Proposed new NCSG structure

Mon Oct 13 12:41:38 CEST 2008

I also agree with Milton's proposal (thanks for this Milton) and I also
add my yeses to the two questions posed at the end.

Regards

Konstantinos

Dr. Konstantinos Komaitis

Lecturer in IT&T Law, Panellist,

Chair Membership Committee,

Global Internet Governance Academic Network,

University of Strathclyde,

The Law School,

141 St James Road, 

Glasgow G4 0LT.

tel:+44 (0)141 548 4306

fax:+44 (0)141 548 3639

email: k.komaitis at strath.ac.uk

http://konstantinoskomaitis.blogspot.com/ 

From: Non-Commercial User Constituency
[mailto:NCUC-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of William Drake
Sent: 12 October 2008 13:02
To: NCUC-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Proposed new NCSG structure

Hi,

I agree with Robin.  If there are any inherently problematic elements in
the proposed structure I'm not seeing them.  Of course, one could
amplify a few of the points procedurally, e.g. how elections are to be
conducted and constituency charters formulated and assessed, but people
don't feel that level of details is needed here, ok.  In any event I
would add my yeses to Milton's two questions about exclusion on criteria
and joining more than one constituency.

Cheers,

Bill

On 10/11/08 5:17 PM, "Robin Gross" <robin at IPJUSTICE.ORG> wrote:

Hi Milton,

Thanks for posting this.  It looks like a solid direction for us to head
in to manage this transition.

So should all existing members of NCUC "join" (or "form") a constituency
within the new stake-holder group?

Thanks much,
Robin

On Oct 9, 2008, at 1:13 AM, Milton L Mueller wrote:

Hello, all
Important news about the GNSO Improvements. First, we have no official
notice yet but the Board has voted to delay the full implementation of
the Improvements by 3-4 months. This is supposed to have happened at the
Sept 30 meeting, but we have no description of what they decided yet so
cannot provide details.

This has implications for our GNSO Council seat elections. It would mean
that there would be 2 open Council positions instead of 5, although one
ICANN staff has suggested that we go ahead and elect all 5 and keep them
"in reserve" (don't shoot the messenger, I am just relaying what I
know).

More important, we need to start thinking about the new structure for
the Noncommercial Stakeholders Group (NCSG). Below is a sketch of what I
think would work. Please let us know what you think.

NCSG structure sketch

Membership
Eligibility criteria same as before, except we allow individuals
according to current provisional regime
Individuals and representatives of organizations join NCSG directly
            Social networking site for interactions and records
            NCUC discuss list retained (but renamed) as NCSG discuss
list
3 categories of membership:
            Large organization - 4 votes
            Small organization - 2 votes
            Individuals - 1 vote
No membership dues, but renewal required bi-annually
Chair and GNSO Council reps elected by NCSG members

Officers
Chair - same duties as NCUC chair
6 GNSO Council representatives elected by NCSG
Executive Committee (EC)
Consists of Chair, 1 delegate from each constituency, Council
representatives
            Constituencies represented by their own chair/delegate

Constituencies
Constituencies are self-defined groups organized around some distinctive
policy perspective (e.g. consumer protection, privacy); shared identity
(e.g., region or country of origin, gender, language group); a type of
organization (e.g., research networks, philanthropic foundations) or any
other grouping principle that might affect its stance on gtld policy.
Each constituency sets its own eligibility criteria
Constituencies have a right to:
x    Place one rep on the executive committee
x    Delegate members to working groups
x    Issue statements on PDPs which are included in the official NCSG
response, but marked as constituency positions, not necessarily the
position of NCSG as a whole

To be recognized as a constituency a group must be supported by at least
5 people who are already NCSG members, appoint an organizer (chair) and
submit a charter. Steps:
1)      A prospective constituency organizer issues a notification of
intent to form a constituency to the entire NCSG via its email list
2)      When 5 or more NCSG members volunteer to join the NCSG on the
public list it becomes eligible to schedule a meeting (which can be
either in person or online)
3)      The eligible constituency holds a meeting(s) to draft a charter.
The charter defines its grouping principle, eligibility criteria, and
procedures. The meetings also designate a constituency chair, and other
officers if so desired.
4)      The charter is submitted to the NCSG EC for ratification.
Ratification is based exclusively on due diligence whether there are
really at least 5 members, whether the constituency's eligibility rules
or procedures contravene NCSG charter in some way

Current members of NCUC are automatically made members of NCSG, but NCUC
dissolves as a constituency once this proposal is adopted.

NCSG members can join any constituency, provided that they meet the
constituency's own eligibility criteria.
Should we allow constituencies to exclude based on criteria? I propose
yes - otherwise constituencies are meaningless
Should we allow members to join more than one constituency? I propose
yes, as long as voting for council seats and chair is NCSG-wide.

Constituencies keep track of their own membership, but members should
reflect their status on the official NCSG social network site. Status is
reviewed by the EC bi-annually to see if they still exceed the 5-member
threshold.

IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin at ipjustice.org

***********************************************************
William J. Drake  
Center for International Governance
Graduate Institute of International and
  Development Studies
Geneva, Switzerland
william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
***********************************************************

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