<div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000"><b style="font-weight:normal" id="gmail-docs-internal-guid-37b123ee-ac5c-edaa-5915-bb093fb0da08"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:14pt"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" style="">Dear NCSG members,</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:14pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">as a preparation the policy call on Tuesday, 20th of February 2018, I would like again to share some information about the previous GNSO meeting to ensure that you can catch up with what is going on and see the continuity in the work of GNSO: some of the issues we discussed at the previous meeting are still pending resolution for the next one. </font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:14pt"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The previous GNSO meeting took place in Los Angeles, USA, on January, 30th. It was a part of the GNSO strategic planning meeting - you might remember the </span><a href="https://t.co/9amvbZyLt1" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">blog post</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> written by the GNSO Council Chair, Heather Forrest.</span></font></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:14pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">I am going to provide a brief overview of the discussion, linking some of the issues to the next GNSO meeting (and to the NCSG policy call on Tuesday). In summary, on 30th of January, 2018, the GNSO Council discussed the following issues (and passed a couple of motions):  </font></span></p><ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Voted for the </span><a href="https://community.icann.org/x/bACfB" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">motion</span></a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> (you will find it following the link as a second motion), to adopt the proposed revisions to the GNSO Operating Procedures and the recommended amendments to the ICANN Bylaws. The subject of this motion was discussed during the GSNO</span><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> Council Strategic Planning session earlier. Taking into account the importance of the motion, for the voting for this motion the usual voting threshold of a simple majority got suspended, in favour of a super-majority. The motion was passed by the GNSO councilors unanimously. You can check the </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><a href="https://gnso.icann.org/en/council/op-procedures-30jan18-en.pdf" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">new version</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> of the</span><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> GNSO Operating Procedures</span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">. </span></font></p></li></ol><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font><ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" start="2"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Discussed the </span><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><a href="https://community.icann.org/x/bACfB" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">motion</span></a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> on the </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Adoption of the Charter related to the next steps for the ICANN Procedure of Handling WHOIS conflicts with Privacy Law. The motion, which was put forward for voting, was deferred for the next GNSO meeting as the councilors, after discussion the  content in length, decided that more consideration is needed before the adoption of the Charter and creation of the group that is going to deal with the issues. The reasons for postponing the adoption of the motion were </span><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the heavy current workload in terms of Policy Development Process (PDP) Working Groups (WG) and Implementation Review Teams (IRT), the possible overlap with parallel discussions and work efforts about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the uncertainty with regard to the start date of the group’s activity and community staffing. As the decision making was postponed, you can follow the discussion about this motion on the GNSO Council meeting on 22nd of February, 2018: it is one of the </span><a href="https://community.icann.org/display/gnsocouncilmeetings/Documents+22+February+2018" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">agenda items</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> (item 4) for the next meeting. </span></font></p></li></ol><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font><ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" start="3"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Discussed the updates on </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">potential FY19 GNSO Additional Budget Requests (ABRs)</span><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">. The requests that were to be put forward by the 31 January 2018 deadline considered travel support for PDP Chairs, GNSO Council Strategic Planning session and Working Group Enrolment (WGE). We discussed this in details on the last NCSG Policy call before the GNSO meeting. The councilors supported the idea of the yearly GNSO Council Strategic Planning session, however, suggestions were made to modify the format, duration and dates to accommodate budget requirements. Travel support for the PDP Chairs also gathered support. </span></font></p></li></ol><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font><ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" start="4"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Discussed the </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">GNSO Council Public Comment to the Proposed Incremental Changes to the ICANN Meetings Strategy. The response, prepared by GNSO Councilors, concerned mainly the three-meeting structure. The Council was agreed to keep the substance of the response within the scope of the Public Comment request and to carry on discussing the higher-level comments at a Council level. </span></font></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Discussed the GNSO Council </span><a href="https://gnso.icann.org/en/drafts/gnso-council-comments-operating-standards-19jan18-en.pdf" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Public Comment</span></a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> on Operating Standards for ICANN’s Specific Reviews. The Council agreed that the comments have to go through the revisions based on the discussion and submitted. </span><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></font></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Discussed the </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Letter from GNSO Council to SO/AC leadership </span><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">concerning the </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">SSR2-RT. You probably saw recently the correspondence forwarded to the NCSG mailing list concerning this letter. You can find this correspondence following the links: </span></font></p></li></ol><ul style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;margin-left:36pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a href="https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/council/2018-February/020905.html" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">SOAC Chairs Statement on status of SSR2 Review 2018-02-12 </font></span></a></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;margin-left:36pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a href="https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/council/2018-February/020906.html" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">SSR2 Review follow up</font></span></a></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:disc;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;margin-left:36pt"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><a href="https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/council/2018-February/020911.html" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"> MSSI Support for SSR2-RT</font></span></a></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:36pt"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">It was also noted that </span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">the Standing Selection Committee (SSC) was reviewing the skills matrix which was prepared by the SSR RT members and working on identifying a pool of candidates to replace James Gannon as one of the GNSO appointed SSR RT members after his resignation. Councilors also discussed the idea of bringing an external facilitator being into SSR-RT to remove the perception of RT management by the SOAC Chairs. Several members of the Council highlighted the importance of the principle of the independence of review teams in general. </span></font></p><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:36pt"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The SSR2-RT is still on the agenda of the GNSO for the next meeting - you will see that one of the </span><a href="https://community.icann.org/display/gnsocouncilmeetings/Documents+22+February+2018" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">agenda items</span></a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> - item 5 - is the motion to nominate a GNSO Replacement Candidate for Second Security, Stability, and Resiliency of the DNS (SSR2) Review Team. </span></font></p><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font><ol style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt" start="7"><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type:decimal;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Under any other business, the Council discussed the planning for ICANN61 and the GNSO strategic session. </font></span></p></li></ol><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">If you are interested in more details concerning any items from the summary above, you can listen to the </span><a href="https://audio.icann.org/gnso/gnso-council-30jan18-en.mp3" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">MP3 Recording</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> meeting, or check the </span><a href="https://participate.icann.org/p8x5fekpqd6/" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Adobe Connect recording</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> and </span><a href="https://gnso.icann.org/en/meetings/transcript-chat-council-30jan18-en.pdf" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Adobe Chat Transcript</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">. Or, if you prefer to read, here is the link to the </span><a href="https://gnso.icann.org/en/meetings/transcript-council-30jan18-en.pdf" style="text-decoration:none"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">transcript</span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> of the meeting. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or any other GNSO Councillors if you have any further questions!  </span></font></p><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">See you on the monthly NCSG policy call tomorrow (Tuesday)!</font></span></p><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Warm regards,</font></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.2;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Tatiana </font></span></p></b><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"></font><br></div>