ICANN participation

Full Board Resolutions below:

Approval of Minutes 1
Approval of ICANN Accountability and Transparency Frameworks 1
Next Steps on GNSO Review 2
Approval of New Disbursement Policy 3
Authorization to Engage Auditors 4
New gTLDs - Next Steps 5
Acknowledgment of SSAC Reports on Domain-Name Front Running, Fast Flux, DNSSEC, and WHOIS 6
ICANN Bylaws Change Request from ALAC 7
Recognition of First APRALO General Assembly 7
Update on IDN Policy Activities 8
At-large Structures Summit 8
ICANN Deployment of IPv6-Capable Services 9
Other Business 9
Thanks to Local Hosts, Staff, Scribes, Interpreters, and Event Teams 10

Approval of Minutes
Resolved (2008.02.15.01), the minutes of the Board Meeting of 23 January 2008 are approved.
Approval of ICANN Accountability and Transparency Frameworks
Whereas, the transparency and accountability of ICANN and its processes are of crucial importance to the community.
Whereas, a draft set of Frameworks and Principles for accountability and transparency was released for consultation and public comment. The principles document ICANN's approach to its work, including several new elements such as a documentary information disclosure policy, a translation policy, and a participation policy.
Whereas, the Board encouraged discussion and community input to facilitate continued improvements and measures designed to increase and assist accountability and transparency.
Whereas, workshops discussing the draft principles were held during ICANN meetings in San Juan and Los Angeles.
Whereas, the public comments were taken under consideration and a final draft Framework and Principles on Accountability and Transparency was posted on 10 January 2008.
Resolved (2008.08.15.02), the Board hereby approves the Framework and Principles on Accountability and Transparency.
Next Steps on GNSO Review

Whereas Article IV, Section 4 of ICANN's Bylaws calls for periodic reviews of the performance and operation of each Supporting Organization, each Supporting Organization Council, each Advisory Committee (other than the Governmental Advisory Committee), and the Nominating Committee by an entity or entities independent of the organization under review.

Whereas these reviews are part of ICANN's ongoing commitment to its evolution and improvement, and are intended to ensure an independent examination of the role and operation of key elements of ICANN.

Whereas independent reviews of the GNSO and the GNSO Council were completed and submitted to the Board.

Whereas the Board created the “Board Governance Committee GNSO Review Working Group” to consider the independent reviews and other relevant input, and recommend to the Committee a comprehensive proposal to improve the effectiveness of the GNSO, including its policy activities, structure, operations and communications.

Whereas the Working Group posted working drafts and supporting documents which presented the group's initial ideas and posed key questions regarding GNSO improvements on which public comments were sought.

Whereas public forums were held in Lisbon, San Juan and Los Angeles at which the community discussed the proposed draft and areas of emerging agreement, possible recommendations, and questions about how to improve the GNSO's inclusiveness and representativeness, while at the same time increasing its effectiveness and efficiency.

Whereas the public comment periods on the working draft have been closed.

Whereas the Working Group has considered all input and developed a final report containing proposed recommendations on GNSO improvements.

Whereas the Board Governance Committee determined that the GNSO Improvements working group had fulfilled its charter and forwarded the report to the Board for consideration.

Whereas the Board would like to receive final public comments on this report to enable it to consider and implement the findings of the report as soon as possible.

Resolved (2008.02.15.03), the ICANN Board directs staff to open a public comment forum for 30 days on the GNSO Improvements Report, draft a detailed implementation plan in consultation with the GNSO, begin implementation of the non-contentious recommendations, and return to the Board and community for further consideration of the implementation plan.
Approval of New Disbursement Policy

Whereas, the ICANN Board adopted the current disbursement policy in October 2006.

Whereas, ICANN continues to evolve into a larger and more mature organization and is managed by a strong senior executive team.

Whereas, the ICANN Board desires to optimize the strength of internal financial controls by hiring highly ethical, competent, and skilled officers and employees, by ensuring that appropriate policies and procedures are followed, by ensuring that financial reporting is accurate timely and relevant, and by adopting disbursement policies that are best for ICANN’s mission and culture.

Whereas, the ICANN Board desires contracting and purchasing practices at ICANN to be most effective.

Whereas, the ICANN Board desires to adopt disbursement policies that reflect ICANN’s size, scope and level of professionalism.

Whereas, the ICANN Board Finance Committee has consulted with the CFO in the development of a new disbursement policy, and has recommended that the Board approve the new Disbursement Policy.

Whereas, the current disbursement policy will not optimally meet the needs of ICANN's future disbursement requirements.

Whereas, the current policy in some cases has been found to be unclear in terms of the scope and nature of disbursement authority.

