Preliminary Report

Special Meeting of the Board
2 April 2001
(Posted 2 April 2001)

The ICANN Board of Directors held a meeting by teleconference on 2 April 2001. Directors Vint Cerf (chairman), Amadeu Abril i Abril, Karl Auerbach, Ivan Moura Campos, Jonathan Cohen, Phil Davidson, Ken Fockler, Masanobu Katoh, Hans Kraaijenbrink, Sang-Hyon Kyong, Stuart Lynn, Andy Mueller-Maguhn, Jun Murai, Alejandro Pisanty, Nii Quaynor, Helmut Schink, and Linda S. Wilson participated. The Board adopted the following resolutions:

Contract for IANA Function

(Adopted 16-0, with Andy Mueller-Maguhn not yet present due to telephone difficulties)

Whereas, as provided by resolutions 00.5 and 00.6, ICANN entered a contract with the United States Government on 9 February 2000 under which it performed the IANA functions through 30 September 2000;

Whereas, as provided in resolution 00.71 that contract was extended to 31 March 2001;

Whereas, the United States Government has requested that the contract be renewed to provide a continuing contractual basis for ICANN's provision of the IANA function as the transition of Internet-coordination functions from the United States Government to ICANN progresses;

Whereas, ICANN's General Counsel has reviewed the terms of the renewal contract with the Board and recommended that the Board enter into the agreement on those terms;

Resolved [01.45], the Board accepts the terms of the renewal contract as reviewed with the Board; and

Resolved further [01.46], the Board authorizes the General Counsel to sign the renewal contract on behalf of the Corporation in the form presented.

Revision to Agreements with VeriSign

(Adopted 12-3, with one abstension. Vint Cerf, Ivan Moura Campos, Jonathan Cohen, Phil Davidson, Masanobu Katoh, Hans Kraaijenbrink, Sang-Hyon Kyong, Stuart Lynn, Jun Murai, Alejandro Pisanty, Nii Quaynor, and Linda S. Wilson voted in favor. Amadeu Abril i Abril, Karl Auerbach, and Andy Mueller-Maguhn voted against. Ken Fockler abstained. Helmut Schink had left the call by the time of the vote.)

Whereas, a proposal has been presented to the Board for various revisions in the agreements among ICANN, Network Solutions, Inc., and the United States Department of Commerce that were approved on 4 November 1999 in resolutions 99.132 and 99.133 and were signed on 10 November 1999;

Whereas, the proposal was forwarded to all three supporting organizations with a request for comments;

Whereas, in resolution 01.22 the Board requested all members of the Internet community, including the Names Council and any of the constituencies and other participants in the Domain Name Supporting Organization, to provide comments on the substantive merits of the proposal no later than 31 March 2001;

Whereas, on 9 March 2001 the Protocol Supporting Organization notified the Board that it had considered the proposal only with regard to potential protocol-related technical issues as a result of splitting .com, .net and .org into three registries, and saw no problems with this approach providing that the stability of the DNS resolution is protected;

Whereas, on 30 March 2001 the Names Council of the Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO) forwarded a four-part resolution accompanied by statements of the seven DNSO constituencies and participants in the DNSO general assembly;

Whereas, numerous comments of the Internet community have been received on ICANN's web-based public comment forum, by e-mail, and otherwise;

Whereas, in response to the comments ICANN has asked VeriSign for improvement of the proposed agreements through the addition of some text changes and other related undertakings between ICANN and VeriSign;

Whereas, VeriSign has stated its commitment to make those improvements;

Whereas, the Board has carefully considered the proposal in connection with the input from the supporting organizations and Internet community
and the improvements agreed by VeriSign and finds that acceptance of the proposal is necessary and appropriate to further ICANN's purposes;

Resolved [01.47] that the President is authorized on behalf of the Corporation to sign the proposed agreements with VeriSign as presented, with suitable revisions and additions to the provisions of the agreements to reflect the text changes and additional commitments set forth in the posted correspondence with Stratton Sclavos and with any further corrections and modifications consistent with the proposal that the President determines are appropriate, such signing to be subject to any necessary approvals of the U.S. Department of Commerce;

Further resolved [01.48], the President is authorized to take such actions as appropriate to implement the agreements.