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Version November 2001, ccTLD Marina del Rey meeting
This application is made by the undersigned to become the Country Code Top Level Domain Names Support Organization ("ccSO"), pursuant to Article VI, Section 3 (b) of the Bylaws of the Corporation. The undersigned hereby commit to fulfill the undertakings and policies set forth in this application.
This application is based on the following consensus documents made in the two last ccTLD meetings:
This application is organized as follows:
All individual ccTLD managers are eligible to be members of the ccSO. Managers shall make application for membership and shall select the appropriate fee. The definition, roles, and responsibilities of ccTLD manager are referred in RFC1591. Members shall be able to give their proxies to regional or 'other' groupings within the ccSO.
A member cannot be a voting member of more than one Regional or 'other' organisation for ccSO purposes. "Border" ccTLDs may choose which the Corporation Geographic Region they wish to join (self-selection).
There will be a role for Regional associations and other forms of associations which may develop: initial responsibilities for the existing regional associations are the running elections of the ccSO 'Council' and integral part of any drafting process for "Policy" recommendations to the Corporation.
There shall be the Council initially consisting of 15 members, (3 from each geographical region), elected from time to time by the members of the ccSO. Each regional association shall have the right to elect the same number of members of the Council.
Within four weeks after acceptance by the Corporation of this application, an initial Council shall be selected. The initial Council has only the power to establish procedures for the formation, the assessment of fees for the start-up process and such further administrative steps as are necessary to form the ccSO. The initial Council shall not have any power to make recommendations to the Corporation or to nominate directors of the Corporation.
If at some later date another geographical regions are added and the corresponding regional association is created, the number of members of the Council shall be adjusted so that each regional association shall continue to have the right to elect the same number of members.
The initial list of the number of members of the Council is set forth below:
In order to ensure broad international representation on the Council, one citizen of a country located in each of the geographic regions shall serve on the Council at all times.
The Council shall meet regularly on a schedule determined by its members, but not less than 4 times per year. Meetings may be held in person, via videoconference or teleconference, at the discretion of the Council.
The Council shall post minutes of its meeting to the ccSO web site as soon a practicable, after the meeting has concluded.
The Council may from time to time appoint research or drafting committees to review matters, draft proposals and provide expert recommendations to the Council. Such committees shall be composed of at least one representative from each regional association.
Upon completion of the work of the Initial Council, but not less than six weeks after acceptance by the Corporation of this application, the membership will form itself according to the structure established by this application and elect members of the Council in accordance with the procedures set forth below.
Members shall nominate individuals to represent on the Council. Every nominee shall be identified as representing a particular geographical association.
Elections for Council members shall be held once each year for vacant seats. The term of office for each member of the Council is two years, staggered so that each year one half of the Council members shall be elected.
There is a carefully definable set of global issues which can be put through the ccSO to the policy making process of the Corporation.
Each ccTLD is solely responsible for it's decision making except for that carefully defined list of global issues mentioned above, when ccTLDs agree to be bound by policies formed through the Corporation process.
The ccSO Articles, bylaws and MoU with the Corporation, and any contracts signed between individual ccTLDs and the Corporation, must ensure the integrity of the consensus decision making process including limiting that process to the set of issues, and to those issues within the Corporation mandate of technical co-ordination of internet names and numbers.
The purpose of the ccSO is to protect and promote the common interests of ccTLD managers and their Local Internet Communities; to give advice to the Corporation on identified global policy issues, within the context of maintaining Global Internet stability and interoperability.
The Council is delegated the task of managing the development of policy recommendations regarding ccTLDs, including the operation, assignment and management of the domain name system and other related subjects, and the Council shall make recommendations on such subjects to the Corporation's Board.
The Council is intended to act primarily as an administrative and management body. It will only undertake greater authority or issue final policy recommendations when needed due to urgent questions of Internet stability, time deadlines for recommendations established by the Corporation.
A consensus recommendation is one that is supported by the affirmative vote of two thirds of members voting. The voting will be conducted under the condition of reasonable term for review, with credible announcement to all eligible members. If a recommendation is supported by an affirmative vote of more than one half but less than two-thirds of the members shall submit the recommendation to the Board of the Corporation with statements of majority and minority views. If a recommendation is not supported by affirmative vote of at least one half of the members voting, the Council will submit the proposed recommendation back to the drafting committee for re-drafting.
All recommendations must go through an open process which allows all members to participate.
The Council shall conduct election among the members of the number permitted by the Bylaws as candidates for the first round of nominations to the Board of the Corporation, with terms of one, two and three years respectively, and one candidate for a three year term each year thereafter. In order for a candidate to be selected, the candidate must have the affirmative votes of at least one-half the members of the Council.
The Council shall establish procedures for run off voting, if necessary, to ensure that the selected candidates each have the support of the affirmative votes of at least one-half the members of the Council.
The ccSO and the Council will establish on-line methods of meeting, conducting ballots and developing consensus.
The processes of the Council shall be governed by the same provisions for open and transparent non-discriminatory processes as those of the Board of the Corporation.
Because of the composition of the Council, there will automatically be international and diverse participation.
These policies shall be the same as those for the Board of the Corporation.
The ccSO shall fund its own expenses, including the costs of ccSO, the Council and the Secretariat. The current ccTLD Constituency funding model shall apply.
The ccSO respects the consensus of the Global Internet Community of the Corporation. The consensus reached by the ccSO will be open to be discussed by the other constituencies of the DNSO, ASO, and PSO in order to get support.
ccSO will have open forums whenever necessary, to consult the opinions of other communities. The results of the open forums will be posted on the website to be discussed.