CONSTITUENCY CHARTER

1. Purpose and mission.

1.1 Purpose: to provide representation in the Domain name Supporting Organization (DNSO) for all individual Domain Name Owners. We represent the concerns of individuals who own domain names, rather than organizations. These concerns include the wish to remain free from being classified as commercial or non-commercial.

1.2. Mission: to ensure that Individual Domain Name Owners , as stakeholders in the Domain Name System (DNS), will have a say in all new ICANN rulemaking that will affect their financial interest, on-line freedom or security of existence.

1.3. Our mission to represent Individual Domain Name Owners will extend to all global decisionmaking bodies and is not limited to representation in ICANN or the DNSO.

2. Constituency Name and definition

2.1. The Name "the Cyberspace Association" will be subjected to a vote by the members any time after the membership has passed 100 members.

2.2. The Individual Domain Name Owners Constituency is requesting the ICANN board to approve it's membership of the DNSO in accordance with the provisions of the ICANN Bylaws and with the US government's White Paper and allow it to contribute 3 elected representatives from among its members to the Names Council of the DNSO.

3. Constituency principles: democracy, transparency, accountability in all the Constituency's activities and representations.

Philosophy: freedom of enterprise in the TLD and SLD space. (top level and lower levels of the Domain space)

(these 3 articles have been ratified by membership-vote closing at 12:00 GMT, 23 August,1999)

4. Eligibility and membership. **(these rules have been approved by unanimous vote of the membership --13 July, 1999)

4. Eligibility and membership.

4.1. IDNO constituency membership is open to any individual person who can demonstrate "colour of title" to a Domain name.

4.2. No individual may have more than a single membership in the IDNO.

4.3. "Colour of title" means enough control over a domain name that a reasonable person could conclude that such control constitutes "ownership". Examples of elements to be considered may include, and are not limited to, the following:

- Whether the candidate is named in domain contact information.

- Whether the candidate's own funds were used to pay any registration fees. - Whether the candidate may cause the domain name to be relinquished.

- Whether the candidate may be considered the intended beneficial owner of a domain name that is registered or operated by some intermediary.

- In the cases of direct control of domain name by a corporation or other entity, whether that entity's control of the domain name is effectively directed by the candidate and subject to his/her discretion.

4.4 In cases where control of a domain is diffused among multiple individuals that domain may not be used as a basis of membership.

4.5 No single domain name may be used to support membership of more than one individual.

4.6 The domain name used as a basis of membership must be a Domain Name that is not a top level domain name, nor a reserved second level Domain name in registries where this level is not open for individual registration. define domain name for the purpose of membershipsomebody had a good working definitioncan we have that again?

4.7. Administrative staff may determine whether a candidate has presented adequate prima facie evidence of colour of title to a domain name.

4.8. Disputes about entitlement to membership or entitlement to candidacy to the Names Council shall be resolved by an elected membership committee of the IDNO. Such committee shall examine the totality of the facts and make such decisions as appropriate. The decisions of such committee are final with regards to basic membership. With regards to candidature to the Names Council they are open to appeal to the entire membership, which will decide by majority vote.

4.8.1. The membership committee shall have three members.

4.9. Non-Exclusivity - Members associated with other DNSO constituencies may be members of the IDNO constituency as long as they meet the eligibility criteria.

4.10 Non-Duplication - Members are subject to the following voting restrictions:

a.) Any member who is either a voting member, representative of a voting member, or who effectively controls a voting member in one or more other constituencies of the DNSO may not vote or stand for election in the IDNO unless the member, for a period of at least nine months, waives and does not exercise such voting rights in those other constituencies.

b.) Any member who has been elected to the Names Council by another DNSO constituency may not vote or stand for election in the IDNO during his or her term.

4.11. Loss of membership.

Sole criterion for loss of membership should be direct action against the best
interests of the IDNO or blatant conflict of interest with the mission and purpose
of the IDNO.

4.11.1 Any member can make a motion for an expulsion hearing and vote regarding any other member that in the opinion of at least 5 list-assembly members has acted against the interests of the IDNO.

4.11.2 Such hearing will consist of the posting of detailed accusations against the member on a specially non-linked area of the IDNO website and the posting of a detailed reply to these accusations by the member so accused.The member has the right of reply but cannot stall the proceedings by refusing to reply.

4.11.3 The list -Assembly members together, if they number less than 100, form the Fair Hearing panel. After the accusation and the defense, if any has been put forward, have been made available to them, the Fair Hearing panel will be called to vote within 10 days. A simple majority will decide on expulsion.

