IMPORTANT NOTICE - The statement below is provided by individuals and organizations working to self-organize a DNSO Constituency Group.  It is posted here to assist the self-organization process.  It has not been approved by ICANN and its posting here does not indicate that the group under formation will necessarily be officially recognized by the ICANN Board of Directors.  See http://www.icann.org/dnso/constituency_groups.html for information about the constituency formation process and instructions for submitting comments regarding this statement. 

Submitted to ICANN on May 3, on behalf of Marty Burack, burack@isoc.org, May 3, 1999.
Posted May 5, 1999

NON-COMMERCIAL DOMAIN NAME HOLDERS CONSTITUENCY (NCDNHC)
REPORT AND ORGANIZATIONAL STATEMENT

MAY 3, 1999

        The Internet Society has established a web site for organizations that wish to participate in the constituency of non-commercial domain name holders.  As of May 3, 1999, organizations that have asked to be included are shown on the web site maintained at:

http://www.isoc.org/internet/issues/dns/990409.shtml

        They are:

Asociacion de Usuarios de Internet (AUI)
Assumption University of Thailand
Domini-ct.org/TLD for Catalonia
EDUCAUSE
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca
GLOCOM
International Council for Computer Communication (ICCC)
Internet Association of Japan
IEEE Computer Society (IEEE)
IEEE Communications Society
Institute for Information Industry (III)
Internet Society (ISOC)
Internet Users Society - Niue
New York University
NYSERNet, Inc.
Policy Oversight Committee (POC)
Red de Desarrollo Sostenible de Panama
Sociedad Internet de Mexico
SURFnet
Trans European Research and Education Networking Association
University of Washington

        ICANN has requested that each constituency present a proposal for criteria for constituency participation and a plan for a Names Council member selection process. This is the proposal of the organizations listed above.

CRITERIA FOR CONSTITUENCY PARTICIPATION

        Based on the belief that it is impractical to have both individual members and organizations as voting members within a constituency, the NCDNHC proposes that stakeholder organizations, holding domain names, which are organized not-for-profit under the laws of any jurisdiction, and organizations which, although not formally incorporated, are recognized as having
substantially similar purposes, e.g., educational, religious, charitable, or professional, shall be eligible for membership.

        The range of stakeholder organizations eligible for membership in the NCDNHC should be construed broadly so that organizations interested in such matters as dispute resolution or Internet governance, other than furthering commercial interests, will be included. Govermental organizations will not be eligible.

        The NCDNHC believes that the interests of individual members are best represented by the types of organizations that have already indicated an interest in participating. Proposals have also been made for a separate constituency composed of individual domain name holders. Because other constituencies will be available for non-profit organizations established primarily to promote the commercial interests of members, such as 501(c)(6) organizations under US law, this type of non-profit organization shall not be
eligible to participate in the NCDNHC.

        An open issue is the question of voting rights for organizations that are formally or legally separate but are included within an umbrella organization that is also a member. For example, the chapters of the Internet Society and the subsidiary organizations of IEEE pose this question. Pending a decision by the constituency, it is proposed that such subsidiary organizations may be members of NCDNHC but are not entitled to vote.

        The NCDNHC proposes that the membership shall be entitled to vote on all issues that may arise, including, but not limited to, qualifications of applicants for membership, conflicts of interest, authentication and procedures for votes.  Applicants may be required to provide evidence as to qualifications, including such factors as number of members, purposes and date
of organization.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

        Because of limited financial resources of many or most non-profit organizations, the NCDNHC proposes that this constituency have a small formal organization at this time. There shall be a governing board consisting of one representative of each member organization. The governing board shall elect from its members, for annual terms, three officers, a Chair, Vice-Chair and a
Secretary. Voting for officers and for Names Council members shall be by a simple majority of members, and the nomination and election of officers and Names Council members shall be conducted by email. Consultation by Names Council members with the constituency shall also be conducted by email or other electronic means that may be made available. The officers of the governing
board shall refer all contested issues to a vote of the membership.

        In order to assure the required geographic distribution of Names Council members, no two members shall reside in the same one of the geographic areas defined in  the ICANN bylaws, no two members shall represent the same organization, and no single member may represent more than one organization.
 
        The following procedures shall apply for elections of Names Council
members:

1.      The election process will be initiated by a nomination period of one week. Each member of the NCDNHC may nominate one person for the Names Council.

2.      There shall be an election period of one week, during which members will vote by email.

3.      Names Council members will be elected by the largest number of votes processed as follows:

a.      All nominees from the same region as the person with the largest number of votes will be eliminated. From the resulting list, all nominees from the same region as the person with the second number of votes will be eliminated. The three people at the top of the remaining list will be elected.

b.      In case of a tie, a tie-breaker election between the two candidates with an equal number of votes will be held.