General Assembly
GA is the abbreviation for the General Assembly Mailing List, commonly referred to as the General Assembly. The GA was established as part of the Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO). It is an open forum for participation for the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), which superseded the DNSO. It is open to all people willing to work for the GNSO. The main purpose of the GA list is to allow discussion between GA members on the various GA matters. The GA is not a decision-making body, though members may derive any collective opinions into consensus documents to be submitted to other bodies.[1]
Participants[edit | edit source]
Participants in the GA are individuals who have sufficient knowledge of and interest in the issues concerning the areas which form the major part of GNSO responsibilities, including discussion of work items, proposal and development, preparation of drafts document and participating in drafting and research committees as well as their working groups. These participants are such who can dedicate time, effort and provide the necessary expertise for the growth of the GNSO.[1]
Objectives[edit | edit source]
The main objectives of the GA are:[1]
- To identify opportunities that would help in increasing the effectiveness and communication of the GA with ICANN and the GNSO.
- Act as a conduit of information between the registrants, users and ICANN.
- To transmit the view of the stakeholders of ICANN as mentioned by the participants in the GA.
Maling Lists[edit | edit source]
The General Assembly has the following mailing lists for its internal operation:
- ga [at] gnso.org for discussion among GA members on GA business
- announce [at] gnso.org for announcements from the GNSO
Both lists are open for public subscription by any email address and are archived for general public. The GA does not make the subscribers list publicly available.
The Announce list which emanates from the Secretariat of the NC and Chair of GA is made available only for official pronouncements. The GNSO Council manages the GA mailing lists and makes a point of being open and unbiased.[1]
Posting rules[edit | edit source]
The right to post to the GA mailing list rests only in the hands of the following people:
- Subscribers to the GA mailing list, who post by using the email address by which the GA list recognizes them, and who are in good standing.
- The staff of the GNSO list management, though they are restricted to technical announcements
Violation of Posting Rules[edit | edit source]
The GA list either sanctions a suspension of an offender's posting rights or monitors the offender's post, sometimes both. These sanctions, decided on by the List Monitor, are issued only for short period of time, however, usually about two weeks. For repeat offenders, the GA imposes larger sanctions that might last for a period of 4 weeks for a second offense and 8 weeks for a third offense.[1]