4.11.4 If there are more than 100 members on the discussion list, a 10 member panel will be elected by preference vote, to function as a Fair Hearing panel. All members are automatically nominated for such a preference vote.

4. 12. Honorary Members

Well known Individuals who support the Cyberspace Association and whose stature in the Internet Community is such that their Honorary Membership of this constituency can be of real help to promote the internal cohesion of the constituency, can be made Honorary Members.

Nominations

5.1. Any member can nominate any other member as a candidate for any elective, appointive, or nominative office of the CA/IDNO.

5.2 Nominations can only be made by posting to the open discussion list under unique and reserved headers. Nominations for elective office will be closed 21 calendar days prior to a scheduled election, unless this period is extended by the Polling Committee.

5.2. The candidate must accept the nomination by posting acceptance
to the open discussion list and for elective office not later than 14 calendar days prior to a scheduled election.

5.3. Self-nomination is not permitted, except when more than five list-assembly members call for volunteers.

5.4 In order to be placed on the candidate list, all nominations must
also secure a seconding vote from a member, which must be posted on the open discussion list.

5.5 In the event that there are an inadequate number of nominations
by the closing date a Polling officer appointed by the Polling Committee should solicit nominations by posting to the announce-list.

Conflicts of Interest

5.6 All candidates for elective office, in particular those who qualify
for a seat on the Names Council, must declare their relevant interests, for determination of possible conflicts of interest. No elected officer shall vote on any matter in which he or she has a material and direct interest that will be affected by the outcome of the vote.

Voting for Representatives

6. Election Procedures and Voting Rights

6.1 Responsibility for election scheduling, procedures and polling booth administration will rest with a 3 member Polling Committee, directly elected by the Membership. The term of office of the Polling Committee members is 24 months.

6.2 Responsibilities of the Polling Committee.

6.2.1.The Polling Committee will elect an executive Polling Officer
from their number. The executive Polling Officer is responsible for the administration of the Polling Booth but all decision making will be joint. All correspondence with the voters will be copied to all members of the Polling Committee.

6.2.1.1 In cases where a member of the Polling Committee is involved
in a dispute the executive Polling Officer will be charged with seeking alternative non-involved volunteer/s for the duration of the dispute.

6.2.2 The Polling Committee will be responsible for formulating
the questions to be asked and clarifications for the voters in liaison with the interested parties, and where appropriate, other Committees. The executive Polling Officer will be responsible for overseeing this process and uploading the detail to the Polling Booth.

6.2.3 To publish, on the announce-list , the list of positions
open for election, and date and duration of the election.

6.2.4 To collate, validate, and publish on the announce-list ,
the list of candidates, in alphabetical order, not less than 5 calendar days prior to the opening of voting.

6.2.5 To assist nominated candidates for election with publishing
a bio-sketch or statements of position on the IDNO website at a reasonable time prior to opening of voting.

6.2.6 To validate, collate, and publish on the announce-list ,
the results of the election.

6.2.7 The Polling officer/committee will have full and unfettered
access to all logs and records generated by the on-line voting system.

6.2.8 In case of disputed results, logs and records will be handed
over to the List Chair, who will act, as arbiter in the dispute.

6.3 In all voting procedures all members will vote as individuals, with
equal voting rights for all individuals.

6.4 Owning more than one domain name will not give rights to multiple
votes per individual member.

6.5 Voting will take place on-line and will take full advantage of the
potential inherent in on-line voting, in particular the web based Polling Booth that is available for the CA/IDNO.

6.5.1 For each vote the Executive Committee, liaising with the
Polling Committee, decides which voting options will be the most appropriate and will direct the Polling Committee to clarify the options to all voters.

6.5.2. For snap elections, voters will be given the option to approve
or disapprove of candidates.

7. Elected Representatives.

7.1. In any election, a candidate will be elected by gaining the greatest
number of preference votes from the members.

7.1.1. In case the approval/disapproval vote option is used, disapproval votes are subtracted from approval votes.

7.1.2. In the event of a tie between 2 or more candidates, the members will re-vote to express their preference among the tied candidates.

7.1.3 A member can hold unbroken elected office not to exceed four
years after which there is a mandatory stand down of at least 1 year before eligibility for re-election.

7.1.4 All official votes and any attached comments and/or notes of
the members of the Executive Committee will be recorded on an individual basis and the record will be made available in the Members' Only area of the IDNO Web site, or in the area of the Polling Booth to which only IDNO members have access .

7.1.5 All official votes and any attached comments and/or notes of
each of the Names Council representatives will be recorded and the record will be made available in the Members' Only area of the IDNO Web site or in the area of the Polling Booth to which only IDNO members have access.

