ICANN/DNSO

DRAFT Rules of Procedure for the DNSO Names Council, v2 Published: 20 February 2001

DRAFT Rules of Procedure for the DNSO Names Council v2

Note: None of the following are proposals for new procedures. This document consolidates existing decisions relating to internal procedure made by the Names Council since its inception and practices that have been used to implement them. These rules of procedure need formal adoption by the NC to comply with the completion of the probation period relevant to certain rules and minor clarifications in wording.

The NC Chair will be elected by the members of the NC by simple majority vote and will hold office for a period of six months. One renewal, subject to a fresh vote, of six months will be allowed. A retiring Chair will not be eligible for re-election for a period of one year.

The NC Chair will finalise a schedule of all meetings during a calendar year by the last day of January of that year. NC members may request changes to the schedule during the year which may be agreed upon by the Chair in consultation with the NC, subject to the minimum period of notice below.

In compliance with by-law VI-B 2(h), meetings must be scheduled by the NC Chair with at least 14 days notice, except in emergency situations which shall be decided upon by the Intake Committee.

In any given year, the time of the meetings may vary to accommodate the different geographic regions represented by Names Council members. By way of guidance start times corresponding to local times for the Names Council members earlier than 06.00 and later than 23.00 should be avoided where possible.

In compliance with by-law VI-B 2(h), voting will be simple majority vote. To pass a motion must attain a majority of the votes cast. Abstentions count as votes cast. This has the effect of making an abstention count the same as a vote against.

In compliance with by-law VI-B 2(h), a majority of the total number of NC members then in office constitutes a quorum. Proxy votes shall not count toward the presence of a quorum.

Both at physical and telephone meetings the NC Chair will recognise three types of intervention in the following order of priority:

1. A point of order
2. A point of information
3. A normal substantive intervention

At a physical meeting, an NC member may raise a hand or during a teleconference an NC member may speak over the dialogue and say immediately "point of order". The Chair will suspend discussion and hear the point.

Points of information and normal interventions. At a physical meeting, an NC member may raise a hand and wait to be recognised by the Chair and during a teleconference an NC member may speak in an appropriate gap and say immediately "their name to speak". This will be noted by the Chair who will invite the intervention in due course.

To ensure balance, the Chair has the discretion to delay an intervention by a frequent speaker to allow others to speak. By way of guidance for the Chair, a NC member is not expected to speak for more than three minutes at a time and the Chair should solicit the views of other NC members before returning to the same speaker on any one issue. Such discretion should not be exercised for a "point of information". A point of information is for NC members seeking information from the Chair or other NC members about meaning or procedure — it is specifically not intended to provide information.

During in-person meetings, the NC Chair should be located so he/she can see all members. The NC endorses a better seating arrangement for inter-NC communication than the "panel on a platform" favoured to date by host venues.

The Intake Committee (IC) is responsible for proposing the agenda for NC meetings.

The IC should be selected only from members of the Names Council. It should be small and flexible to facilitate meetings and discussion. It should be comprised of an odd number of NC members not greater than five. Members should be rotated from time to time.

Any of the following persons can make proposals for NC agenda items by e-mail to nc-intake@dnso.org :

• members of the Names Council
• the Names Council secretariat
• the ICANN Board

• members of the ICANN Board
• the ICANN officers and staff
• 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 entity 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.

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 appear on the NC agenda being prepared by the IC, 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 15 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. The agenda, once seen by the Chair, will be posted by the Secretariat within one working day of receiving the IC agenda.

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.

3.5 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.

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.

The Intake Committee shall have the sole discretion to deviate from these procedures when externalities dictate.

Only elected Names Council members may cast a proxy vote on behalf of another Names Council member.

In advance. Any Names Council member may designate a Names Council member as his/her proxy by e-mail to the council list (or by telephone to the Names Council Secretariat).

During a meeting. If the Names Council member is able to participate in a Names Council telephone conference but has cause to leave the call the Names Council member may then designate a proxy representative.

The designated Names Council member must confirm willingness to exercise the proxy by confirming acceptance by e-mail to the Council List or by voice during a meeting.

A Names Council member may revoke the proxy designation at any time in advance by sending an e-mail to the Council list or by voice during a meeting.

When a Names Council member ceases to be contactable (defined as either notification of e-mail delivery failure or non-response to notified e-mail or telephone, for three consecutive weeks), the Constituency of that member has the right (subject to the existence of Constituency procedures) to designate one of its other elected constituency Names Council members as interim proxy holder for the Names Council member incommunicado. In such a situation, the Constituency will act promptly to locate the Names Council member incommunicado, and/or to replace the member.

Should the Names Council member (previously incommunicado) notify the Names Council Secretariat either by e-mail or by telephone of new contact details then the interim proxy will be revoked.

In compliance with by-law VI-B 2(h) summaries of NC meetings should be made public within 21 days of an NC meeting.

1. Within seven days of an NC meeting, the Secretariat will forward draft summary to the NC Chair

2. Within 10 days of the meeting, the Chair will approve the draft and request the Secretariat to circulate the draft summary to NC members for comment and approval. If no comment is received within seven days, the minutes will be deemed to have been approved for posting.

3. All comments received from NC members will be incorporated in the summary unless there are objections from other NC members.

4. Where there are objections, the Chair will attempt to resolve the issue (by reference to the audio transcript if any) and secure agreement from the relevant NC members. If agreement is not achieved, the Chair will determine the final version of the minutes and may note areas in which agreement has not been achieved.

5. The Chair will ensure the above procedure is complete and an approved version of the summary is circulated and made public within 21 days of the relevant meeting.

6. In accord with by law III-2(a) the formal approval of the summary will be at the following meeting of the Names Council.

Until such time as the DNSO has internal staff support that is sufficient to provide these services, the Chair, or in the Chair's absence, the ICANN Secretary in conjunction with the AFNIC Project Manager, are requested to procure and, at reasonable cost, compensate, a scribe for each teleconference or other Names Council meeting. The NC Chair and ICANN Secretary are further requested to report periodically to the NC on the costs incurred.

The scribe will prepare minutes of each meeting and the taking and maintenance of an audio recording of each meeting.

If any NC member disputes what he or she has said in the resulting draft minutes, a transcript of the relevant portion of the audio recording shall be prepared and made available to the NC before its formal approval of the minutes.