Second NomCom Organizational Review

The Second NomCom Organization Review was initiated in 2016 and concluded in 2019, with implementation of improvements continuing throughout 2020.

Background

Article 4.4 of the ICANN Bylaws requires periodic review of all supporting organizations and advisory committees, as well as the Nominating Committee. The bylaws state three objectives for the review:

1. to determine whether that organization, council or committee has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure;
2. if so, whether any change in structure or operations is desirable to improve its effectiveness; and
3. whether that organization, council or committee is accountable to its constituencies, stakeholder groups, organizations and other stakeholders.

Organizational reviews are conducted by independent examiners, selected through a competitive bidding process. The independent examiner works in consultation with a working group assembled by the board, who will act as implementation shepherds once the final report of the independent examiner is submitted. The review parameters are set by the ICANN Board, and those parameters as well as other avenues of inquiry are typically included in the request for proposals (RFP) for independent examiners. Reviews can take anywhere from three to five years to complete. The full review process includes seven phases, including the implementation of recommendations from the review. Reviews must be conducted at least every five years, measuring from the date that the final report of the previous review was accepted by the ICANN Board. The Nominating Committee is one of the organizations subject to the review requirements of Article 4.4.

The Nominating Committee's structure and operations has been altered or improved through Article 4.4 organizational review, as well as in the context of other review processes, including the 2002 Evolution and Reform Process as well as the ATRT1 and ATRT2 reviews.

Initiation

The 2016 NomCom published a call for volunteers for the review working party (RWP) in September 2016, laying out the timeline for the review and describing desired skills of volunteers and the application process. The working party membership was announced in October.

The original plan was for the RWP to meet for the first time at ICANN 56. However, perhaps because of the relocation of that meeting to Helsinki from Panama City, the meeting was postponed until ICANN 58 in Copenhagen on March 12, 2017. The meeting had intended to include ITEMS International, who had just wrapped up the ALAC2 review, which impacted the NomCom. Unfortunately, ITEMS was presenting to ALAC at the same time. The recommendation in question proposed that members to the ALAC be selected at random from a NomCom-vetted list of nominees. A brief discussion of the recommendation led to a general consensus that there was no need to worry that any such change would be implemented.

In the meantime, the RFP for an independent examiner was posted in January 2017. The RFP received an "above average" number of submissions.

Independent Examiner

In June 2017, the Analysis Group was selected to conduct the independent review.

Methodology

Following the revised guidelines for organizational reviews, the Analysis Group first prepared and presented a report on its assessment of the NomCom, and then incorporated public comment into a final report that included recommendations for improvement. In conducting its assessment, the Analysis Group interviewed over sixty individuals within the ICANN community, both in-person at ICANN 59 and ICANN 60, as well as by telephone. The group audited NomCom meetings at ICANN 60 to observe the NomCom's work in action. They also conducted a community survey that was prepared in association with the RWP. The survey received eighty-five responses. The group also conducted a review of ICANN and NomCom documentation, as well as the NomCom1 review. In its Assessment Report, the reviewers took pains to note that the goal of the interview and survey outreach was to ensure as diverse a set of viewpoints as possible:

It is important to emphasize that our approach to this assessment report, and to the final report, does not require perfect representation across the ICANN community from either those interviewed or those surveyed. We have not, for example, drawn conclusions based principally on the frequency with which we heard a particular opinion during our interviews and through the survey instrument. Rather, the interviews and online survey were methods for gathering diverse perspectives across ICANN with the goal of ensuring we have heard and considered many diverse opinions before making our assessment and our recommendations.

Assessment Report: Findings

The