Executive Committee

7.2 An Executive Committee will be elected of seven members, excluding the 3 Names Council representatives. The List-Chair (elected as in Article 8 and subsections) will be a de facto member of the Executive Committee, particularly with reference to the Executive Committee list.

7.2.1 Insofar as possible the nominations to the positions on the
Executive Committee will represent the geographic diversity of the membership in accordance with the 5 global regions determined by the ICANN bylaws. Either residence, domicile, citizenship or the jurisdiction of domain registration may be used to determine fulfilment of ICANN's geographic diversity criteria.
In case more than one elected candidate is from the same region, the next candidate that fulfils both the voter preference and the geographic diversity requirement will be selected for the Executive Committee seat.

7.2.2 For all internal voting procedures the Executive Committee must
form a quorum for a valid vote to take place. A quorum is to be 50% of the Executive Committee (including the List-Chair) and so a minimum of 4 members of the elected Executive Committee must take part in a vote for the vote to be valid.

All votes will be posted to the executive Polling officer unless the executive Polling officer is involved in a Conflict of Interest. In such situations another member of the Polling Committee shall take charge of the votes.

7.2.3 Terms of office for the Executive Committee shall be for 24
months each. Annual Elections will be held for 4 seats.

7.2.4. The Executive Committee shall annually elect from their number
a Chairperson and a Secretary and/or other such officers as required. The List-Chair will not be eligible for an officer position in the Executive Committee.

Role of the Executive Committee

7.2.4 The Executive Committee will be charged with:

- ensuring the Articles in this Charter are duly complied with in
all forms

- maintaining an open discourse with the membership and enabling membership participation through the open discussion list , Standing Committees and WGs

- managing the overall policy of CA/IDNO within the framework set
out in the Articles and subsections of this Charter

- selecting and nominating the candidates for the Names Council seats
as in Article 7.3

- managing the overall policy presented by the Names Council representatives within the framework set out in the Articles

- appointing the various spokespersons needed to promote the CA/IDNO as in Article 7.4

- nominating officers for election to the Membership Committee
as Article 4.8

- liaising with the Membership Committee and the Polling Committee
within the jurisdiction of each of the Committees as laid out in the various Articles of this Charter

- creating permanent Standing Committees and Working Groups when
needed and appointing volunteers from the membership to work on those committees as Article 7.2.5

- continuing to increase the visibility of the CA/IDNO particularly
with reference to obtaining new members

- managing the resources of the CA/IDNO, human and material, publishing the financial details as laid out in the financial Articles and subsections

- ensuring that appropriate lists are created for the working groups
and committees.

Standing Committees and Working Groups

7.2.5. The Executive Committee will create permanent Standing Committees and ad hoc Working Groups that will be comprised of at least one Executive Committee member and other volunteer members. Membership of these SCs and WGs will be open to all members of the Association. Permanent Standing committees and Working Groups will generally be responsible for their own internal structure, but must elect for themselves a convenor at a minimum and any other officers that may be needed. The convenor will be charged with reporting
back from the standing committee or Working Group.

DNSO Names Council

7.3 Three seats are available for NC positions as noted in Article
2.1

The Executive Committee will supply the membership with at least six
nominations for Names Council candidates.

7.3.1 The highest number of votes qualifies the candidates for Names
Council seats whilst as far as possible the elected candidates for a seat on the Names Council will reflect the geographic diversity of the membership in accordance with the 5 global regions determined by the ICANN bylaws.

7.3.2 In case more than one elected candidate is from the same
region, the next candidate that fulfils both the voter preference and the geographic diversity requirement will be selected for the Names Council seat.

7.3.3 Either residence, domicile, citizenship or the jurisdiction
of domain registration may be used to determine fulfilment of ICANN's geographic diversity criteria.

7.3.4 Names Council candidates who have been eliminated solely due
to the geographic diversity requirement, may automatically fill a Names Council seat in case it becomes vacant.

Spokesperson(s)

7.4. One or more spokesperson(s) will be appointed by the Executive
Committee as and when needed.

Snap Elections

7.5 In case sufficient numbers of the membership lose confidence
in three or more of their elected representatives, a minimum of 10 per cent of the members on the voters roll can request the Executive Committee to direct the Polling Committee to call for a snap election by posting a petition on the open discussion list. The petition will request that all elected representatives of the CA/IDNO will be subjected to an approval/disapproval vote. The petition will state the reasons for the voting request.
The membership will vote on the acceptance of the petition. This vote
will be a "FOR/AGAINST" vote and will take place no later than 10 calendar days after the validity of the petition has been established by the Polling Committee and the Polling officer has posted notice to this effect on the announce-list or the all-members' list.

