[registrars] Please Consider the Following

["Michael D. Palage" <michael@palage.com>]

Dear Tim:

Thank you for your informative note.  In reading your note, it actually
raised a question that I would like to put forth to the entire registrar
constituency as we move forward with reorganizing the constituency.  Should
the constituency consider opening up some sort of membership (i.e.
affiliate, junior, non-voting etc. status) to non-ICANN accredited
registrars.

Now before answering please consider the following. In Berlin, at the
constituency's first meeting, there was a motion put forth by NSI, before
they became part of the ICANN family, that the constituency be open to
non-ICANN accredited registrars. Ivan Pope was also a strong proponent of
this motion. Those registrars in attendance rejected this idea, and I as the
interim secretariat had the honor of getting up before the General Assembly
and informing them that the registrars constituency was only open to ICANN
accredited registrars. Needless to say I came under some heavy criticism
reminiscence of last month's Melbourne meeting :-)

Amadeu suggested that I contact registry operators to see if they had any
criteria for accredited registrars. After Berlin, and before Chile, I sent
out an email to every ccTLD operator inquiring about whether they had
criteria for accrediting registrars. I received a small handful of responses
that basically stated that the registry operator did not use registrars.

I reported this fact in Chile. In Chile when other constituency's began to
adopt restrictive charters, nothing more was made of the request. Now this
walk down memory lane was not just merely for nostalgia reasons but to
revisit this question in light of changing circumstances.

Specifically, the .CA accreditation of registrars, VeriSign's accreditation
of registrars for the .TV TLD, and other ccTLD operators practices. Should
the constituency consider some type of position for these entities within
our organization?

Although I share everyone's concern about an non-ICANN accredited registrars
impacting policy that they would not have to live by, an argument made very
effectively by Ken Stubbs against Don Telage and David Johnson's motion in
Berlin (seems like yesterday doesn't Ken). If the much heralded
consolidation within the registrars industry takes place, how many ICANN
accredited registrars will be left in 4 years. Will this small number
justify a constituency unto itself. Or would it be wise to gather more
voices so that when an issues comes up to ICANN we can speak with an
amplified voice of many instead of just a few?

I have no preference and only put it forward for discussion to the list
based upon Tim 's original email. I agree that any potential consideration
would have to have safeguards to prevent, these new members from voting on
issues directly impacting ICANN accredited registrar viewpoints. And it may
be best to address these issues after the new constituency leadership is in
place.

Just some thoughts, and a little history lesson for some of the new comers.

Mike







> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-registrars@dnso.org [mailto:owner-registrars@dnso.org]On
> Behalf Of Timothy M. Denton
> Sent: Friday, April 06, 2001 12:08 PM
> To: michael@palage.com
> Cc: Registrars List; Ca-reg Announce
> Subject: [registrars] Message from the ca-registrars association
>
>
> April 6, 2001
>
> Mr. Michael Palage
> Secretary, the Association
> 	of  ICANN-accredited registrars in the DNSO
>
> michael@palage.com
>
> Dear Michael,
>
> 	I am writing to you in my capacity as the representative of
> the Canadian
> registrars in the .ca namespace. In that capacity I sit on the Board of
> CIRA, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (www.cira.ca), which is
> the corporation that manages the .ca namespace. Two hundred thousand .ca
> registrations have been made as of now.
>
> 	My purposes in writing you are, first, to introduce you to
> the existence of
> the .ca- registrars, and second, to offer our cooperation I matters of
> mutual interest.
>
> 	The ca-registrars are without formal legal organization at
> this time.
> However, it is expected that, in the course of this year, we will begin to
> move beyond an e-mail listserve into some kind of association status under
> the Canada Corporations Act. As with the Registrars' Association under the
> ICANN umbrella, we have been reluctant to engender expenses.
>
> 	An election to the Board of CIRA will be held this summer,
> and the original
> appointed Board of Directors will be replaced with one elected by the
> holders of .ca names, which is the electorate in this case.
>
> 	As we are in touch frequently on matters of common interest
> in the ICANN
> forum, I am sure it will prove possible to continue cooperation of .ca
> registrars and ICANN-accredited registrars on matters of mutual interest.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
>
> Timothy Denton
>
>
> T.M.Denton, BA,BCL
> tmdenton.com
> 1-613-789-5397
> 37 Heney Street
> Ottawa, Ontario
> Canada K1N 5V6
> www.tmdenton.com
>
>