On 10 March 2017, the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) held a full day face-to-face meeting prior to ICANN58 in Copenhagen, Denmark. 90 members and participants attended in-person, and many others joined remotely using the virtual meeting room, to further discussions on Work Stream 2 (WS2).
The CCWG-Accountability used the meeting to receive updates from its sub-groups and inform the ICANN community about the status of its work. The CCWG-Accountability also made substantive progress in the following areas:
- SO/AC accountability: The CCWG-Accountability completed a successful first reading of the draft recommendations of the Supporting Organization and Advisory Committee (SO/AC) Accountability sub-group.
- Staff accountability: The CCWG-Accountability worked with the Staff Accountability sub-group to define the scope and expectations for the sub-group’s recommendations.
- Finalizing sub-group recommendations: The CCWG-Accountability agreed to put each sub-group report out for public comment and gain approval by the full CCWG-Accountability before finalization. The group also agreed to put the total package of finalized sub-group reports out for public comment to identify any inconsistencies between the various recommendations.
- Chartering Organization approval: The CCWG-Accountability suggested that Chartering Organizations approve the finalized sub-group reports in small chunks, rather than all at once. This will help the Chartering Organizations with document management and not result in a heavy impact on each SO or ACs normal operations.
- Timing: The CCWG-Accountability concluded that, despite progress made by each of the sub-groups, the CCWG-Accountability will not complete its final recommendations by the end of the fiscal year 2017. A discussion on carrying forward resources to the next fiscal year has been initiated with ICANN, however the CCWG-Accountability expects to stay within the initially proposed budget.
The CCWG-Accountability was pleased to have Göran Marby, Steve Crocker and George Sadowsky in attendance for the meeting. Their participation led to a discussion on the role of the ICANN CEO, staff and community, and how to increase the accountability and transparency of their collaboration. The group agreed to establish a pilot project on these topics with the Staff Accountability sub-group with the objective of determining if improvements can be made to some of the systemic issues identified by the sub-group.
The CCWG-Accountability co-Chairs recognize the outstanding dedication of its volunteers, and express gratitude to ICANN staff for their diligent and skilled support. For more information on the CCWG-Accountability, or to view meeting archives and draft documents, please refer to the group’s dedicated wiki page.
CCWG-Accountability WS2 is an open group. Anyone interested in the work of the CCWG-Accountability can join as a participant or observer. For more information about how to join the CCWG-Accountability, please send an email to acct-staff [at] icann.org.
CCWG-Accountability co-Chairs
Thomas Rickert, León Sánchez, Mathieu Weill