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Public Comment: Proposed Bylaws Amendment in Furtherance of the Board Review Working Group Recommendation to Add One Voting Director from the At-Large Community to the ICANN Board of Directors

1 July 2010

On 27 August 2009, the Board approved in principle the recommendation of the Board review Working Group (BRWG) to add one voting director from the At-Large Community to the ICANN Board of Directors and removing the present At-Large Advisory Committee Liaison to the ICANN Board. The BRWG issued its final report [PDF, 116 KB] in February 2010, and noted the expectation that "the selection process will be designed, approved and implemented in time for the new Director to be seated at the 2010 Annual General Meeting."

The Board's Structural Improvements Committee (SIC) is charged with providing a set of suggested actions to address this recommendation. As part of the SIC's work, in consultation with the Board Governance Committee, the SIC agreed that the term of the Board Director selected by the At-Large Community should coincide with the terms of the Board Directors selected by the Sponsoring Organizations, so as to allow the Nominating Committee to consider the full composition of the non-Nominating Committee-appointed Board membership when making its appointments.

One item necessary to implement the recommendation is a change to Articles VI and XI of the ICANN Bylaws to recognize the new Seat 15 on the Board and remove the ALAC Liaison position. The Office of the General Counsel, in consultation with the SIC and the staff supporting the At-Large, identified recommended Bylaws amendments necessary to allow the seating of the Director selected by the At-Large Community in line with Board and committee directives. At its meeting on 25 June 2010, the Board directed staff to post these recommended Bylaws amendments for public comment, so that the Board can take action on these proposed amendments no later than at its 28 October 2010 meeting.

The relevant portion of the proposed Bylaws revisions, in redline for ease of review, can be found at http://www.icann.org/en/general/proposed-bylaws-revision-at-large-director-01jul10-en.pdf [PDF, 120 KB].

The subject of this public comment forum is limited to the proposed Bylaws revisions necessary to allow a voting director to be sat, and does not include the design of the selection process. Further information on the work of the At-Large Community to design a process for the selection of the voting director can be found at https://st.icann.org/working-groups/index.cgi?at_large_director_appointment_process.

Deadline and How to Submit Comments:

ICANN is opening a 30-day public comment, from 1 July 2010 through 11:59 p.m. Pacific Daylight time on 31 July 2010.

The formal Public Comment Forum Box is located here: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/public-comment-201007-en.htm#al-director

To Submit Comments: bylaws-amend-al-director@icann.org

To View Comments: http://forum.icann.org/lists/bylaws-amend-al-director/

Staff Responsible: Samantha Eisner, Senior Counsel, ICANN and Heidi Ullrich, Director for At-Large, ICANN