Changes

The ICANN Board conducts annual meetings at the main office of ICANN or any appropriate venue chosen by the Board; it must be held within 14 months of the previous annual meeting. Regular meetings are determined by the Board and special meetings are conducted when 1/4 of the members of the Board submit a request, or when a request comes from the Chairman of the Board or the President.The Secretary of ICANN will make the call for special meeting at a designated venue or at the ICANN main office.<ref>[http://www.icann.org/en/general/archive-bylaws/bylaws-25jan11-en.htm#VI-9 Meetings]</ref> The Board needs a quorum to be able to proceed or act on a particular issue during an any meeting. If there is no quorum, the meeting is to be adjourned.

The ICANN Board conducts annual meetings at the main office of ICANN or any appropriate venue chosen by the Board; it must be held within 14 months of the previous annual meeting. Regular meetings are determined by the Board and special meetings are conducted when 1/4 of the members of the Board submit a request, or when a request comes from the Chairman of the Board or the President.The Secretary of ICANN will make the call for special meeting at a designated venue or at the ICANN main office.<ref>[http://www.icann.org/en/general/archive-bylaws/bylaws-25jan11-en.htm#VI-9 Meetings]</ref> The Board needs a quorum to be able to proceed or act on a particular issue during an any meeting. If there is no quorum, the meeting is to be adjourned.

===Issues of Transparency===

===Issues of Transparency===

There is a constant tension between keeping ICANN Board decisions and meetings transparent to all stakeholders and holding private discussions related to confidential information, internally divisive, ad publicly detrimental issues. It has run a number of reviews, both internal and external, including a Board review in 2008, and the creation of an [[Accountability and Transparency Review Team]] to make recommendations to improve its internal processes and external communications. The team's first report was due at the end of 2010, and it is to continue to review and report at least every three years on the implementation of its previous findings and the identification of other discrepancies.<ref>[http://www.icann.org/en/reviews/affirmation/review-1-en.htm ICANN.org, Review]</ref> With regards to the board, the review team had two separate working groups, one looking at governance, performance and composition, and the other looking at the review mechanisms in place for its decisions.  

There is a constant tension between keeping ICANN Board decisions and meetings transparent to all stakeholders and holding private discussions related to confidential information, internally divisive, ad publicly detrimental issues. It has run a number of reviews, both internal and external, including a Board review in 2008, and the creation of an [[Accountability and Transparency Review Team]] to make recommendations to improve its internal processes and external communications. The team's first report was due at the end of 2010, and it is to continue to review and report at least every three years on the implementation of its previous findings and the identification of other discrepancies.<ref>[http://www.icann.org/en/reviews/affirmation/review-1-en.htm ICANN.org, Review]</ref> With regards to the board, the review team had two separate working groups, one looking at governance, performance and composition, and the other looking at the review mechanisms in place for its decisions. A number of important recommendations were made, and most notably on the issue of transparency it found that:

 

 

ICANN has had this issue since the beginning, and it was immediately criticized for its closed door meetings. An original board member, [[Hans Kraaijenbrink]], defensively argued that the U.S. executive branch does not meet in public and that "decision making cannot be done in full, public view". [[ICANN]]'s first chair, [[Esther Dyson]], tackled the issue head on and held public forums to address the concerns over closed door meetings and made progress with regards to creating greater transparency despite the objections of much of the board.<ref>[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.12/dyson_pr.html Dyson, Wired.com]</ref>

ICANN has had this issue since the beginning, and it was immediately criticized for its closed door meetings. An original board member, [[Hans Kraaijenbrink]], defensively argued that the U.S. executive branch does not meet in public and that "decision making cannot be done in full, public view". [[ICANN]]'s first chair, [[Esther Dyson]], tackled the issue head on and held public forums to address the concerns over closed door meetings and made progress with regards to creating greater transparency despite the objections of much of the board.<ref>[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.12/dyson_pr.html Dyson, Wired.com]</ref>