Bylaws Amendment: Article VI, Section 4

[Ellen Rony <erony@marin.k12.ca.us>]

I raised an earlier concern that the new bylaws amendment,
Article VI, Section 4, which asks NC
candidates for the ICANN board to recuse themnselves from voting and
discussion, could potentially leave the NC bereft of voters if all were
nominated, an unrealistic but nonetheless possible scenario.  The question
becomes. . . who gets to vote.

At the Names Council meeting on September 23, various NC members raised other
interesting concerns.  For example, if all the NC members of one
constituency were nominated for the ICANN board, this bylaws amendment
would leave that constituency voteless.

ICANN's response to this conundrum is that the constituency can ask its
Administrative Committee to appoint, for purposes of the election period
only, a temporary replacement to the Names Council.

This temporary fix raises new concerns.  An appointment to the Names
Council removes voting for the ICANN board one more level from direct
representation.  The Administrative Committee of a constituency is not
necessarily an elected body;  in some cases, it is a group of people
selected to bootstrap the constituency election process.   Now it,
potentially, will be able to hand-pick the NC representatives who can vote
for ICANN board members from the DNSO.

It is easy to understand why ICANN wants NC members running for the board
to recuse themselves from the voting.  The Names Council has only 21
members, and the opportunity to fix a slate or line up votes among those
insiders is too obvious.

But the temporary replacement on the NC of an appointed member has its woes
and woebegones, too.  I have proposed a different solution, one that asks
individuals to CHOOSE between participation on the Names Council or a role
on the ICANN board.  Simply put, membership on the Names Council should
eliminate  nomination for the ICANN board during the term.  And NC
members who route around this requirement and resign too close to the board
election to allow their constituency time to elect a replacement will
leave that voting position unfilled.

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Ellen Rony                         ____             The Domain Name Handbook
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Tiburon, CA                        W   W               erony@marin.k12.ca.us
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