7.5.1 (deleted)

7.5.2 For such a snap election to proceed, the membership has to
vote its agreement by simple majority.

7.5.3 This vote will take place no later than 10 calendar days
after the acceptance of the petition vote.

7.5.4. If the membership decides to proceed with the snap
election, nominations can be posted on the open discussion list following the nomination procedures in articles 5.3 through 5.5.

7.5.5. The snap election will take place not earlier than 20 and
not later than 30 calendar days after the majority of the membership has decided to proceed with the election.


The CA/IDNO List General Assembly

8. The CA/IDNO discuss-list shall be a General Assembly. Membership of the list shall be by voluntary subscription of
voting members. Non-members are permitted to subscribe as list Guests.

8.1 Members may subscribe and unsubscribe from the discuss-list as they please but all elected persons must remain subscribed. Unless cogent reasons are presented to the membership, unsubscription will be regarded as resignation from the elected position.

Unelected Members who unsubscribe from the discuss list cease to be List General Assembly voters, but retain their members' voting rights.

8.1.1 Members of the CA/IDNO must remain subscribed to the announce-list in order that there may be a ready channel for information to be passed to them.
Unsubscription from the announce-list will be regarded as resignation of membership from CA/IDNO.

LIST CHAIR

8.3 The CA/IDNO discuss-listmembers will elect from among their
number a Chairperson (Chair). The term of office for the list Chair shall be the same as for other elected positions within the CA/IDNO. The List-Chair will be a de facto member of the Executive Committee but not subject to, nor influence, the Geographic diversity requirements of the other Executive Committee Members.


8.3.1 The Chair shall facilitate the discussion on the list so
that initiatives in the form of motions from listmembers can be processed in an orderly fashion for decision by list-resolution.

8.3.2 The listmembers can recall the Chair when 10 or more
listmembers call for a new election within a 7 day period. In such an event the Chair must step aside until the vote has taken place. All time-clocks on all motions, amendments etc will be stopped at the formal declaration of a vote. As the Chair will technically not be available for conducting the vote, the Polling Committee will replace
the Chair's role in formally calling the vote and setting the voting
period.
The vote should be uniquely take place in Polling Booth not on the list
but will be open only to listmembers. The rules governing the freezing of the list in such a situation will be the same as those for a list vote, below in Articles 8.5.1.

List Motions

8.4 Members may make motions to the list. For a motion to be
acknowledged by the Chair the motion must receive at least one supporting second. The list will operate by consensus wherever possible, so that a motion may be declared
carried if only one or no calls for a list vote have been made in 72 hours since the motion and its supporting second have been acknowledged by the Chair, and provided that no amendments have been moved in that time.

8.4.1 Amendments to a motion may be moved by any member within the List Motion time frame above. Amendments must receive at least one supporting second
to be acknowledged by the Chair. Once an amendment is acknowledged by the Chair the clock is stopped on the motion and the original motion must pass to a list vote. If the motion fails to pass in the list vote the amendment also automatically fails. If the motion passes on the list vote the amendment is then also subject
to a list vote. If the amendment passes the list vote the originating
motion will then be modified in terms of the amendment.


8.4.2 Members may post an opposition to a motion at any time up to
72 hours limit of formal acknowledgement noted above. If two or more members post a call for a list vote then the clock on the motion is stopped and the motion is then subject to a list vote.

List votes

8.5 Votes will be taken on the list itself, when called for as in
Article 8.4.2 above or when an amendment is acknowledged by the Chair. The Chair shall then formalise the vote by posting to the list the start-time of the vote and if necessary the close-time of the vote, with details of the topic under vote.
In the absence of the Chair the Polling officer is responsible
for posting the start and close-time of the vote.

8.5.1 The list membership shall be frozen at the point of a valid call for a list vote. The listmembers current at the point of call for a
list vote will be the only ones permitted to be involved on a topic under such vote until the conclusion of the whole process up to and including the possibilityof a membership wide vote on the matter as detailed below.


8.5.2. As soon as the list voters' roll is frozen, the Polling Committee
will publish the voters' names to the list.

8.6. No list vote will be deemed closed until at least 72 hours
after the list Chair has declared it under way.

8.6.1 A full membership wide vote in the Polling Booth may be
called, on any motion, by five or more members. The call for such a vote can take place at any time up to 72 hours after a motion has been declared carried by the Chair, either under the consensus rule or by list vote. When such a call is made the membership of CA/IDNO will be frozen and no new members joining CA/IDNO will be permitted to vote on the topic. The Polling Committee will then be
charged with publishing the vote call on the announce-list.

