Transcript ExCom 23 February 2010

Cheryl: The 25th. I'm just refreshing. Yes. He's up there. Okay. 15 February. I believe everything has been done from the 15 February. We had AOC matters, we had a letter to Marco. And we had more AOC with going as they get their applications in to go see ExCom. It's being done. We've got the ad hoc May team. We're just looking at the action items from 15 February and the matter of you're requesting May to submit a motivational letter and the AOC review team prior to the – on the 23 February was overtaken by the extension to the 7th. So, it will now be done in time for that.

So, going back then – that's annoying. I've just turned off my agenda. How very annoying. What a shame. I'll have to go through that whole boring bit again. I'll get back to the agenda in a bit. But where we're sitting however, so you can all get to it is the action item from tonight's meeting. And the action item from tonight's meeting - Why is it taking me to the workspace? There we go. 3 February. Okay. The voting credentials for (inaudible) – that will all happen. Inform Kevin that he's in the firing line. Most assuredly he will be delighted to hear from us. Who is going to pin that down? Heidi, do you just want to handle that?

Heidi: Yes. I'll be inviting Kevin.

Cheryl: Tell him flack jacket will be required. Yes, submit application to the AOC review team.

Dave: I guess for this one we need to - right as Cheryl Wilson (ph) makes the application.

Cheryl: That's a very good point. Yes. I've tried to ensure that Asia-Pacific was generic enough that it didn't restrict me to doing it only as an AT rip, so we've play it the other way, I think. Evan's action item – now, I understand the need, but do you agree with me that we just give it no more than 72 hours to run its course and then ask for confirmation? What's your view?

Dave: You can say two days. We need to start as soon as possible. That’s a pity that it came like that in the middle of a discussion. He could've sent that for weeks at least because the name of the people from AFRALO and EURALO are in there been, since days. It's a pity that - we want to use some, say these things are bad, but at the time we are not very transparent. You can say that before and there's good reason. But there's also good reason why we put those names in. Now you stand there, Adam is withdrawing these names and we have to find somebody else.

Allen: But since EURALO is directing all four votes – does it matter who's casting the vote?

Dave: You know sometimes, Allen, you need to have a suit and to work, you show up. Nothing else. It's not politics.

Cheryl: It's just appearing to be done. We will jump through those hoops and we will see what the regions will do and if AFRALO replaces Mohamed, that's fine. But it should be their choice. Okay. So, that will happen. Now the question from that, of course, is how on earth are we going to get the ALAC to endorse these people or to sign off on them or to make it formal?

Allen: Five day vote. We have no choice.

Cheryl: Okay.

Allen: Two of which are going to be over a weekend.

Cheryl: Yes. I hate doing that. Okay.

Allen: We're going to have to write her to get them to – enough people to vote.

Dave: Sorry about the EURALO and AFRALO. Is it should or may or can or asking to? Because if they don't replace, what happens?

Allen: Then we vote on who they selected.

Dave: It's written should present new candidates.

Cheryl: You're asking – it sounds plural, that they've got to replace both of them. Is that what you're asking?

Dave: My asking – yes. It's English question. Is it should or it's can or may or - ?

Allen: Are being given the opportunity to.

Dave: Yes. I will prefer that.

Cheryl: Can we make that adjustment then? Matthias (ph) thinks?

Sebastian: I have a question (inaudible). What happens if we are not being able to replace like Mohamed in AFRALO?

Cheryl: If AFRALO doesn't replace or does not wish to replace, it stays as is and you wear whatever your decision is based on the reasons you made your decision.

Sebastian: Okay.

Cheryl: Forewarned is forearmed. You have a reasonable criticism and question raised, albeit in an inappropriate and unfortunate time. And it's only appropriate that if it is something the region wishes to consider that they have the opportunity to do that.

Allen: How you reconsider and make a decision in the short time is up to you.

Cheryl: All up to you.

Sebastian: Okay. Next meeting.

Cheryl: Okay. Obviously Tijani (ph) following up with Adam with regard to our AFRALO outreach activities. Heidi, you're going to have to nursemaid that a little bit as well, you and Matthias, because Adam's let's all go out and have dinner one night – I'm not quite sure how that works as an outreach activity, but what he does have access to is a number of active lists and they may prove very fruitful for real ongoing outreach after the Nairobi meeting. Not just for potential ALSs within Nairobi but also in other parts of Africa. So, we need to get the African regional leaders to tap in with Adam on that.

Allen: Do we know to what extent people who are not preregistered for this conference will actually be able to get into the venue?

Cheryl: We have absolutely no idea.

Sebastian: Sorry. I was drop off. I am back. Sebastian.

Cheryl: Welcome back. We were just talked about AFRALO outreach activities in Nairobi. Okay. So –

Sebastian: You were talking about a possible dinner?

