Draft GNSO Council Agenda 18 January 2024

Please note that all documents referenced in the agenda have been gathered on a Wiki page for convenience and easier access: https://community.icann.org/x/OgG1E 

 This agenda was established according to the GNSO Operating Procedures v3.5, updated on 15 March 2023.

For convenience:

• An excerpt of the ICANN Bylaws defining the voting thresholds is provided in Appendix 1 at the end of this agenda.
• An excerpt from the Council Operating Procedures defining the absentee voting procedures is provided in Appendix 2 at the end of this agenda.

 GNSO Council meeting on Thursday, 18 January 2024 at 05:00 UTC: http://tinyurl.com/y3a7xhu3 

 21:00 Los Angeles (Wednesday); 00:00 Washington DC; 05:00 London; 06:00 Paris; 08:00 Moscow; 16:00 Melbourne

 GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: 

https://icann.zoom.us/j/92283565389?pwd=QnlHK1JSbzdiSFFZSjRjamxMTkNGdz09

Councilors should notify the GNSO Secretariat in advance if they will not be able to attend and/or need a dial out call.

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Item 1: Administrative Matters (5 minutes)

1.1 - Roll Call

1.2 - Updates to Statements of Interest

1.3 - Review / Amend Agenda

1.4 - Note the status of minutes for the previous Council meetings per the GNSO Operating Procedures: 

Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 16 November 2023 were posted on 01 December 2023.

Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting on 21 December 2023 were posted on 02 January 2024

Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List (0 minutes)

2.1 - Review focus areas and provide updates on specific key themes / topics, to include review of Projects List and Action Item List. 

Item 3: Consent Agenda (5 minutes)

• Recommendations Report for GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support
• Recommendations Report for EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report

Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations (20 minutes)

In March 2023, the ICANN Board approved the majority of the recommendations contained in the Final Report on the new gTLD Subsequent PDP, but also placed some recommendations into a pending status. The Council convened a small team that worked collaboratively with the ICANN Board to resolve all pending recommendations. While the majority of the pending recommendations were able to be adopted by the ICANN Board, recommendations across six Topics were non adopted by the ICANN Board.

With the primary task of addressing the pending recommendations now complete, the Council has tasked the Small Team Plus with an updated assignment form. The Small Team Plus has committed to a work plan to address the recommendations not adopted by the Board. Following that plan, the Small Team initiated first steps (i.e., developed background materials, preliminary Supplemental Recommendation language, and issued a call for volunteers for the Small Team Plus). The Small Team Plus has begun developing Supplemental Recommendation language, beginning with Recommendation 17.2, Applicant Support, according to the above-mentioned work plan and has continued to make further progress.  

Here, the Council will receive an update on the work of the Small Team Plus.

4.1 - Introduction of Topic (Paul McGrady, Small Team Plus Lead)

4.2 - Council Discussion

4.3 - Next Steps

Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Communications Small Team Follow-up Conversation (20 minutes)

The Communications Small Team began working in April 2023 with a goal of developing a communications plan for the Council. Within that overarching goal, the Small Team identified five objectives:

1. Perform a situation analysis of current communications efforts
2. Clarify overall objectives of Council communications
3. Identify the target audience
4. Recommend communications mechanisms that the Council could use
5. Determine how to measure success for these mechanisms

During the 2023 GNSO Council Strategic Planning Session, Tomslin Samme-Nlar presented the outputs of the Small Team’s work. The Council thanked the Small Team for its work, and after having an initial discussion, requested additional time to discuss the outputs during a monthly Council meeting. Some of the questions Councilors noted for further consideration:

• What is the best way to communicate with outsiders and make the information more understandable/readable?
• How can/should the Council reach the “people who care about ICANN but do not have time to participate”? 
• Could/should the Council consider having a liaison to the broader community? (similar to the liaison to the GAC, ccNSO, etc.)
• How can the Council effectively target fellows and get them to focus on the GNSO?

Here, the Council will discuss the set of questions identified during the SPS and determine next steps.

5.1 - Introduction of Topic (Tomslin Samme-Nlar, Council Vice-Chair)

5.2 - Council Discussion

5.3 - Next Steps

Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Council Engagement with PDP Working Group Chairs (20 minutes)  

During the Council’s 2023 Strategic Planning Session, the Council agreed that updates from PDP Working Group Chairs and Council liaisons should be more purpose-driven. 

