Hi, I've been reminded that I didn't pass along a bit of good news to the members list. This concerns the allocation of the three noncomm appointees (NCAs), where they'll sit in the new council. Anyone interested in the full and somewhat tortured story on this can have a look at the relevant threads in the council list archives, but the very abbreviated version is this. Avri facilitated a discussion among the NCAs to see where they'd each like to be. Olga Cavalli (Argentina, academic, past advisor to the government in the GAC) was willing to take on any of the three positions (Contracted Parties House, Non-contracted Parties House, or Independent, non-voting); Andrei Kolesnikov (Russia, .ru's director) was willing to be in either of the two houses, but in any event wanted to be able to vote; and Terry Davis (US? Boeing Corp.) only wanted to be in Non-contracted Parties House. Hence, they suggested that Terry take the Non-contracted slot, Andrei take the Contracted, and Olga take the Non-voting. This would have meant a) CSG would have an additional councilor, asymmetric with NCSG in the Non-contracted House; and b) Olga would have been in the Contracted House, meaning that all three candidates to replace Avri as Chair---Chuck, Stéphane, and Olga (who we nominated)---would have been from contracted. As Olga has been pretty neutral on inter-SG politics (and is a friend to many of us in civil society) having her as the additional NC counselor was preferable. Under a Sept. motion, council members were to indicate whether they agreed to this allocation. If there was no consensus in council by October 7, Avri would do a random selection using the power ball lottery. Due to various back channel considerations, by the deadline only the CSG had expressed support for the NCA's suggestion, so Avri ran the lottery as agreed, and it resulted in Olga being assigned to the non-contracted, Terry to the contracted, and Andrei as the newbie to the non-voting. Long story short, the three industry stakeholder groups balked at this outcome, complained that Avri shouldn't have run the lottery when agreed, and pushed hard for council to set aside the result and put Terry in the NC slot. NCSG alone among SGs argued on procedural grounds that it is not fair or good for the GNSO to agree a process and then toss it aside just because someone doesn't like the outcome, and hence that the lottery result should stand. Consternation with us ensued, with some industry folks questioning whether the decision really had to be consensual and whether NCSG couldn't just be ignored. But Avri concurred that council should follow its own rules, and in the end the other SGs backed off and the NCAs said they're fine with whatever the council decides. So, the Non-contracted Parties House will have another non-industry councilor, one with whom we (and I believe, CSG) can work well, and there's a Non-contracted candidate for chair, which is better than having only people from one house. FYI, Bill *********************************************************** William J. Drake Senior Associate Centre for International Governance Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Geneva, Switzerland [log in to unmask] www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html ***********************************************************