IMPACT ASSESSMENT - SIG GUIDLINES Review
Published: 26 August 2026 

1. APNIC's Understanding of the Proposal

APNIC understands the scope of the SIG Guidelines Working Group (WG) is a holistic review of the current APNIC-128-v004 SIG guidelines document. On 13 July 2026 the WG agreed to take a principals-first approach to the review and shared its draft recommendations to the SIG mailing lists. The SIG Guidelines draft based on these principals was published to the mailing lists on 7 August 2026.

2. Legal Impact of the Proposal

### Section 2.4

## CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE

The wording of section 2.4 ('SIG Chairs and Co-Chairs are expected to attend at least one of the two APNIC Conferences held each year.') and section 3.6 ('If a SIG Chair or Co-Chair does not attend one in every two APNIC Conferences ... the APNIC EC will have discretion to remove the Chair or Co-Chair from their role') would benefit from consistent language to avoid any misinterpretation as to how the criteria is to apply (i.e. 2.4 refers to conferences within a specific year, whereas 3.6 refers to two consecutive conferences).

### Section 3

## CO-CHAIR ELECTION TIMING

Section 3 makes reference to an initial Co-Chair term being one-year to enable the staggering of the Chair and Co-Chair elections. The document is silent on whether a second Co-Chair is to be elected at the same meeting as the other Co-Chair. We understand this to mean that the second Co-Chair will be elected commencing from the first meeting after it is determined that a second Co-Chair is required, i.e. it will be determined by the party calling for a second Co-Chair (either the Chair or the SIG). If this is not the intention, additional drafting may be required to confirm this.

## COOLING-OFF PERIOD

We interpret the cooling-off period "of at least one year" following two consecutive terms of a Chair or Co-Chair to be the period between one AMM and the next AMM, or one AGM and the next AGM, rather than requiring a strict calendar year. As the timing of AGMs and AMMs is variable there may be instances where the time between one AMM and the next AMM is less than one year which, on a strict interpretation, would mean that the cooling-off period would still apply and therefore re-election would not be possible in that year. On a stricter interpretation, section 3 requires that such a person is only eligible to "run for election again" after the "cooling-off period of at least one year" has passed. As the criteria applies to "run[ning] for election" and as nominations close in advance of the relevant conference, thereby shortening the time further, the cooling-off period would quite likely have the practical effect of operating as a two-year period.

### Section 3.7

## ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR ACTING CHAIRS

The eligibility criteria under section 3.4.1 is not entirely applicable to the appointment of Acting Chairs as contemplated by section 3.7.
Section 3.4.1 expects that nominees must attend and be eligible to vote at the 'current conference', however there may not be a 'current conference' (i.e. one with registration open) at the time of the Acting Chair appointment, as well as other "nominee" specific provisions.

Our interpretation is that the attendance requirement would not apply where the Acting Chair appointment occurs outside of a period during which conference registrations are open. We have also interpreted that the following "nominee" specific provisions in section 3.4.1 will apply to an Acting Chair: that they must reside within the Asia Pacific service region; must not be staff members of an RIR or ICANN; and must not hold another elected position (unless they resigned from that position as part of accepting the Acting Chair role). In general, this may benefit from additional drafting clarity, particularly if the above interpretation does not align with the intention.

3. Implementation

If this proposal was to reach consensus, changes would be required to APNIC-128. 
Implementation time frame would be subject to the APNIC Document editorial policy (APNIC-112)