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Board Activities and Meetings

View records of actions and decisions made by the ICANN Board from recent activities and meetings.

Preliminary Report | Meeting of the New gTLD Program Committee 21 August 2015

Note: On 10 April 2012, the Board established the New gTLD Program Committee, comprised of all voting members of the Board that are not conflicted with respect to the New gTLD Program. The Committee was granted all of the powers of the Board (subject to the limitations set forth by law, the Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws or ICANN's Conflicts of Interest Policy) to exercise Board-level authority for any and all issues that may arise relating to the New gTLD Program. The full scope of the Committee's authority is set forth in its charter at http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/new-gTLD.

Formal Minutes are still to be approved by the New gTLD Program Committee. This has not been approved by the New gTLD Program Committee and does not constitute minutes but does provide a preliminary attempt setting forth the unapproved reporting of the resolutions from that meeting. Details on voting and abstentions will be provided in the Minutes, when approved at a future meeting.

NOTE ON ADDITIONAL INFORMATION INCLUDED WITHIN PRELIMINARY REPORT – ON RATIONALES -- Where available, a draft Rationale for each of the New gTLD Program Committee's actions is presented under the associated Resolution. A draft Rationale is not final until approved with the minutes of the New gTLD Program Committee meeting.

A Regular Meeting of the New gTLD Program Committee of the ICANN Board of Directors was held telephonically on 21 August 2015 at 13:00 UTC.

Committee Chairman Cherine Chalaby promptly called the meeting to order.

In addition to the Chair the following Directors participated in all or part of the meeting: Rinalia Abdul Rahim, Fadi Chehadé (President and CEO, ICANN), Steve Crocker (Board Chairman), Chris Disspain, Asha Hemrajani, Markus Kummer, Bruno Lanvin, Erika Mann, Gonzalo Navarro, George Sadowsky, and Mike Silber.

Thomas Schneider (GAC Liaison) was in attendance as a non-voting liaison to the Committee.

Ray Plzak and Kuo-Wei Wu sent apologies.

Secretary: John Jeffrey (General Counsel and Secretary).

ICANN Executives and Staff in attendance for all or part of the meeting: Akram Atallah (President, Global Domains Division); Megan Bishop (Board Support Coordinator); Michelle Bright (Board Support Content Manager); Allen Grogan (Chief Contract Compliance Officer); Dan Halloran (Deputy General Counsel); Jamie Hedlund (Vice President, Strategic Programs – Global Domains Division); Vinciane Koenigsfeld (Board Support Content Manager); Cyrus Namazi (Vice President, DNS Industry Engagement); Olof Nordling (Senior Director, GAC Relations); Erika Randall (Senior Counsel); Amy Stathos (Deputy General Counsel); and Christine Willett (Vice President, Operations – Global Domains Division).

This is a Preliminary Report of the Meeting of the New gTLD Program Committee, which took place on 21 August 2015.

  1. Consent Agenda:
    1. Approval of Minutes
  2. Main Agenda:
    1. GAC Buenos Aires Communiqué
    2. Sunsetting of the New gTLD Program Committee
    3. Board Governance Committee Recommendation Regarding .DOCTOR

  1. Consent Agenda:

    1. Approval of Minutes

      The Chair introduced for approval the minutes of the 6 June and 21 June 2015 meetings. The Committee agreed to a minor revision to the 21 June 2015 minutes, and took the following action by acclamation:

      Resolved (2015.08.21.NG01), the Board New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) approves the minutes of its 6 June 2015 and 21 June 2015 meetings.

      All members of the Committee present voted in favor of Resolution 2015.08.21.NG01. Two members of the Committee were unavailable to vote on the Resolution. The Resolution carried.

  2. Main Agenda:

    1. GAC Buenos Aires Communiqué

      The Committee began discussions about how to respond the GAC's June 2015 Communiqué issued in Buenos Aires. The Communiqué addressed certain topics related to the New gTLD Program including safeguards for new gTLDs and protections for the names and acronyms of Inter-governmental Organizations.

      During the discussion it was noted that in the Communiqué, the GAC made some "recommendations" concerning New gTLD Program related matters. For example, the Communiqué stated that the GAC "recommends that the NGPC [c]reate a list of commended public interest commitment (PIC) examples related to verification and validation of credentials for domains in highly regulated sectors to serve as a model." The Committee noted that wording the Buenos Aires Communiqué was a different formulation than previous Communiqués where the GAC would specifically "advise" the Committee (or Board) to take certain actions. The Bylaws establishes the process for how the Board must consider the "advice" of the GAC, and the Committee considered whether the GAC intended for the Committee to consider its recommendations differently than it considers advice.

      After discussion, the Committee decided that it would formally write to the GAC to ask for clarification so that the Committee would better understand how it should consider the items in the Buenos Aires Communiqué. The Committee agreed to discuss the Buenos Aires Communiqué after it receives clarification from the GAC.

      The Committee also discussed correspondence from a community member regarding safeguards for gTLD strings associated with highly regulated industries. Various Committee members noted that the letter raised policy considerations that should be part of broader community discussions in the GNSO about safeguards for gTLDs. The Committee agreed to forward the correspondence along with previous ALAC Statements on safeguards to the GNSO Council for consideration.

    2. Sunsetting of the New gTLD Program Committee

      The Committee continued its discussions about whether it was time to begin planning for an eventual sunsetting of the New gTLD Program Committee as a Board committee. The Committee discussed how conflicts of interest could be dealt with if certain matters were referred to the Board for consideration, and also whether the Board meeting schedule would need to change if the Committee were disbanded.

      The Committee discussed the next steps to move forward with sunsetting the Committee during the annual general meeting in Dublin, and it was noted that the matter would be taken up by the Board Governance Committee and eventually by the full Board for action.

    3. Board Governance Committee Recommendation Regarding .DOCTOR

      The Committee continued its previous discussions concerning the recommendation of the Board Governance Committee (BGC) that "the NGPC again review the proposed implementation of a public interest commitment for the .DOCTOR TLD, and to re-evaluate the NGPC's 12 February 2015 determination." The BGC's recommendation was in response to Reconsideration Request 15-3 filed by Brice Trail, LLC (an entity related to Donuts Inc.) – one of the contending applicants for the .DOCTOR TLD.

      The Committee considered whether or not to adopt the proposal suggested in Brice Trail's Reconsideration Request to require a registrant to demonstrate "legitimate medical practitioner" status only if the registrant holds itself out as a medical practitioner. This would be implemented by adding an additional public interest commitment (PIC) to the .DOCTOR Registry Agreement. Adopting this proposal would allow non-medical practitioners to register names in the .DOCTOR TLD. Some Committee members raised questions about the applicant would implement the PIC, such as whether the applicant would verify and/or validate credentials for medical practitioners and how the applicant would treat a registration from a company owning a medical practice.

      The Committee decided to send a letter to the GAC to explain how the Committee intends to handle the BGC's recommendation concerning the .DOCTOR TLD, and also directed staff to gather additional information from the applicant to respond to Committee's questions about implementation of the additional PIC.

    The Chair called the meeting to a close.

Published on 1 September 2015

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