Responsibilities of the CA/IDNO discuss-list Chair.

8.7.1 The Chair shall ensure that the conduct of discussions is of
a high standard in keeping with published CA/IDNO list rules and with
exemplary politeness, goodwill, firmness when necessary and common-sense at all times.
The Chair can request a member to restrain themselves in the content of their postings, if such postings fall outside of the list rules. The Chair may refer the postings from a listmember to the full Executive Committee or to a vote if the listmember refuses to accept the Chair's rulings on the matter.

8.7.1.1 The Chair may call for a list vote for the suspension of a
list Guest from participation on the list for a period of up to 14 days. Such a vote must have a majority in favour of suspension. In the event that a Guest continues to abuse his position on the list such that the Chair calls for a second vote for suspension, a second positive vote will disbar the list Guest
permanently.
The rules for freezing listmembership in the event of such votes being
called will be those as under Article 8.5.1 above, with the added proviso that the listmembers entitled to vote in the first of such votes will be the only ones permitted to vote in the second and subsequent ballots.

8.7.2 The Chair ensures that list votes are conducted correctly.
The Chair designates reserved subject lines for each vote. The Chair declares the start-time (and when necessary close-time) of the list vote. All times will be declared in GMT.

8.7.3 On Motions and Amendments the Chair ensures: That motions and amendments (if any) are managed clearly, with correct priority.

8.7.3.1 To track the time-lines on each motion and amendment.

8.7.3.2 To publish to the discuss-list a listing of topics under
formal acknowledgement from the Chair.

8.7.3.3 To post to the discuss-list clear declarations on the
success or failure of all motions and amendments, whether by consensus or by list vote.

8.7.3.4 To post the modified text of a motion to the list in the
event of a successful amendment being carried.


THE CA/IDNO WEB-SITE

9. The CA/IDNO will maintain a web-site. The Web-site will contain, at a minimum, a publicly accessible Home page with links to other areas of the site including this Charter, the Polling Booth, a Members' only area where links to archived material required in these Articles are kept. All the data on the web-site are to be the copyright of the CA/IDNO.

9.1 The Webmaster will normally be one of the Polling Committee members.

9.1.1 The Webmaster will ensure that the site is kept current. The
Webmaster
must also ensure the integrity of the controlled areas - Members' Only,
unlinked pages for membership as required in Article 4.11.2. and any other controlled area as may be required.

9.1.2 The Webmaster will assist the candidates for elective office to
create their relevant details and to post the information to the correct area of the site as required in Article 6.2.5.

9.1.3 The Webmaster shall ensure that any other requirements under these Articles for the Website are respected.

9.2 All other material posted to the website must be cleared with the
Executive Committee, or in the event of discuss-list requests, with the List-Chair.
Neither the Webmaster or other members of the Polling Committee shall have discretion as to relevant material to be posted to the site.


10. Finances

10.1 Funding will come from membership dues.

A scale of membership fees will be set to defray the expenses of representation, web site - and mailing list hosting and other expenses related to the necessary functions of the constituency.

10.2 Other sources of income and political independence.

10.2.1 Gifts and donations can be accepted as a source of income
with the proviso that these monies are free from any form of commercial or political ties, are freely given and left exclusively at the discretion of IDNO as to use.

10.2.2 Grants can be obtained for a specific purpose but will
limited to assisting the IDNO to carry out it's task and cannot be tied to the granter's agenda.

10.3 An annual budget will be produced and a book-keeping
procedure introduced. The annual accounts will be audited and the audited accounts published in the members area of the web site.

10.3.1 If the CA/IDNO is formally incorporated the laws and rules
governing the annual account requirements of the territory of registration will be specified and met. The Executive Committee will be charged with appointing the auditors on an annual basis.

10.4 The constituency will seek donations from members and other
sources to defray initial expenses. Any donation, grant or gift that may impinge on the independence, or circumscribe the actions, of the CA/IDNO will be treated as a loan and re-paid from member subscriptions.

CHARTER CHANGES

11. Any member may propose an amendment or addition to this
Charter.

11.1. The proposal for change is to be posted to the open
discussion list to allow for debate on the issue/s.

11.2.Should there be a perceived need for the modification a
minimum of 10 members must request a vote to be held.

11.3. While membership remains below 250 a simple majority
will suffice for a Charter Change. Thereafter a qualified majority of 67% of the members will be required for ratification of changes.

So Ratified by the members on 17 September, 2000