Preliminary Report
Special Meeting of the Board
22 April 2002
(Posted 22 April 2002)
The ICANN Board of Directors held a meeting by teleconference on 22 April 2002. Directors Vint Cerf (chairman), Amadeu Abril i Abril, Rob Blokzijl, Ivan Moura Campos, Lyman Chapin, Frank Fitzsimmons, Masanobu Katoh, Hans Kraaijenbrink, Sang-Hyon Kyong, Stuart Lynn, Andy Mueller-Maguhn, Jun Murai, Alejandro Pisanty, Helmut Schink, and Linda S. Wilson participated. The Board adopted the following resolutions:
Resolved [02.50] that the minutes of the meeting of the Board for 13 December 2000, are hereby approved and adopted by the Board as presented.
Resolved [02.51] that the minutes of the meeting of the Board for 22 January 2001, are hereby approved and adopted by the Board as presented.
Whereas, at the annual meeting on 15 November 2001 the Board adopted resolution 01.113 appointing Philip Davidson to serve as chair and Frank Fitzsimmons and Jun Murai to serve as the other members of the Audit Committee of the Board;
Whereas, on 2 April 2002 Philip Davidson resigned as member of the Board;
Resolved [02.52] that the Audit Committee of the Board is continued on the basis of the Charter adopted in resolution 00.23, with Frank Fitzsimmons serving as chair and Jun Murai and Lyman Chapin serving as the other members of the committee.
Whereas, on 21 March 2002 VeriSign, Inc., the operator of the .com and .net registries, requested amendments to the registry agreements for those top-level domains to allow it to charge registrars an annual subscription fee of US$35.00 (with rebates of US$7.00 or US$11.00 depending on volume) for providing a proposed wait-listing service (WLS);
Whereas, this proposal has been discussed in various forms within the ICANN community since 30 December 2001, prompting both opposition and support from various segments of the community;
Whereas, the Transfers Task Force within the DNSO has undertaken a review of issues raised by deletion practices (including the WLS proposal) in the context of its analysis of transfers, and is scheduled to submit its final report for public comment in May, so that the Names Council can provide a final report to the Board in June;
Whereas, the Board believes that the report of the Transfers Task Force will be of assistance in evaluating the VeriSign WLS proposal;
Whereas, on 17 April 2002 the General Counsel presented an analysis to the Board concluding that it is plausible that legitimate interests of others could be harmed by the proposed amendments, so that more than a "quick-look" analysis is appropriate and the formal consensus-development processes currently established within ICANN should be employed to determine whether the amendment should be approved;
Whereas, the Board concludes that, before acting on VeriSign's request for amendment of the .com and .net registry agreements, it would be helpful to receive community comment on the request, and particularly on policy concerns raised by the request that would harm the legitimate interests of others;
Resolved [02.53] that the Board requests the Names Council to coordinate within the DNSO a comprehensive review of issues concerning the deletion of domain names and possible solutions for those issues and to submit to the Board, no later than 10 June 2002, a status report on that review, with the status report to include any recommendations (with supporting materials) concerning VeriSign's request to modify the .com and .net agreements to allow it to provide a wait-listing service, for a fee, as part of its operation of the .com and .net registries;
Resolved [02.54] that the Secretary is directed to advise the Address and Protocol Councils of VeriSign's request and the Board's intent to consider that request at its Bucharest meeting on 28 June 2002, with an invitation to those councils to submit comments (if any) on the request before that time;
Resolved [02.55] that the Board invites public comments on VeriSign's request and directs that a suitable mechanism be established for allowing comments to be submitted over the Internet to ICANN for at least a thirty-day period; and
Resolved [02.56] that the Board invites comments on VeriSign's request at the Public Comment Forum to be held on 27 June 2002 in Bucharest, Romania.
Whereas, in resolutions 02.36 through 02.39 the Board directed the President to make arrangements for soliciting proposals from organizations seeking to succeed VeriSign, Inc. as the operator of the registry for the .org top-level domain;
Whereas, the the President has recommended a detailed schedule for the submission and consideration of proposals and for the establishment of a fee arrangement;
Resolved [02.57] that the following target schedule is established for requesting, receiving, and evaluating proposals to succeed VeriSign, Inc., as the registry operator for the .org top-level domain:
1 May 2002 - Posting of draft Request for Proposal (RFP) materials for Names Council comment and for applicants to begin working on their proposals
13 May 2002 - DNSO Names Council to provide ICANN Secretary any comment on the posted materials
13 May 2002 - Deadline for prospective applicants to submit written questions regarding the draft RFP
20 May 2002 - Final RFP materials posted
24 May 2002 - Written questions from prospective applicants posted with responses
18 June 2002 - Deadline for submission of applications, with tentatively established examination fee to be paid
27 June 2002 - Proposals to be discussed Bucharest ICANN Public Forum. Applicants to make presentations.
28 June 2002 - Board to finally establish examination fee
22 July 2002 - Posting of draft staff report; responses invited
1 August 2002 - Deadline for applicant responses to draft staff report
8 August 2002 - Posting of Final Staff Report and Recommendation
Late August 2002 - Board decision on selection
Resolved [02.58] that the above schedule may be adjusted by future Board resolution or by action of the President to the extent circumstances warrant;
Resolved [02.59] that the President shall require that an examination fee, in the tentative amount of US$35,000, be submitted with each application, with the understanding that at the Bucharest meeting the Board will finally establish the examination fee, not to exceed that amount, with rebates to be made if the final examination fee is less than the tentative examination fee established in this resolution.
Whereas, in resolutions 02.16 and 02.17, the Board concluded that "ICANN should have a robust At Large mechanism for meaningful, informed participation by Internet users of the kind recommended in the ALSC report" and called "upon the ICANN community to devote sustained energy to the creation of At Large structures built upon bottom-up, self-organized, local Internet community institutions and other organizations that meet the general criteria of openness, participation, and self-sustainability";
Whereas, members of the ICANN community led by Esther Dyson have raised US$22,000 for the purpose of funding staff to support the efforts of interested individuals and organizations to create At Large mechanisms for meaningful, self-organizing informed participation in ICANN by a full range of Internet users of the kind recommended in the ALSC report;
Whereas, the Board welcomes this positive response from the community and believes that ICANN should facilitate these efforts by accepting a contribution of these funds, restricted to the purpose of funding staff support for the organizational efforts;
Resolved [02.60] that the President is authorized to accept restricted contributions for the purpose of funding staff support for the creation and nurturing of At Large mechanisms for meaningful, self-organizing informed participation in ICANN by a full range of Internet users; and
Further resolved [02.61] that the President is hereby authorized, for the balance of the present fiscal year, to expend restricted contributions received for that purpose, including by the engagement of an independent contractor, for so long as unexpended contributed funds remain available.
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