Whereas, the new Disbursement Policy will allow for stronger internal controls and more clarity on the scope and authority granted to Officers to approve disbursements.

Resolved (2008.02.15.04), the Board adopts the new ICANN Disbursement Policy as proposed by the Board Finance Committee.

Authorization to Engage Auditors

Whereas, the ICANN Bylaws in Article XVI, Section 3, requires that at the end of the fiscal year, the books of ICANN must be audited by certified public accountants. The Bylaws also state that the appointment of the fiscal auditors shall be the responsibility of the Board.

Whereas, the Board Audit Committee and staff interviewed Moss Adams LLP.

Whereas, the Chair of the Board Audit Committee has received a proposal from Moss Adams LLP to be engaged as the auditor for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2008.

Whereas, the Board Audit Committee has reviewed the proposed engagement letter and professional services agreement and recommends to the Board that ICANN enter into this engagement.

Resolved (2008.02.15.05), the Board authorizes the Chief Financial Officer of ICANN to engage Moss Adams LLP as the auditors for fiscal year ending 30 June 2008.
New gTLDs - Next Steps

Whereas, ICANN staff has been developing implementation vision and details for the GNSO’s policy recommendations regarding the introduction of New gTLDs and has provided analysis to the Board on a number of implementation issues.

Whereas, ICANN staff has retained subject matter experts and done considerable work developing the new gTLD program plan and designing elements of the implementation plan.

Whereas, the implementation of these policy recommendations is a complex process and raises a number of challenging technical, operational, legal, economic, and political questions that will affect the DNS.

Whereas, it is important to the Internet community that ICANN develop an orderly, timely, and predictable process for the introduction of new gTLDs.

Whereas, the introduction of new gTLDs is consistent with ICANN’s mission and core values to promote competition in the registration of names where practicable and beneficial in the public interest, and where feasible and appropriate, depending on market mechanisms, to promote and sustain a competitive environment.

Resolved (2008.02.15.06), the Board directs staff to continue its implementation work on New gTLDs, inform the GNSO and the public on progress made in implementation efforts, discuss some issues raised by the staff and Board regarding implementation with the GNSO Council, and provide information to the Board in a timely manner to enable the Board to discuss the recommendations and implementation issues and quickly determine a course of action for the introduction new gTLDs, with staff to provide an update at the Board workshop on 17 April 2008.
Acknowledgment of SSAC Reports on Domain-Name Front Running, Fast Flux, DNSSEC, and WHOIS

Whereas, ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) has recently published five important documents including

(1) a study (SAC 023) that analyzed the use of WHOIS services by spammers;

(2) a comprehensive report (SAC 024) on Domain Name Front Running summarizing SSAC’s study of 120 complaints submitted by Internet users;

(3) a Fast Flux and DNS Advisory Report (SAC 025) that explains how criminals use botnets to operate illegal web sites, and how they exploit DNS and registration services to make their illegal activities difficult to locate and shut down;

(4) a statement (SAC 026) to ICANN and the community identifying actions that are required to accelerate DNSSEC deployment, and

(5) a comment (SAC 027) to the GNSO regarding the future of WHOIS.

Resolved (2008.02.15.07), the ICANN Board hereby accepts these various documents submitted by SSAC and thanks SSAC Chair Steve Crocker, Senior Security Technologist Dave Piscitello, the members of SSAC, and all other contributors for their efforts in the creation of these documents.

Resolved (2008.02.15.08), the Board directs staff to bring the SSAC reports to the attention of interested parties, and in particular to refer the recommendations in the reports to ICANN’s policy-development and operational planning processes as appropriate.
ICANN Bylaws Change Request from ALAC

Whereas, the At-Large Advisory Committee has proposed a revised process for handling applications for At-Large Structure applications worldwide.

Whereas, the new process will bring improvements, including by providing the Regional At-Large Organisations with an important role in evaluating applications.

Whereas, the new process will increase transparency of the consideration of applications.

Whereas, the Board directed the staff to allow the public to comment on the proposed Bylaw change.

Whereas, the public comment period began on 7th November 2007 and concluded on 2nd December 2007, and during the comment period all substantive comments received from the public were in favour of the change.

Resolved (2008.02.15.09), the Board modifies Article XI, Section 2(4)(i) of the Bylaws as posted at .
Recognition of First APRALO General Assembly

Whereas, the ICANN Bylaws, Article XI, Section 2, Part 4, provide a process that allows individual Internet users to participate meaningfully in the work of ICANN, as the community known as ‘At-Large’.

Whereas, the Asia/Australia/Pacific Regional At-Large Organisation (“APRALO”) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with ICANN in March 2007, and held its first APRALO General Assembly at the ICANN New Delhi meeting.