Allen: She was questioning how that becomes outreach. That's not a subject for our discussion.

Cheryl: Yes. Which is why I was going to say the involvement being at the regional showcase and at other activities, meetings, et cetera, that the African region have tried to put together. Of course all their meetings are open so if security will let them through the door, then we're happy to have them in the room. I don't quite understand how a dinner works into outreach. What we do need to make sure – or not that sort of dinner - is that we get the African regional leaders to tap into some of the lists and networking opportunities that Adam hopefully can bring to the table. Okay. What are we going to do with the PAD? Which is our next agenda item.

Allen: There's a thousand new things for comment I presume.

Cheryl: There sure is. Most of them are over the other side of the Nairobi meeting. I must say, I haven't had the time, energy, or the inclination to look at – have we got any comments on our community discussion of the white paper. Is there?

Allen: As of last time, we got spam from Adigo. But that was the only thing I'd seen at the time.

Cheryl: Nothing there, Heidi?

Heidi: That was the last I saw as well.

Cheryl: That's going to make the assessment of it and the reporting of the public comments very easy.

Allen: There were some other comments on the Wiki which I haven't address yet but I think there were a few. Sometime this week I will go through them.

Cheryl: Make sure they come across. Okay. The IDN3 character and the IDN variance with the 1 April finishing, Heidi, am I correct in assuming that they are the only excerpts in the DAG4 that are going to be released for Nairobi discussion?

Heidi: Yes. That is what I've heard from Karen Lance (ph) who is handling that and will be speaking to us about that.

Cheryl: Okay. So, we will be needing to focus on those and use that as part of our IDN discussions in our meetings in Nairobi. It's most disappointing that James is now not going to be attending because it would be far easier to have those things worked on effectively, if we had our IDN liaison on the ground but we don't. So, looking at which ones we need to put on a PAD, obviously the IDN3 character and the IDN variance is huge, yes, from an Asia-Pacific perspective. Does anyone object to those going on the PAD?

Vanda: No.

Cheryl: Good. Okay. Then we've got the one and two character dot info. That's already – we've already decided not to do anything on that, I though. Refresh my memory?

Sebastian: We do that for – we have a discussion about that cat situation.

Vanda: If I may, it's all the industries, the older ones. We appraised contracts to allow them to do that. So, the same thing we did with the dot com is now dot info. That's a problem for the bloggers (ph). No?

Cheryl: That was kind of inevitable, I suppose.

Allen: Given that we've already approved most of them, it's going to be hard to say no to the next ones.

Cheryl: Exactly. I don't think we need to put –

Vanda: We can put the same info or same space we have in the first one. So, just what it is. This is one. Or not.

Cheryl: Okay. But do you think we nee to put it in the PAD as such? I'm not sure we do. Do we?

Dave: No. The only point raised by Adam in the discussion today, I guess, in mail, it says we want to have that for all TLD. We don't care to have this discussion again and again for each one. But we decide not to say something about that cat and then we don't need that in the PAD either.

Cheryl: Okay then. Uniform rapid suspension. URS. Is there any feedback you can give us, Allen, on work group and activities, what we should be starting up here? Does the STR support group have enough in its experience set to respond? Should this go to the PAD? And if it does, does it go to the new GTLD or some subset of that work group?

Allen: I would assume both URS and trademark clearinghouse should go back to the STI working group which is presumably a subset of the GTLD. I would actually if everyone – if every ALAC member on the SGI group is part of the GTLD, I would simply put it to the GTLD group or get whoever's missing to enroll because we don't really need the non-commercial stakeholder group people on it. The situation is that staff have said but I haven't attempted to verify yet that the complete SGI report was implemented except things that warranted being changed because of the public comments or presumably because of the minority reports and I don't know whether any of those are things that At-Large feels strongly about yet. Unfortunately staff chose to do the redline versus the old staff proposal and did not easily delineate what had been changed from the SGI report. It apparently is there in the comment on the summary of comments to the SGI report. So, we do need to look at that and see whether they mangled it in any way that we need to comment on.

Cheryl: So, you're proposing that we just double-check – who's in a position to double-check that all our people that are on the SGI support subgroup are also on the new GTLD's work group? Is that something that you can do, Matthias? Or who does that?

Heidi: Cheryl (ph), one of the members of staff will do that.

Cheryl: Thank you. If that's the case, then what we need to do is then, as Allen suggested, just send it to the new GTLD workgroup.

Allen: Who's chairing that? Is that still Evan (ph)?

Cheryl: As far as I know, yes.

Heidi: Yes.

Cheryl: Okay. Post-delegation dispute resolution procedure. PDDRP.

Allen: We never commented on that last time. There were a number of very vociferous comments from the registries saying ICANN had done some really stupid things. I think we need to look at that one also. Same group.

Cheryl: So, that gets in deep.

