Description of Charter approval and Election Process for July-October 2011

[Avri Doria]

Hi,

This message is a review of the issues I spoke of at the Policy meeting with regard to the upcoming votes.  It is being sent to the membership for comment and to the EC in their role as oversight over all elections and all Chair activities.

We have several upcoming votes:

1. To get approval of the updated NCSG charter as amended and approved by the ICANN Board.
2.  Elections that need to be completed before the Nairobi Meeting.

     2a.  Elect 3 GNSO Council (g-council)  members for 2 year terms - end of Annual Meeting 2011 until end of Annual Meeting 2013
     2b.  Elect 1 g-council member for a 1 year term - End of Annual Meeting 2011 until Annual meeting 2012
     2c.  Elect NCSG chair - One year term: Beginning of Annual Meeting 2011 - Beginning of Annual meeting 2012

In order for the elections to be valid, I beleive we need to have approved the Charter first.  Hence the plan on holding the charter vote first.

I propose combining  2a and 2b  into a single ranked ballot where the top 3 vote getters are elected to 2 year terms while the fourth place candidate is elected to a one year term.  In the event of a tie, I propose that, unless one of the candidates volunteers to serve the single year term, the Executive Committee makes the determination of which successful candidate gets the 1 year term by a majority vote of the Executive Committee.

I propose making all the elections, 2a-c, a single voting event.

I propose that as soon as the NCSG charter is approved by 60% of the active membership, nominations for the elections of all 5 roles will be open.  the annual voters checkin is defined in the charter:

> Before each annual election, the NCSG Chair shall send an email to all members, active or suspended, asking them to update their contact information before the election. If no response is received by the requested deadline, an attempt will be made to reach the member by other means, e.g. telephone calls or requests though other contacts. If, after reasonable attempts fail to reach a member or its representative and confirmation of contact information cannot be completed, that member will be moved to an inactive members list and an announcement will be made on the public discussion list. Once on the inactive members list, the inactive member will not be included in the membership count required to establish election results.
> 
> An inactive member can be removed from the inactive members list by updating its contact information. An inactive member can remain on the inactive list indefinitely.

In addition to the Charter manadte, a critical reason for the Membership check is to have a reasonable count for 60% threshold.  Ballots will only be sent to active members.


I propose the following schedule for all of this.

21 July - First Phase of Active membership checkin complete
22 July  - Second pause of Active membership checkin complete

1 Aug  - Charter Vote Begins
26 Aug - Charter Vote Ends

Once the charter is approved, the Executive Committee will need to be reconstituted per the rules in the new charter.  This should be completed during September.  I propose 12 September for this milestone.  At that point since the election of a new chair will not be complete, the EC will need to elect an interim chair, as defined in the charter, to hold office until the Annual Meeting begins.

29 August (Assuming Charter Passes) - Nominations open
12 September - Statement from all candidates to NCSG discussion list due

19 September -  Elections Begin
7 October - Elections Complete

22 October Nairobi Meeting begins

While there is some leeway in this schedule, there is very little.

The first Phase of the Active Membership checkin consisted of my contacting all listed voters from 2010 + new members on 13 July, asking them to confirm their addresses.  This message was sent on a list set up for this purpose and was copied to the NCSG discussion list.  I encourage anyone who has not responded yet to do so.

The second Phase of the Active membership checkin consists of posting the list of Active voters and asking for corrections.  The request for people to check the active list will be sent to both the list set up for the election checkin and to the NCSG discussion list.  I encourage everyone to check these lists and make sure I got it right, neither email nor I is fully reliable.

It should be noted that in addition to including those who responded to my email request in the list of active participants, I will also include anyone who actually sent email to the NCSG discussion list since Jan 1 2011.  Even if someone misses checking on for the Charter vote, they can reactivate in time for the elections.  The difference between an active membership and inactive membership being used, is confirmation of correct email list at least once a year through either a reply to a request for confirmation or actual activity on the email list. 

Reminder: 

> 4.5 Member Voting Eligibility:
> 
> Any NCSG active Member who has been an active member for at least thirty (30) days before the date of the election is eligible to nominate candidates, vote in NCSG elections, and propose amendments to the NCSG Charter.


I think this about covers it.  Pleases send comments, questions, corrections and any issues.  I will proceed along this path unless overruled by a decision of the Executive Committee.

Thanks

a.