechanisms or approaches should be used to migrate from the status quo
to the future environment? Over what time period should this migration
take place? 

In addition to receiving and reviewing public input, the Committee plans
to engage in an intense effort to gather all relevant information
(including public comments past and future), consider all options that
are consistent with ICANN accomplishing its mission and remaining true
to its core values, reach out to those in the ICANN community that it
believes can be helpful, and make recommendations to the ICANN Board on
a schedule that will allow the Board to post whatever it sees fit no
later than 31 May 2002.

Comments can be forwarded to the Committee in three different ways:

   1. Substantive submissions can be made to reform-comments@icann.org.
All submissions made will be reviewed, sorted by subject, indexed, and
posted on the ICANN forum web site. This mechanism is intended to
promote thoughtful community discussion of the issues involved in the
ICANN reform process.

   2. The Committee has also established an e-mail address
(reform@icann.org) which can be used for direct communications to the
Committee, including both inquiries and comments regarding the
Committee's report and proposals for the Committee's consideration.
Submissions to this address will not be routinely posted.

   3. Finally, the existing web-based forum on President Lynn's proposal
will remain available to all who wish to use it. This forum is
automatically updated and will not be sorted in any way.

The Committee encourages all interested parties to offer their views on
the important and complicated subject of ICANN evolution and reform. It
will appreciate all the help it can get in formulating recommendations.