Vanda: (inaudible)

Cheryl: Go ahead, Vanda (ph), just speak up. It's a little bit hard to hear you.

Vanda: I do believe we need to pay a little attention on that. At least to go through that. I have some questions that do not leave my mind. The guy from IT group and the business considering will be meeting in New York. So there is nobody from our side to take a look at that? We open the section to the meeting to them but they will not do the same. I don't know if that's a question that could be answered but I don't like the idea to have them just free in New York deciding whatever.

Cheryl: I hear where you're from, Vanda. Yes. It's –

Vanda: Deciding whatever they want about many issues that will impact a lot of points in the GTLD. I don't know. The staff will be sent to them but I don't believe we have a liaison with them. Have we?

Cheryl: No, we don't.

Vanda: Yes. Because this is a question I have. What about the liaison? If the group is meeting someplace else, how the liaisons can do things? Whatever. This is something we need to at least –

Allen: I don't think a liaison would change what they're going to decide amongst themselves anyway.

Sebastian: But it's a cost-intensive moment and the offshore meeting ends in Nairobi because they want any decision taken, it most be done within the Nairobi framework. If not, we can't accept anything done in New York or in any place.

Allen: They're only empowered to make a decision on behalf of their constituency. It's not a matter of accepting or rejecting it. They're allowed to do what they want. I'm not sure I see the problem. The next one, the post delegation dispute resolution, none of the registries are going to be there either.

Vanda: I guess in the end a lot of the industry will attend in New York too if they come out with a good facility over there.

Allen: Maybe it's the place we should be.

Vanda: It's something that – just to pick out what is concerning me about those debates related to – it's not good to segregate meetings. We can not follow. Maybe they can report to the GNSO? After that they can report to the board. But the community is not really following.

Allen: But their meetings aren't normally open anywhere on this particular issue. So, I agree with you conceptionally but I'm not sure it makes a big difference in this case.

Vanda: No. Probably not (inaudible). Because we are not agreed with many things they've proposed. But anyway (inaudible) to have those debates in (inaudible) it's very difficult to have missing (inaudible) ALAC, because ALACs should be around the world and never really meet.

Allen: Tell them that at the board.

Vanda: (inaudible)

Cheryl: So, you're saying, Allen, that we do need to take a look at the PDDRP and the RRDRP?

Allen: I don't even know what the RRDRP is. No. I know what the words mean. I can see them in front of me. But I don't know what it is.

Vanda: (inaudible)

Cheryl: Neither have I.

Allen: I suspect we need to look at it even if it's to say we don't need to comment.

Cheryl: Okay. So they both need to go on the PAD for the moment for review. Okay. I'm just wondering whether there's any sort of briefing or background information we can get together to take to Nairobi or someone to prepare something or not.

Allen: There are two policy briefings on Thursday. I don't quite know the contents. I haven't looked yet.

Cheryl: Okay.

Vanda: Yes. I have them too.

Cheryl: If that's the case, we might be able to at least access some transcript material for those who aren't attending on Thursday. Okay. We've already given the go ahead to the two IDN ones. That's fine. Benchmarking of registry operations. Can I just point out at this point in time, look at all of these things running in parallel, ending on the same day.

Vanda: Yes. It's amazing.

Cheryl: Have we not said before that this is ridiculous, unworkable, and unreasonable for a community of volunteers to do these sort of things in this volume in parallel and Vanda can you take that again to the board, please?

Vanda: Yes. I will put this list of issues and say I don't know how this community will deal with that. So, if they don't have – (inaudible) have (inaudible).

Allen: At least they gave us more than 30 days and didn't count the Nairobi meeting in the 30 days.

Cheryl: That's robbing Peter to pay Paul really, isn't it? Be thankful for small mercies, I guess.

Allen: That's the expression, yes.

Cheryl: Okay. Right. So, a decision on the benchmarking of registry operations. I've not had time to look at it. Do we leave it on and –

Allen: I think we have to. I mean, look at the next one too. New GTLD agreements proposed by the registries.

Cheryl: Yes. We've got to look at that too.

Allen: How can you not look at it?

Cheryl: No. And who is? That's a no brainer. We've got to do that one as well. Now the proposed framework for the fiscal year – I'm most concerned that with the meeting there will be an awful lot when we get to the other side of the Nairobi meeting that our regions need to digest and consider and discuss. So, what I'd like to do is obviously have it on the PAD. But can we try and tease out some briefing calls, some discussions and community calls the other side of Nairobi but with enough time to be picked up on with the regional calls that are running in the mid to end of March? Can I ask in the absence of Carleton (ph) someone on staff, perhaps Matthias? Is that something that you're able to do a best guess on when we could perhaps slot in with Geis (ph) and a couple of community calls specific to the operational plan and budget? I'm saying a couple because I think we'll have to deal with time zones. It's something I think we need to get as much input in to as we had with the strategic planning. Am I talking to myself? Have I been disconnected?

