[registrars] Proposed process to fill a casual vacancy as a registrars representative on the GNSO Council

["Bruce Tonkin" <Bruce.Tonkin@melbourneit.com.au>]

Hello All,

Following the resignation of Philipp Grabensee it is important that will fill the vacancy as soon possible.

With reference to the transition article of the ICANN bylaws:
http://www.icann.org/general/bylaws.htm#XX
Article XX, Section 5, clause 6:
"The terms of the GNSO Council members described in paragraph 5 of this Section 5 shall last for the remainder of their terms under the Old Bylaws, except that the terms of all of those GNSO Council members shall end at the conclusion of the ICANN annual meeting in 2003. Any vacancy occurring before that time in a position on the GNSO Council described in paragraph 5 of this Section 5 shall be filled by the constituency that the vacant position represents for the remainder of the term lasting until the conclusion of the ICANN annual meeting in 2003. In selecting three persons to serve on the GNSO Council, the initial Nominating Committee shall designate one to serve a term until the conclusion of the ICANN annual meeting in 2004 and the other two to serve terms until the conclusion of the ICANN annual meeting in 2005."



The current term of the GNSO Council reps (Ken Stubbs, Bruce Tonkin, Philipp Grabensee) extends until the annual AGM of ICANN - this is likely to be around the time of the ICANN meeting in Carthage, Tunisia 27-31 October 2003.

Thus we need to elect a replacement for Philipp Grabensee to take up the vacant GNSO Council seat immediately until the end of the current term -ie from March 03 to October 03.

From the Registrars constituency by-laws (http://www.icann-registrars.org/pdfs/bylaws1.pdf)
Each of the three representatives must be from a separate geographic region.
(the geographic regions are defined in http://www.icann.org/general/bylaws.htm#VI-5 Article VI, section 5)

From the ICANN by-laws (http://www.icann.org/general/bylaws.htm#X)
Article X, section 3, clause 5:
"No more than one officer, director or employee of any particular corporation or other organization (including its subsidiaries and affiliates) shall serve on the GNSO Council at any given time."

With respect to myself (Bruce Tonkin)
- I am an Australian citizen, and thus part of the Australia/Asia/Pacific geographic region
- I am an employee of Melbourne IT

With respect to Ken Stubbs 
(from http://www.icann-registrars.org/docs/registry_of_interests.htm )
- he is from the North America geographic region
- he is Vice President of Domain Names International - which is a member of CORE
- he is a Director of Afilias
(Ken please update this if necessary)

Thus the candidate must not be a officer, director or employee of the organisations above, and must be from one of the following regions:

Europe
Latin America/Caribbean Islands
Africa

I will also add that a candidate should be prepared to dial-in to monthly Council teleconferences and attend the physical ICANN meetings.  Thus a fair level of corporate support is usually required.  A strong command of verbal English is required to be effective in council meetings.  The candidate will also need to be good in working towards consensus in a council environment that includes representatives from business users of domains, individual users of domains, non-profit organisation users of domains, intellectual property community, internet service provider community, and registry operators.  The objective is to ensure the best result for the ICANN community as a whole, whilst ensuring that the concerns of the registrar community are adequately addressed.


I propose the following process:
- 12 day nomination period 
(starting Wed 26 Feb 2002 concluding 2400 hours GMT time 9 March 03)
- 7 day election period 
(starting Mon 10 March 2003 concluding 2400 hours GMT time 17 March 03)
- new candidate appointed to the GNSO Council on 18 March 2003

I propose the following rules for the process:
- each candidate must submit a conflict of interest statement to the registrars list before they will be accepted as a candidate in the election
- the voting will be done using the voting software ONLY
- those eligible to vote, shall be those that are paid up members and are registered in the voting system 5 days prior to the start of the election (ie by 5 March 2003)


Given that the GNSO Council will be required to elect a person to fill seat 14 of the ICANN Board via email vote prior to the end of the GSNO Council email voting period (20 March 03), I also suggest that we allow registrars to register their preference for the person to fill the ICANN Board seat at the same time.  The Candidates for the ICANN Board seat will be known by 10 March 2003.  This will provide some "guidance" for the GNSO Council members (both existing and new).  Note under the registrar bylaws it states that "As far as it is practical, council representatives shall consult all relevant matters and decisions with the Registrar Constituency".

If you have any suggested changes to the process above, please submit to the registrars list for discussion.  

It would also be helpful if those that support the process above, signify their support to the list.

In the absence of any strong objection, the election should start on 
Monday 10 March 2003.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin