[wg-b] Voting Begins Today - Please Read

["Michael D. Palage" <mpalage@infonetworks.com>]

I have some good news and some bad news.

Bad news first. The votebot worked well during the ICANN board elections.
However, as a result of some customization made to the software in
connection with these elections, it is not currently working in connection
with the balloting for Working Group B that was suppose to start on Monday.
The person best qualified to resolve this problem has left for a week
vacation. Because the group can no longer wait for these technological
glitches to be fixed voting must begin the old fashion way.

Good News: Formal voting will begin TODAY and will end Monday at Midnight
EST. The formal ballot will be sent to the list immediately after this
Voting Announcement. One modification/enhancement to the voting process will
be the ability of the voter to provide a "succinct"  (not more than 1 or 2
paragraphs) comment to Issue #3. In preparing the preliminary report to the
Names Counsel in connection with the results of this first vote and a
summary of the discussions to date, I would like to include some comments
provided by the participants in connection with Issue #3. Moreover, as a
result of this delayed ballot I have added a new option to Issue #3. New
Option D: Both B & C. New Option E: I abstain.  This new option will not
impact the consensus building effort on Issue #3 but will better enable me
to report to the Names Counsel the opposition viewpoint against the
deployment of mechanisms in connection with famous trademarks and the
operation of the DNS.

I would like to outline some rules of professional conduct to be followed in
connection with this first formal voting procedure:
First, the ballots can be sent directly to myself or publicly to the list.
To prevent against voter fraud and/or human error, the final results of this
first formal vote will be made public on Tuesday and will not be made final
until after individuals have had the ability to review the results. Second,
with regards to the "succinct" comments provided in connection with Issue
#3. Voters shall refrain from personal attacks against other participants.
Comments that fail to comply with this criteria will be noted and redacted
from the final report. Third, for those ballots that are submitted publicly
to the list, I ask that participants refrain from directly responding to the
ballot posts because it will make my job of manually counting the ballots
more difficult. Therefore, if someone feels strongly about the comments
provided by a participant they are encouraged to submit a new posting to the
list using a different subject header.

I believe that the participants on this list to date have acted in a
professional manner and that these rules should not be a problem. Thanks for
your continued participation.

MIKE