IANA Committee (IC) Minutes 31 January 2013

IC attendees: Kuo-Wei Wu – Chair; Bill Graham, Thomas Narten, Mike Silber and Suzanne Woolf

Staff Members Present: Elise Gerich – Vice President, IANA; Megan Bishop, Michelle Bright, Michele Cotton, Kim Davies, Amy Stathos and Leo Vegoda


The following is a summary of discussions, actions taken and actions identified:

  1. Delegation and Re-delegation Process: Staff provided an update on the IANA Functions Contract provisions about approval of process for delegation and re-delegation. The committee discussed options for moving forward. Staff recommended, and the committee agreed, that staff continues to report to the Board, and alter language of the resolutions to reflect that the process was followed. The committee did recognize that ICANN should continue to evolve the Board review process once there is a framework of interpretation in place. There was also discussion about length of time it takes to complete delegations and what points of the process may lead to the extension of the time.
    • Action:
      • Staff to revise standard Board resolution language relating to all delegation and re-delegation requests going forward.
  2. New gTLD Readiness. Staff provided a report to the IC on work within the IANA Functions Department related to the interaction between the new gTLD application process and the IANA delegation request process. The report included information relating to how the automation of the systems has been enhanced and that many of the functions will be automated from the delegation request stage through the delivery to NTIA phase. Staff reported on the status of the system upgrades. The staff also discussed how ICANN intends to optimize the evaluation process, which could include some type of attestation or certification from the new gTLD team that the evaluation process has been followed. Staff also reported that they have increased the number of IANA team members.
  3. IANA Functions Contract Deliverables. Staff reported about the various deliverables that are due to NTIA pursuant to the IANA Functions Contract, including potential agreed contract modifications re: timing of those deliverable. Staff also reported that ICANN is preparing for the security audit on the contracted processes covered by the IANA Functions Contract, and also is well underway to obtaining conflicts of interest disclosures from staff and contractors, which will inform the annual report that needs to be posted for the first time in January 2014.
  4. Timelines for Consultations. Staff reported the status and process for completing the IANA Functions Contract-required public consultations, including additional review steps that were not anticipated in the initial schedule. Staff further identified the ongoing consultations, all of which can be found on ICANN's IANA website. Staff reported that, so far, there are not very many comments.
  5. Committee Report to Board. The IC Chair noted that he was going to be presenting a short report to the full Board about the projects that the committee is working on, including the status re: the delegation and re-delegations process, the IANA Functions Contract compliance and the possibility of a training program related to the IANA Functions.
  6. Letter from SIDN. The Board Chair reported receipt of a letter from SIDN (also posted at https://www.sidn.nl/en/news/news/article/ministry-of-economic-affairs-and-sidn-write-to-icann/), regarding existing contingency plans, and asking for ICANN support for those plans, if in the unlikely event last resort re-delegation becomes necessary for .nl. Staff will acknowledge the letter and also consider a mechanism for helping develop contingency plans for other ccTLDs if such a need does arise. This lead to a discussion about improving the contact process for IANA requests, which might inform other processes including the WhoIs review process.