Draft of our letter to the Board

[Robin Gross]

Cedric:

In answer to your question, it became clear that it was extremely  
unlikely that the board would accept a request to reconsider its  
decision, so we would be wasting our breath asking them.  But we  
still want to hold their feet to the fire to fix this mess and to  
engage WITH noncommercial users, so we decided to take a more nuanced  
approach that can still give noncommercial users a fair deal if they  
agree to our requests.

I've made just a few minor edits, mostly formatting in the attached  
document.  I'll send it out before the end of the business day  
(California).

Thanks,
Robin




On Aug 17, 2009, at 6:38 AM, Cedric Laurant wrote:

> Yes.
>
> Why does the letter not call for a reconsideration of the Board's  
> decision, as this was the way proposed during the conference call?
>
> Cedric
> ---
>> Dear members:
>> Following up on our online Constituency meeting last week, Mary,  
>> Robin and other members of the EC and Council have spent a lot of  
>> time over the past few days working on our letter to the Board. We  
>> submit it now to you for review and consensual support. It is  
>> attached.
>>
>> We are making three simple, very reasonable requests to the Board:
>> 1. To meet with NCUC members at the Seoul meeting (the whole  
>> Board, not just the SIC)
>>
>> 2. To commit to a review of the SIC-imposed charter by July 30,  
>> 2010 in a way that allows a fair comparison and debate between the  
>> SIC approach and the NCUC approach and which allows modification  
>> of either to make a final NCSG charter acceptable to our community
>>
>> 3. To not recognize any new constituencies in NCSG until the  
>> charter issue is resolved and we know what a constituency really  
>> is in the NCSG.
>>
>> These requests, if met, would mitigate a lot of the damage ICANN's  
>> staff and Board have done. I see no reason why they would refuse  
>> to meet with us. They have already agreed to review the SIC  
>> charter after a year, this request merely clarifies that the NCUC  
>> model of NCSG organization, which the vast majority of civil  
>> society supports, is still a live option and explicitly confirms  
>> staff's and Board's willingness to find modifications and  
>> compromises that will make it more acceptable. Again I have  
>> difficulty understanding how a reasonable, well-motivated ICANN  
>> Board could refuse to do that. Finally, as a simple matter of  
>> logic we are telling the Board that it is disruptive and  
>> troublesome to recognize new constituencies before we have  
>> finalized the NCSG charter, which defines the role of constituencies.
>>
>> That fact that our requests are reasonable, of course, is no  
>> guarantee that they will be granted. But if they are not, it is a  
>> sure tip off that the ICANN Board does not want civil society  
>> participation in the GNSO and we will have to consider whether it  
>> makes sense to participate in ICANN at all.
>>
>> We want to make a strong and unified statement so if you have any  
>> objections let us know quickly. We need to get this before the  
>> Board soon. Please avoid proposing minor wordsmithing changes;  
>> this is pretty much a yes or no proposition at this point.
>>
>> --MM
>>
>> Content-Type: application/msword; name="NCUCletter to Board-v3.doc"
>> Content-Description: NCUCletter to Board-v3.doc
>> Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="NCUCletter to Board- 
>> v3.doc";
>> 	size=62464; creation-date="Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:09:39 GMT";
>> 	modification-date="Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:33:01 GMT"
>>
>> Attachment converted: Macintosh HD:NCUCletter to Board-v3.doc  
>> (WDBN/«IC») (002BDA4F)
>
>
> --




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



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