Names Council Intake Committee
Report on the functioning of the Intake Committee August
2000
version 3
Members of the Names Council (NC) intake committee (IC):
Philip Sheppard – chair
Caroline Chicoine
Paul Kane
Y J Park
Michael Schneider.
In the formulation of this report there have been
contributions from Chuck Gomes and Roberto Gaetano.
Destination: this report is intended for discussion and
adoption at the NC meeting 21 September 2000.
Implementation: the recommendations in this report are
intended for implementation immediately after the NC meeting 21 September
2000 and will thus be in place for the NC meeting 19 October 2000.
Objectives of the IC committee
Proposing the agenda for NC meetings (see below)
Proposing an efficient means of running NC meetings (see separate
report)
Composition of the Intake Committee
The IC should be selected only from members of the Names
Council. It should be small and flexible to facilitate meetings and
discussion.
Explicitly the IC should not necessarily comprise
representatives from each NC constituency for the following reasons:
- A situation where one constituency's important issue is proposed to
the intake committee who reject it for no good reason and then that
constituency says nothing more is highly unlikely. The ignored party would
raise a point of order at the start of the NC meeting or lobby the NC
chairman or post to the NC list.
- The danger of a "representative" intake committee is that it becomes a
forum for substantive discussion and removes power from the NC. The key
debating ground becomes the intake committee not the NC.
- The question of widening the membership of the IC to positions such as
chair of the GA should be addressed by the NC review committee.
Rules for proposing an agenda for NC
meetings
An IC e-mail address shall be created (Intake suggestions)
whereby any of the following persons can make proposals for NC agenda
items:
- members of the Names Council
- the Names Council secretariat
- members of the ICANN Board
- the ICANN secretariat
- the GA chair
- members of the General Assembly (GA) defined as subscribers to the
ga@dnso.org, announce@dnso.org or the GA
voting register.
subscribers to an active DNSO ad hoc working group
There will be a limit of one posting per day and the IC
shall have sole discretion to deal with abusive activity. Intake suggestion
e-mails for any meeting will be publicly archived after the end of the
meeting in question.
Agenda preparation
The IC shall be responsible for:
- drafting and prioritising NC agendas
- combining agenda items with a common theme
- delaying or rejecting proposed items or passing them onto more
appropriate bodies if they are not relevant NC issues.
In order for a topic to be discussed at a Names Council
meeting, it must be presented to the IC no later than 21 days before the
meeting.
The IC shall propose a guillotine (time limit) for each
agenda item. IC members are encouraged to remind the chair of these limits
during a meeting if necessary.
The IC shall send the agenda for a meeting no later than 14
days before the meeting to the NC secretariat and NC chair. The agenda may
be changed at the discretion of the NC chair, who will make reference to the
change in the new agenda. A final agenda will be posted by the Secretariat
within one working day of receiving the IC agenda. The agenda will contain a
hyperlink to the e-mail archive relevant to that meeting.
Where there is disagreement within the IC issues will be
settled by a simple majority vote or referred to the NC at the discretion of
the IC chair.
When there are items which have been rejected for agenda
inclusion by the IC, NC members shall have 7 days to submit an objection
which will count as a vote against the IC rejection. Non-votes will be
deemed an acceptance of the IC’s decision, and a majority of the votes shall
rule.
Last minute. In case of issues arising subsequent to
the above timetable, NC members will be able to propose items for any other
business at the start of an NC meeting. Such items will be accepted for
discussion that day or deferred to the IC at the discretion of the NC chair.
Reports and declarations
No later than 7 days before the NC meeting, all reports or
proposed declarations relating to forthcoming agenda items must be
distributed to the NC.
Exceptions
The Intake Committee shall have the sole discretion to
deviate from these procedures when externalities dictate.
Trial period and Berkman Center
proposals
The IC proposes the above recommendations, which are
intentionally simple and flexible, be trialled for 3 months and then
adopted. These recommendations have their origin in the detailed and
prescriptive proposals made by the US-based Berkman Center for Internet and
Society, for which diligence the NC offers its appreciation. Bearing in mind
the more flexible modus operandi of the NC in the time since the Berkman
proposals were made, the IC does not propose at this time that they are
adopted as currently drafted.
See:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/dnso/ncprocedure/
Should there be deficiencies apparent during the period of
trial then the IC will return to the detailed suggestions made by the
Berkman Center to see which procedures may assist in overcoming such
deficiencies. Always an objective will be the pragmatic, flexible, open, and
efficient operation of the Names
Council.