Consent Agenda
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- The GNSO Council adopts the GNSO Council Review of the ICANN79 San Juan, Puerto Rico Communiqué Advice (see https://gac.icann.org/contentMigrated/icann79-san-juan-communique) and requests that the GNSO Council Chair communicate the GNSO Council Review to the ICANN Board.
- The GNSO Council requests that the GNSO Liaison to the GAC also informs the GAC of the communication between the GNSO Council and the ICANN Board.
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- Outcome 10: In respect of small teams, Councilors present agreed that they remain an important tool and should be flexible and can be right-sized for a given effort.
- Action Item 10.1: Staff to propose edits to the small team guidelines based on Council discussion.
- Action Item 10.2: Councilors to leverage small team guidance document to cultivate better understanding of how small teams operate and to dispel misconceptions that may exist, and directly address concerns raised by their respective communities.
8.The GNSO reviewed the updated Small Team Guidelines and agreed to the proposed changes, which were designed to address Community concerns.
Resolved,
- The GNSO Council adopts the updated Small Team Guidelines (see https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/policy/2024/draft/updated-small-team-guidelines-05apr24.pdf).
- The GNSO Council requests ICANN org Policy Support Staff to post the updated guidelines to the GNSO site.
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- Given the unique and complicated nature of the Next Round New gTLD Program, the GNSO Council recommended a Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (SPIRT) to be established to utilize the Predictability Framework, which is an output of the implementation effort for New gTLD Subsequent Procedures, as developed by ICANN org, in coordination with the Implementation Review Team (IRT).
- The SPIRT will be the body empowered to provide input to the GNSO Council, the ICANN Board, ICANN org, and the ICANN community on unforeseen issues arising for the Next Round of the New gTLD Program, after the approval by the ICANN Board of the Applicant Guidebook (AGB).
- The SPIRT Charter Drafting Team is expected to develop a draft charter for the SPIRT on how it should operate and utilize the Predictability Framework, following the Annex E guidelines as provided in the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Final Report.
- On 22 January, 2024, the GNSO Council Leadership called for volunteers to serve on the SPIRT Charter Drafting Team.
- On 26 February, 2024, a Kick-off Meeting was held for the SPIRT Charter Drafting Team, including 10 members consisting of individuals, representatives from Stakeholder Groups (SGs) and Constituencies (Cs), and a GNSO Council liaison.
- During the Kick-off meeting, the leadership team was confirmed, which is submitted to the GNSO Council for confirmation by way of this motion:
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Submitted by: Greg DiBiase
Seconded by: Jennifer Chung
WHEREAS,
- In October 2020, the GNSO Council considered the timing to request a Policy Status Report (PSR) to conduct a review of the two Expiration Policies, the Expired Domain Deletion Policy (EDDP) and the Expired Registration Recovery Policy (ERRP) and agreed to defer consideration for 24 months given concerns about capacity;
- In July 2022, the Council revisited the question of when to request a PSR and agreed that, prior to proceeding with a PSR or deferral, the GNSO Council should consult with registrars and ICANN Compliance to determine if there are any known issues or concerns with the two Expiration Policies that could warrant requesting a PSR;
- On 1 November 2022, ICANN org provided a report on the Expiration Policies and presented the report to the GNSO Council during its November 2022 meeting;
- Following discussion of the ICANN org report, a small team of Councilors reviewed the report and the previous feedback from registrars and presented its recommendation to the GNSO Council during its March 2023 meeting;
- The GNSO Council agreed to the small team’s recommendation to request additional information from ICANN org regarding what expiration-related educational materials are currently published and whether additional information can be provided;
- On 14 February 2024, ICANN org delivered a summary of the current educational materials on domain name renewal and expiration and presented it during the February 2024 meeting;
- Having considered (i) the input from the Registrar Stakeholder Group, who was asked to flag substantial issues with the policies that would warrant a near team request for policy status report and did not note any issues, (ii) the report from ICANN org, which noted confusion with key terms in the policy and registrant confusion with the auto-renew grace period and aftermarket activities, et.al., and (iii) the catalog of available educational resources on domain name expiration and renewal, the GNSO Council determined that the Expiration Policies present no urgent need for policy work, and, accordingly, the Council will revisit the timing for a PSR request in five years, or sooner if the Council is informed that further policy work is needed before the conclusion of five years.
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Submitted by: Paul McGrady
Seconded by: Jennifer Chung
WHEREAS,
- The GNSO Council adopted the Final Report of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (SubPro) PDP on 18 February 2021.
- On 16 March 2023, the ICANN Board adopted the majority of the SubPro Outputs, as identified in Section A of the Scorecard, while designating a select set of recommendations as pending, identified in Section B of the Scorecard.
- The GNSO Council established a small team to carefully review the pending SubPro recommendations and identify the best path forward to seek to resolve the issues that were preventing Board adoption of the pending recommendations.
- On 21 September 2023, the GNSO Council resolved to approve a Clarifying Statement which was followed by the Council's approval of a second Clarifying Statement on 16 October 2023.
- On the basis of the two Clarifying Statements, the ICANN Board was able to adopt a majority of the pending SubPro recommendations on 10 September 2023 and 26 October 2023.
- In those same September (Board Statement) and October (Board Statement) resolutions, the Board also non-adopted a subset of recommendations pertaining to six topics (Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, Topic 17: Applicant Support, Topic 18: Terms & Conditions, Topic 22: Registrant Protections, Topic 24: String Similarity Evaluations, and Topic 32: Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanism)
- The ICANN Bylaws foresee that in case of non-adoption, "the Council shall review the Board Statement for discussion with the Board as soon as feasible after the Council's receipt of the Board Statement".
- The GNSO Council and ICANN Board elected to discuss the Board Statement, as foreseen under the ICANN Bylaws, during their joint session at ICANN78.
- The GNSO Council convened a Small Team Plus, which included liaisons from the ICANN Board and participants from the GAC and ALAC, to seek to develop Supplemental Recommendations for the non-adopted recommendations.
- The Small Team Plus provided numerous updates to the GNSO Council as the Supplemental Recommendations were developed, to better ensure that the Council was aware of the expected outcomes from the Small Team Plus.
- During the Council’s February 2024 meeting, the Small Team Plus provided an update on the proposed language for all Supplemental Recommendations.
- The Small Team Plus held a prep-week webinar in advance of ICANN79 in order to also inform the broader community of the proposed language for all Supplemental Recommendations.
- During ICANN79, the Small Team Plus held a community consultation to gather feedback or suggestions on needed changes to any of the Supplemental Recommendations; no changes were identified.
- On 01 April 2024, the Small Team Plus shared the final Supplemental Recommendations and explanations for the Supplemental Recommendations with the GNSO Council which are connected to the following topics: Topic 9: Registry Voluntary Commitments / Public Interest Commitments, Topic 17: Applicant Support, Topic 18: Terms & Conditions, Topic 24: String Similarity Evaluations, and Topic 32: Limited Challenge/Appeal Mechanism.
- During the Council’s meeting on 18 April 2024, the Council elected to pursue further amendments to the Supplemental Recommendations related to Topic 24: String Similarity Evaluations, and accordingly, removed the relevant Supplemental Recommendations from consideration during its April meeting.
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