Summary

  • Resolution 20260910-1 approved one 2026 Customer Standing Committee slate, but its own roster attributes eight of the nine member-and-liaison names to organizations other than GNSO.
  • ICANN’s current Bylaws and CSC Charter separate appointment by the relevant community from full-slate approval by the ccNSO and GNSO Councils; the distinction determines who can later remove, replace or fill a vacancy.

On 10 September 2026, the GNSO Council approved the Customer Standing Committee’s annual slate in a single resolution. The act was collective: one decision covered the full list of members and liaisons. The authority behind the names was distributed.

That difference is visible in the resolution itself. Its nine member-and-liaison entries name four members and five liaisons, each with an appointing organization:

Role Person Appointing organization Recorded term
Member Pablo Rodriguez ccNSO 1 Oct 2026–30 Sep 2028
Member Maarten Simon ccNSO 1 Oct 2025–30 Sep 2027
Member Gordon Dick RySG 1 Oct 2025–30 Sep 2027
Member Elaine Pruis RySG 1 Oct 2026–30 Sep 2028
Liaison Tracy Hackshaw GAC 1 Oct 2026–30 Sep 2028
Liaison Hiro Hotta RSSAC 1 Oct 2026–30 Sep 2028
Liaison Houda Chihi ALAC 1 Oct 2025–30 Sep 2027
Liaison John Gbadamosi GNSO (Non-Registry) 1 Oct 2025–30 Sep 2027
Liaison Selena Harrington PTI No term limit

Only Gbadamosi’s line identifies GNSO as the appointing source. Eight others point elsewhere. The motion also records four alternates—Cielo Cano for GAC, Daniel Migault for RSSAC, Luis Diego Espinoza Sanchez for ccNSO and Anil Jain for GNSO (Non-Registry)—but the operative clause says that Council approves the slate of “members and liaisons.” The distinction matters: a background roster and the exact object of a resolution should not be silently collapsed.

Selection and confirmation are different acts

The current ICANN Bylaws set out the architecture in sequence. Section 17.2(a) assigns two gTLD registry-member appointments to the Registries Stakeholder Group, two ccTLD-member appointments to the ccNSO and the PTI liaison appointment to PTI. Section 17.2(c) allows specified organizations to appoint their own liaisons. Paragraph (d) permits the relevant organizations to identify alternates. Paragraph (e) then requires the ccNSO and GNSO to approve each annual slate of members and liaisons recommended for a new term.

The amended CSC Charter, effective 3 July 2026, is even more explicit. Members, liaisons and alternates are appointed by their respective communities under their internal processes. Full membership must then be approved by the ccNSO and GNSO Councils. In that later approval, the Charter says the two councils are not to question the validity of recommended appointments; they are to take account of the overall slate’s geographic diversity and skill set.

Whole-slate approval is therefore real authority, not ceremonial nothingness. It is a composition-level confirmation built on person-level appointments made elsewhere. Nor does the consent-agenda placement prove how much scrutiny occurred. The public record supports the allocation of roles; it does not support a claim that the Council performed no review or merely rubber-stamped the slate.

The 2026 sequence supplies a second confirmation record. The ccNSO Council approved the full 2026–2027 membership slate before GNSO’s vote and reported that approval on 2 September. Both councils were confirming a shared slate; neither record erases the organizations printed beside the individual names.

GNSO’s own 2025 actions show the layers in operation. In August 2025, it separately confirmed John Gbadamosi and Anil Jain following a Standing Selection Committee process for the GNSO Non-Registry liaison and alternate roles. The annual slate approval came later. That is a clean example of an appointment record followed by a slate-confirmation record.

The cross-reference moved

Resolution 20260910-1 says Section 17.2(d) requires GNSO approval of the full membership. That was the location of the approval rule before the 2026 amendments. In the Bylaws now published by ICANN, the new alternates provision occupies paragraph (d), while annual-slate approval sits at 17.2(e).

This is a cross-reference drift, not evidence that the resolution is invalid. It nevertheless creates a practical provenance problem. A reader following the decision’s paragraph number today lands on a rule about alternates, not the rule that explains the Council’s action. Governance records need a rule version and effective date, not only a bare section number.

Why provenance matters after the vote

The distinction becomes operational when a term ends, a person resigns or an organization wants a replacement. Current Bylaws Section 17.2(g) allows the appointing organization to remove and replace its member, liaison or alternate. Paragraph (i) assigns vacancy filling to the organization that made the appointment. GNSO’s approval of the annual slate does not transfer those later powers to GNSO.

The 2025 comparison also shows why a year label is insufficient. The 2026 roster gives Rodriguez a new term, replaces RySG member Rick Wilhelm with Elaine Pruis, carries forward several 2025–2027 terms, records renewed terms for the GAC and RSSAC liaisons, and prints a different alternate set. The official record should preserve which element continued, which changed, who selected it and which bodies confirmed the whole.

The evidence does not establish anything about objections, vote totals, conflicts, qualifications or individual performance. It establishes something narrower and more useful: one approval act can be authoritative without becoming the source of every appointment it confirms.

Sources

  1. GNSO Council resolution 20260910-1
  2. GNSO Council proposed agenda for 10 September 2026
  3. Motion submission for the September consent agenda
  4. ICANN Bylaws, Article 17
  5. Amended CSC Charter, effective 3 July 2026
  6. ccNSO notice of 2026–2027 full-slate approval
  7. GNSO’s 2025 Non-Registry liaison and alternate selection
  8. GNSO 2025 CSC slate
  9. ICANN Board approval of the 2026 Article 17 and Charter amendments
  10. ICANN overview of the Customer Standing Committee