Dear NCSG members,

The GNSO nominates two members for the ICANN Board of Directors.
Seat 13 is nominated by the Contracted Parties House, and Seat
14 is nominated by the Non-Contracted Parties House.

Earlier this year the Non-Contracted Parties House started its 
discussions regarding nominations for the Board Seat 14. This position 
is currently held by Matthew Shears and, for the past years, the 
nomination process was composed by conversations between both NCSG and 
the CSG about possible candidates, as well as a later consensus 
agreement on the final name.

The deadline for the nomination was March 29, but so far the NCPH hasn’t 
nominated anyone. The delay in the nomination causes issues of planning 
and continuity for the Board and makes it hard for NomCom to meet the 
regional diversity requirements for their appointees to the Board. The 
current delay is not yet a disaster from an operational point of view, 
as the change of seat holders only becomes effective at the AGM 
(ICANN78), and in case the two stakeholder groups in NCPH fail to reach 
consensus and no-one is nominated by then, the current seat holder will 
stay in position until a successor is appointed.

The current process for Board Seat 14 nomination, as described in Annex 
7 of the GNSO Operating Procedures, was agreed to by both NCSG and CSG 
and approved by the Board in 2018. The agreement makes a very conscious 
choice of a process that aims at finding a mutually agreeable candidate. 
This approach is in line with the ICANN consensus-oriented 
multistakeholder ethos, as it fosters compromise, constant conversation 
and healthy collaboration between both NCPH  houses, and was chosen 
instead of a simpler mechanism based on CSG and NCSG taking turns 
electing the nominee that could lead to a more polarized and unstable 
result.

The downside of this process is that it relies on good faith and 
willingness to find a solution by all parties, and it often takes a 
significant amount of time to arrive at a consensus. The spirit of 
cooperation within the Non-Contracted Party House of the GNSO has 
suffered from the lack of spaces to allow for face-to-face interaction 
between our members and leadership teams, as well as the COVID-19 
pandemic and fully virtual meetings that caused smaller levels of 
interaction.

In January 2023, after thoughtful consideration about possible nominees, 
our SG informed the CSG that we would like Matthew to continue for one 
more term. We were informed the CSG was assessing  prospective 
candidates, and one of them would be Matthew. In February, we were told 
that the CSG had rejected Matthew, and picked two other candidates. One 
of the two then had to withdraw due to the Bylaws stating that both 
GNSO-appointed Board members can’t be from the same geographical region, 
ruling out candidates from North America.

Our team interviewed the remaining CSG candidate, but after assessing 
his CV and answers during the interview we found him not suitable. 
Following the Annex 7 process, at the end of March we proposed an 
alternative candidate, Rafik Dammak, but so far the CSG has not been in 
contact with Rafik in order to set up an interview or ask any questions. 
It appears the CSG would prefer to change the nomination procedures so 
that instead of agreeing to a compromise candidate, the CSG and NCSG 
would take turns nominating the Board member every 3 to 9 years 
(depending on how many terms the Board seat nominee gets). The NCSG 
leadership disagrees with the need for changing the rules, and feel that 
discussing changing the rules before looking at the overall issues of 
cooperation in the NCPH is putting the cart before the horse.  NCSG 
recognizes that solving the Board 14 seat is an urgent matter and we 
trust that the agreed upon process will be followed.

The NCSG leadership believes we have fully followed both the letter and 
the spirit of the process, and in order to find a solution, we have 
agreed to a mediation process headed by ICANN Conflict Resolution 
Specialist Melissa Peters Allgood (and we are very thankful for her 
helpful assistance and expertise), but unfortunately the CSG and the 
NCSG have failed to agree on the scope and parameters of the mediation.

We are hoping to have a meeting with the CSG leadership at ICANN77 to 
discuss improving the working relationship within the NCPH, but we also 
feel nominating the candidate for Seat 14 is the first priority. We are 
sure our counterparts in the CSG leadership feel the same, and that we 
will all do our utmost to jointly find a solution by following the 
spirit and letter of the Annex 7 of the GNSO Operating Procedures.

	Julf