Third Supplemental Implementation Report of the Committee on ICANN Evolution and Reform
24 November 2002

Committee on ICANN Evolution and Reform
Third Supplemental Implementation Report
(with Transition Article)
24 November 2002

On 2 October 2002, the Evolution and Reform Committee (ERC) released its Final Implementation Report and Recommendations, which included draft New Bylaws for ICANN. On 11 October 2002, the ERC released a First Supplemental Implementation Report, announcing that we intended to augment the New Bylaws with more detailed provisions relating to the At-Large Advisory Committee, adjusting the recommended language to Core Value 11, and providing clarification on the terms of directors. On 23 October 2002, the ERC released a Second Supplemental Implementation Report, which contained the more detailed New Bylaws provisions dealing with the At-Large Advisory Committee and Expert Advisory Panels, additional refinements for the Technical Advisory Committee (now renamed the Technical Liaison Group), and a draft of the New Bylaws with modifications reflecting those changes and some minor technical corrections.

On 31 October 2002 in Shanghai, the ICANN Board adopted the New Bylaws, with some modifications, and by resolution stated that they would not go into effect until the adoption of a Transition Article setting forth the procedures for moving from the current Bylaws to the New Bylaws. The Board directed the ERC to recommend such a Transition Article, and extended its term to enable it to do that.

Attached to this Report is a proposed Transition Article. This would become Article XX of the New Bylaws, and sets forth the interim devices by which ICANN would transition from its current structure and operations to those established by the New Bylaws adopted in Shanghai. It recognizes that there are still ongoing discussions related to the ASO and ccNSO, and reflects the different status of existing structures in those areas.

I. Board of Directors

It will take some time for the new Supporting Organizations (as they become fully defined) to select those members of the ICANN Board for which they are responsible, and for the Nominating Committee to be formed and to carry out its function of selecting eight Board members. As indicated in the tentative timetable included with the Second Interim Implementation Report posted on 2 September 2002, a normal period for the Nominating Committee process might be as much as 90 days. Even if that period can be shorter in this initial transition effort, it is still clear that there will be some period of time (several months) before the Board envisioned by the New Bylaws is in place.

The ERC believes that the simplest and least controversial way to bridge this transition period is simply to continue with the current Board members who are willing to serve during this transition period, adjusting for normal succession under the Old Bylaws. This will ensure a functional Board during the transition period. Thus, the Transition Article provides that, for the New Board to become effective, at least ten Board members (other than the ICANN President, who serves ex officio), must have been selected; this would result in a Board with more than 2/3 of its total expected members, and thus fully able to fulfill all of the responsibilities of the ICANN Board. If this threshold has not been met by the time of the Rio de Janeiro meeting in March 2003, the Transition Board would continue until the next regularly scheduled meeting after the threshold has been met (presumably Montreal in June). Note that, because of the transition, New Board members would take their seats at the meeting following the satisfaction of the threshold conditions, and not (as has been the practice in the past) at the end of an Annual Meeting.

II. Address Supporting Organization

Discussions with the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) continue, and thus the New Bylaws simply included the ASO provisions from the Old Bylaws as a placeholder. Because there is a continuing Memorandum of Understanding between ICANN and the RIRs establishing the ASO, the ASO can continue to function (selecting Directors, delegates to the Nominating Committee, etc.) until there is a superseding agreement with the RIRs. Therefore, the Transition Article simply adds a call for the selection of members of the New Board and a Nominating Committee delegate by the ASO.

III. Country-Code Names Supporting Organization

The New Bylaws provide for two Board seats to be filled by the ccNSO. Because there is not yet a ccNSO, the Transition Article provides that these two seats shall remain vacant until there is such a body. By contrast, the Nominating Committee has an immediate need for input from the ccTLD community, and thus the Transition Article provides that the Board will act as a proxy for the Council of a ccNSO, until it is formed, in appointing a delegate to the Nominating Committee from the ccTLD community after consultation with that community.

IV. Generic Names Supporting Organization

Because the GNSO is composed of six of the same constituencies that currently make up the DNSO, the Transition Article provides for a mapping of those constituencies into the GNSO, and for the population of the GNSO Council by representatives of those constituencies. It also requires that each constituency that will select a delegate or delegates to the Nominating Committee promptly do so. Constituencies also must submit a new charter and statement of operating procedures to ICANN by no later than 15 July 2003. The GNSO Council will select two Directors to the New Board, and will assume the responsibility for the current General Assembly e-mail announcement and discussion lists.

V. Protocol Supporting Organization

The Transition Article formally discontinues the PSO.

VI. Advisory Committees

The Transition Article maps the existing Advisory Committees into their equivalents under the New Bylaws, and sets forth the interim procedures for the At-Large Advisory Committee.

VII. Other Details

Under Section 7(2) of the Transition Article, the organizations constituting the Technical Liaison Group will designate their two individual technical experts. The remainder of the Transition Article simply provides that existing ICANN Board Committees, officers, groups appointed by the President, and contracts shall continue in effect according to their terms.

The ERC invites community comment on the Transition Article by 5 December 2002. It will incorporate that comment into its final Transition Article recommendation, which it currently plans to post on or about 8 December 2002 for action by the ICANN Board at its meeting in Amsterdam on 15 December 2002.

Committee on ICANN Evolution and Reform
24 November 2002

Page Updated 20-Aug-2003
©2002 The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. All rights reserved.