Ballot 165 – Formation of Governance Review Working Group

Ballot overview

• Ballot 165 proposed forming a new Governance Review Working Group under Section 5.3 of the CA/B Forum Bylaws.
• The ballot passed with 19 YES votes from CAs, 0 NO votes, 0 abstentions, and 4 YES votes from browsers, 0 NO votes, 0 abstentions.

Proposed working group charter

• The working group was tasked to consider revisions to the Forum scope, including possible additional topics such as code signing, S/MIME, and client certificate usages.
• It would review IPR and IP ownership issues.
• It would consider options for representation of others in forum issues.
• It would review voting rules and rights.
• It would review admin functions.
• It would examine making the forum an official organization, such as incorporation.
• It would review how requirements and guideline documents would be structured in a newly organized forum.

Deliverables and duration

• The group’s deliverables were an extensive report with one or more proposals on possible changes to Forum organization, a proposal on requirements and guideline document structure and proprietorship, and a form of ballot or ballots to implement recommendations.
• The working group would expire once the deliverables had been completed.

Review and voting timeline

• The review period commenced at 2200 UTC on 17 March 2016 and closed at 2200 UTC on 24 March 2016.
• The voting period started immediately after the review period and closed at 2200 UTC on 31 March 2016.