As many of you are aware, the Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) is currently dealing with a very delicate situation concerning the membership eligibility of a member of it's Executive Committee. While offering no opinion at this time on the substance or procedural validity of the ongoing situation at the NCUC, I do want to thank the NCUC Executive Committee for directing our attention to the issue of membership criteria not only of the NCUC but also of the NCSG.

Preferring to look forward rather than backwards, I believe the NCSG EC has identified a potential problem regarding the NCSG's membership criteria that we need to fix immediately. Failure to do so could, in the worst case scenario, result in the NCSG being captured by the special interest groups we traditionally have opposed and combatted in ICANN.

I hereby propose an amendment to the NCSG Charter that will ensure that applicants and members of the NCSG are truly individuals and institutions dedicated to the advancement of noncommercial interests in ICANN.

The issue at hand concerns membership criteria applicable to individual members and applicants of and to the Noncommercial Users Stakeholder Group (NCSG). Although this issue pertains to membership requirements both of the NCSG and NCUC my proposal herewith applies only to the NCSG. As the Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns Constituency (NPOC) admits only institutional members it does not have the same challenges the NCUC and the NCSG face in this regard. I have been informed that the NCUC EC is currently revising their Bylaws and trust that this membership criteria problem will be addressed in their internal reforms.

Individual persons who agree to advocate for a noncommercial public-interest position within the Stakeholder group and who fall within one of the following three categories are eligible to join as an “Individual Member”:

2. An Individual Internet user who is primarily concerned with the noncommercial public-interest aspects of domain name policy, and is not represented in ICANN through membership in another Supporting Organization or GNSO Stakeholder Group; or

3. An Individual who is employed by or a member of a non-member noncommercial organization (universities, colleges, large NGOs) can join NCSG in his or her individual capacity if their organization has not already joined the NCSG. The Executive Committee shall, at its discretion, determine limits to the total number of Individual members who can join from any single organization (provided the limit shall apply to all Organizations, of the same size category, equally).

An individual who is a member of or employee of a noncommercial organization, which is itself a member of the NCSG, may apply for, or retain membership, in the NCSG only under the first criteria for individual membership, i.e. be an individual noncommercial registrant. Such membership is subject to Executive Committee review.

The problem, which has been highlighted by the recent actions of the NCUC EC, is that our membership criteria does not preclude individual NCSG membership under §2.2.5.1 from individuals who may be conflicted for any reason (such as employment) if they meet the basic test of domain name ownership, nor under §2.2.5.2 does our current membership criteria explicitly prevent membership by those whose employers may be members of another SO/SG. Left unchanged these provisions leave the NCSG susceptible to a hostile takeover by another SO/SG or, frankly, by any organised group which may not have the best interests of noncommercial users at heart.

Individual persons who agree to advocate for a noncommercial public-interest position (DELETE: within the Stakeholder group) and who fall within one of the following three categories are eligible to join as an “Individual Member

An Individual who has registered domain name(s) for personal, family or other noncommercial use, is concerned with the noncommercial public-interest aspects of domain name policy, and is not represented in ICANN through membership, personally or by his or her employer, through membership in another Supporting Organisation or GNSO Stakeholder Group.

An Individual Internet User who is primarily concerned with the noncommercial aspects of domain name policy, and is not represented in ICANN personally or by his or her employer through membership in another Supporting Organisation or GNSO Stakeholder Group.

NCSG Charter §5.0 contains several ways in which the NCSG Charter may be amended. In 2013 ICANN instituted changes in their procedures for approving and recognising charter revisions that are not explicitly reflected in the current NCSG Charter. Things are a bit more procedurally complex now.

Although a petition approved by five per cent of our Members, based upon our weighted voting procedure, is certainly an option for initiating a change to our Charter, at this time I would prefer to defer to the NCSG EC on this matter. I respectfully request that full consideration be given to this proposal by the NCSG EC at their next regularly scheduled meeting.

I hope we can all agree that membership in the NCSG should be reserved for those whose primary interest in domain name policy is reserved for those non conflicted parties dedicated to our Mission, as stated in §1.1 of the NCSG Charter. That is, to provide:

...a voice and representation in ICANN processes to: non-profit organizations that serve noncommercial interests; nonprofit services such as education, philanthropies, consumer protection, community organizing, promotion of the arts, public interest policy advocacy, children's welfare, religion, scientific research, and human rights; public interest software concerns; families or individuals who register domain names for noncommercial personal use; and Internet users who are primarily concerned with the noncommercial, public interest aspects of domain name policy.

I certainly am not wedded to any particular statutory language to fix this problem. I welcome any and all ideas. I also recognise that in the changing ICANN environment we very well may wish to be creative and receptive to a more flexible and adaptive membership criteria. That, however, I would submit is fodder for a larger and more long term discussion.

For now I do believe it is essential that we immediately fix the loophole in our Charter that could conceivably allow, in an extreme case, members of another Supporting Organisation to join and even become the majority voice in our SG. That simply is too big a risk to take. I look forward to working with the fine members of the NCSG EC and our wider membership to ensure the continued independence and noncommercial orientation of the NCSG, both in theory and in practice.