Resolved (2008.02.15.10), the Board offers its congratulations to APRALO and its thanks to the whole At-Large community for their continuing work as a valued and integral part of the ICANN community.

Update on IDN Policy Activities
Whereas, the ICANN Board created the “IDNC Working Group” on 2 November 2007 to develop and report on feasible methods for timely introduction of a limited number of internationalised country code top-level domain names (IDN ccTLDs associated with ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes) in a manner that ensures the continued security and stability of the Internet.

Whereas, on 1 February 2008, the IDNC Working Group posted a “Discussion Draft of the Initial Report,” which includes principles and methods for developing the so-called “fast-track” approach, for consideration and input from the public.

Resolved (2008.02.15.11), the Board expresses its gratitude to the IDNC Working Group for its Draft Initial Report, and to the GNSO, ccNSO, GAC, and ALAC for their ongoing collaborative efforts and commitment to recommend a course of action to the ICANN Board in a timely manner.
At-large Structures Summit

Whereas, the At-Large Advisory Committee is now supported by five Regional At-Large Organizations comprised of more than one hundred At-Large Structures.

Whereas, members of the ALAC, RALOs, and At-Large Structures believe that a face-to-face meeting of at least one person from each of these structures in conjunction with an ICANN meeting would facilitate their coordination and work on ICANN policy matters relating to the interests of individual Internet users.

Whereas, the ALAC and constituents have been planning for such a Summit since ICANN's San Juan meeting.

Whereas, this would be a special event associated with the completion of the establishment of the At-Large Advisory Committee.

Whereas, many of the ALAC At-Large structures are unable to cover the costs of sending a representative to an ICANN meeting for this purpose.

Resolved (2008.02.15.12), the Board directs Staff to work with the ALAC to finalise a proposal that will fund one person from each At-Large Structure to attend the proposed Summit, for consideration as part of the 2008-2009 operating plan and budget process.
ICANN Deployment of IPv6-Capable Services

Whereas, IPv6 deployment is of growing interest for many in the Internet community.

Whereas, ICANN’s Strategic Plan lists as one of its key priorities for the next three years to “monitor the depletion of IPv4 address space and provide leadership towards IPv6 adoption”.

Whereas, ICANN should act as a leader in enabling IPv6 services throughout the DNS, including encouraging all providers of DNS services to implement IPv6 capability.

Whereas, IPv6 implementations are reaching a maturity of use and capability.

Whereas, five root name server operators have added IPv6 addresses to their root zone records, thus enabling native IPv6 DNS resolution.

Resolved (2008.02.15.13), the Board requests that ICANN staff produce a plan to implement IPv6-capable services, and deploy IPv6 across ICANN’s infrastructure as part of the 2008-09 operating plan and budget. The Board further requests that ICANN staff provide regular feedback to the community on progress and lessons learned.
Other Business
(TBD)
Thanks to Local Hosts, Staff, Scribes, Interpreters, and Event Teams

The Board wishes to extend its thanks to the local host organizing team of Mr Jainder Singh, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, the Government of India, Mr N. Ravi Shanker, Joint Secretary, Department of Information Technology, the Government of India, Dr Govind, Senior Director, Department of Information Technology, the Government of India, Mr Praveen Misra, Joint Director, STPI, and Mr Rajesh Aggarwal, Additional CEO, NIXI.

The Board would also like to thank Shri Andimuthu Raja, Minister of Communications & Information Technology and Dr. Shakeel Ahmad, Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology for their participation in the Gala Event.

The Board thanks the participants in the IT Success Story in India program: Shri Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman, Indian Venture Capital Association; Shri Kiran Karnik, Former President, NASSCOM; Shri Ashok Soota, Chairman & MD, Mindtree Consulting Ltd., Shri Raman Roy, CEO, Quatrro; Shri Ajay Chowdhry, Chairman & CEO, HCL.

The Board expresses its appreciation to the scribes Laura Brewer, Teri Darrenougue, Jennifer Schuck, Charles Motter and Deanna Baker, to Pepperdine Law School Extern Indu Sen, and to the entire ICANN staff for their efforts in facilitating the smooth operation of the meeting.

The Board also wishes to express its appreciation to VeriLan Events Services, Inc. for technical support, Upasana for audio/visual support, interpretation, and general event support, and VSNL and SIFY for bandwith. Additional thanks are given to the Taj Palace for this fine facility, and to the event facilities and support.

The members of the Board wish to especially thank their fellow Board Member Rajasekhar Ramaraj for his assistance in making the arrangements for this meeting in New Delhi.