There is no single organization that meets the exact requirements for the Domain Name Support Organization ("DNSO") specified in the Draft Bylaws of the reconstituted IANA ("the Bylaws"). Therefore, such an organization must be formed. 

We present here the start of a proposal for the formation of such an organization. We invite interested parties to join us in completing this work, and presenting an application to the reconstitued IANA for recognition as the DNSO.

Our proposal follows the third draft of the Bylaws, VI.3.a.ii and VI.3.b, very closely, and we have tried to present a structure that represents our best understanding of what is required.  Several points are worth special mention: 

• The phrase "any other entities with legitimate interests in these issues" (VI.3.a.ii) is a very broad membership qualification. Accordingly, we have designed the DNSO so that essentially any interested entity can participate. 

• Funds from the DNSO will represent a major part of the ongoing funding of a reconstituted IANA.  Two obvious possible sources of funds come to mind: a per-domain assessment on domain registrations, and membership dues in the DNSO. Probably both will be required.  This is sure to be a controversial topic, however: we present one alternative, but we expect a great deal of discussion on this topic. 

• Even with dues, the Name Registries and Registrars are likely to be a large source of funding for the new organization. This places them in a unique role in the DNSO. User and Industry groups have a different character, and deal much more with issues of representation, which places them in a different category. We deal with such issues by following a model similar to that in the Draft Bylaws -- various classifications of members of the DNSO elect certain numbers of members of the Governing Committee. 

• Given a very open structure such as we propose, there are almost certain to be many members of the DNSO, and we anticipate that there will necessarily be an executive committee (we call it the "DNSO Governing Committee") that will conduct much of the business of the DNSO.  Thus, a significant part of our proposal deals with the issue of how the Governing Committee will be elected, and how such an election will meet the requirements specified in the Draft Bylaws. 

• As specified in the Draft Bylaws, the DNSO will create a Names Council ("NC").  The NC is an adjunct to the DNSO, and is an open membership organization.  We anticipate that dues will also be necessary for membership in the NC, but they will be much less than the dues for a DNSO member, and are only to cover administrative and other costs of running the NC.  The NC will elect some fraction of the Governing Committee. 

• A decision mechanism for nominating Board members and deciding policy is a requirement from the reconstituted IANA Bylaws.  We have a proposal, but this is an especially delicate area, and some further work seems necessary. We also expect a great deal of spirited debate in this area.

• This is a work in progress.  In places we have proposed alternatives; in other places there are simply holes that need to be filled.  We believe the general framework is very flexible, but there are many parametric details that must be decided.  We also recognize that it may be necessary to change the framework. 

Thank you.

The gTLD-MoU Policy Oversight Committee