1.2.3 The MAC Report

Since neither the MoU between ICANN and Commerce, nor the Green Paper, nor the White Paper, included any strong definition of what the "At-Large Membership" would look like or how it would run, ICANN appointed a 13-member Membership Advisory Committee (MAC) to address these questions. As MAC Co-Chair George Conrades put in an early committee conference, the questions the MAC faced boiled down to: "Who will be the members of the corporation? And what will the members do?" After thoroughly discussing these issues, the MAC made its final recommendations to the ICANN Board at its May 1999 meeting in Berlin. Among them were the following:

Only individuals (not organizations) should be eligible for At-Large membership;
Membership registration should be open to all individuals worldwide willing to provide their name, e-mail address, and a verifiable physical address;
A committee should be set up to identify high-quality candidates to join self-nominated ones from the membership; and
An election should be held for the At-Large Directors with all members registered at least 30 days in advance of the election eligible to vote.

Yet the ICANN Board did not immediately implement the At-Large membership structure envisioned by the MAC. While reaffirming its intention to move forward with a system that would allow individuals to select At-Large directors, the Board resolutions passed in Berlin also recognized that developing such a system could be complex and expensive, and they directed the ICANN staff to "to analyze the MAC principles in the light of its discussion, and report back prior to the Santiago meeting."

1.2.2 Initial Board Authority Over the At-Large Process

1.2.4 Community Pressure for a Timely Election