In discussing this, GNSO Support Staff provided background information on the GNSO Policy Webinar. Specifically, the webinars began in 2018 and were designed to provide the Council with an opportunity to directly engage with PDP chairs regarding the progress of their working groups. This engagement previously took place at ICANN meetings during GNSO working sessions; however, when the ICANN meeting schedule was shortened, these interactions were moved to a webinar format in an effort to allow the engagement to continue.  

After receiving this background information, some Councilors noted that if the purpose is for the Council to hear frank updates from Working Group Chairs, the webinar should be for Councilors rather than a larger community update. Additionally, Councilors noted it would be helpful to remove the webinar from the Prep Week schedule so that it can be geared specifically toward the GNSO Council. Some Councilors noted it would be helpful to review the current list of questions asked to Chairs during Council webinar briefings. The current list of questions is provided below:

1. Are there any new or recurring challenges that have emerged since your last update to the community?
2. How can the Council and/or community assist with these challenges? 
3. What does the WG plan to discuss during the ICANN meeting? 
4. Is there anything else you would like to update the Council on?

Here, the Council will discuss if this list of questions is helpful to Councilors in their role as Manager of the PDP or if updates are needed. 

6.1 - Introduction of Topic (Nacho Amadoz, Council Vice-Chair)

6.2 - Council Discussion

6.3 - Next Steps

Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Registration Data Accuracy (20 minutes)

The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by the GNSO Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions. The Scoping Team was tasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors such as the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts. These considerations are to help inform the team’s deliberations and development of recommendations to the GNSO Council on whether any changes are recommended to improve accuracy levels, and, if so, how and by whom these changes would need to be developed (for example, if changes to existing contractual requirements are recommended, a PDP or contractual negotiations may be necessary to effect a change). 

The Scoping Team completed Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to the Council on 5 September 2022. In its write up, the Scoping Team suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3). 

ICANN org provided an update to the Council during the 20 April meeting. During its meeting on 20 June 2023, the Council voted to extend the deferral of the consideration of recommendations #1 and #2, pending resolution of recommendation #3 (pausing the work on proposals that require access to registration data until there is clarity from ICANN org on if/how it anticipates the requesting and processing of registration data to be undertaken in the context of measuring accuracy). 

On 19 October 2023, ICANN org provided an update on Registration Data Accuracy efforts, and the Council discussed the update during its 16 November 2023 meeting. During that meeting, some Councilors noted that, barring (i) completion of the Data Processing Agreement, (ii) implementation of the NIS2 directive, or (iii) publication of the Inferential Analysis of Maliciously Registered Domains (INFERMAL) Study, it may not be the appropriate time to reconvene the Accuracy Scoping Team. Now that six months have passed since the Council’s deferral of the accuracy scoping work, the Council will need to consider next steps. 

Here, the Council will consider whether a further deferral is appropriate or if other next steps are timely e.g., the consideration of the Scoping Team’s recommendations 1 and 2.

7.1 - Introduction of Topic (Greg DiBiase, Council Chair)

7.2 - Council Discussion

7.3 - Next Steps

Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS (30 minutes)

8.1 Update on ICANN79 planning and GNSO Draft schedule

8.2 Update from SO/AC Roundtable

8.3 Update on Diacritic Study Request

8.4 Update on PPSAI Implementation (GDS will provide update)

8.5 Expected Standards of Behavior

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Appendix 1: GNSO Council Voting Thresholds (ICANN Bylaws, Article 11, Section 11.3(i))

See https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en/#article11.

Appendix 2: GNSO Council Absentee Voting Procedures (GNSO Operating Procedures, Section 4.4)

See https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/op-procedures-15mar23-en.pdf 

References for Coordinated Universal Time of 05:00 UTC 

Local time between November and March in the NORTHERN hemisphere

See https://www.timeanddate.com/time/change/ for Dates for Daylight Saving Time and Clock Changes

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California, USA (PST) UTC-8  21:00 (Wednesday)

San José, Costa Rica (CST) UTC-6  23:00

New York/Washington DC, USA (EST) UTC-4  00:00

Buenos Aires, Argentina (ART) UTC-3  02:00

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (WAT) UTC+1 06:00

Paris, France (CET) UTC+1   06:00

Moscow, Russia (MSK) UTC+3  08:00

Singapore (SGT) UTC+8 13:00  

Melbourne, Australia (AEsT) UTC+11 16:00

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For other places see http://www.timeanddate.com and http://tinyurl.com/y3a7xhu3