Heidi: Sorry.

Vanda: No. You're not. Just not to – for that. But just in (inaudible) to the board.

Cheryl: No problem there.

Heidi: Sorry, Cheryl. I'm just trying to keep (inaudible) sorted out as well. (inaudible)

Cheryl: That's alright. I'll just go – Okay. I've now been sitting here for an awfully long time and it is now five minutes to five and I'm all by myself. You've all gone home. Not that I could blame you. The global DNS business case. I took a brief look at this. I think we need to have someone explain it all to me. Vanity (ph), can you – have the board got some handle on this?

Vanda: (inaudible)

Cheryl: The DNS business case.

Vanda: The global?

Cheryl: Yes. Global DNS business case.

Vanda: No. I don't remember. Nothing related to this but no DNS business case. I have seen nothing yet. It's a specific issue but I can check (inaudible) computers now is in the (inaudible) advantage for some further consideration, just a minute.

Cheryl: I mean, I – maybe I'm wrong. I just see this – it's a very important thing but I see it as a huge potential impasse into the fiscal year '11 and other budgets. This could be a black hole. This could suck so much into it.

Vanda: I don't know who's talking about this. I don't remember. I'm a tech on the board advantage side. (inaudible) in there.

Cheryl: Okay. Alright. Well, it's certainly one I think we need to leave on the look out list unless someone objects. Does anyone object?

Allen: No. I think we have to.

Cheryl: And obviously the registration appears (inaudible) initial report, we'd be mad if we didn't put something in.

Allen: And there was one in between you missed.

Cheryl: Oh, the SSR. Yes.

Allen: By the way, has anyone read the December SSAC (ph) report on the root scaling report?

Cheryl: No. I haven't What does it say?

Allen: Oh. It rips to shreds parts of the roots scaling report which is interesting because the people doing the ripping are also the ripees.

Cheryl: Yes.

Allen: The report glows it's so hot.

Cheryl: Okay. We'll all be tempted to write something now.

Allen: It's not clear what the conclusions are. They're basically saying that the root scaling people didn't do their job adequately. Does that mean we should be more worried or less worried? I'm not sure?

Cheryl: Vanda, that might be another watch this space for the board as well.

Vanda: Yes. I'm trying to find out (inaudible) if there is something important in that. The board advantage – well, now it's amazing because each group has their own software for communications. It's amazing. It's something that we need to set up asunder (ph) because you know it's a lot of proper (ph) that you most download to have all the issues, to talk with another one, another (inaudible), blah, blah, and different signs of passwords. You need a book of passwords. Not that I see. No, no, no, no. (inaudible) Not this one. All the books. No. (inaudible)

Cheryl: Okay. I don't think –

Vanda: (Inaudible) I think we look to (inaudible) for our team.

Cheryl: Okay. What are we going to do with the one not on target, the version three of the new GTLD guidebook? Politely ignore it and just put something in standing alone on morality and public order and anything that's coming out as an excerpt from the DAG4?

Vanda: I do believe that we do not have a lot of the (inaudible) the new GTLDs because people were pushing – the board needs to decide. Let's go with the POE, EOI, or not. And certainly we (inaudible) to Nairobi just to have community opportunity to express some points and afterwards we need to decide. So, probably there will be a lot of debate on that. I believe we need to keep this in mind and to have as much discussion is the ALAC (inaudible) go to meetings, the first meetings are up. We need to pay attention and raise some points that maybe will affect the registrar (ph). Keep that in mind and circulate (inaudible) or (inaudible) because certainly we're going to need to vote on that during Nairobi.

Cheryl: During Nairobi. Okay.

Allen: Vanda, is there expected a decision in Nairobi on vertical integration?

Vanda: That's the debate. Part because of the fact the agency (inaudible).

Allen: I understand that. But are you expecting the board to actually vote?

Vanda: Yes.

Allen: Okay.

Vanda: I expect it. The pressure is high and as I said, the board starts to find that they should decide in the last meeting in February. Everybody was against because there was no (inaudible) around and so close to Nairobi, looks like a crazy thing to do, to vote (inaudible) when in a couple weeks you're going to have an opportunity to debate openly (inaudible).

Cheryl: Yes.

Allen: Except many of the people who are both sides of the argument won't be there.

Vanda: At the least. We don't have people (inaudible) whatever it is. We're going to have another issue that certainly will be a problem for the board, especially for me, was the XXX. The triple-X.

Cheryl: That's already going to be very, very costly. I'm very, very concerned about the budget ramifications of all of this. Very concerned.

Vanda: Yes. And I got all the exchanging As (ph) that I have in that time and while I'm just to race back all the things I have and I sent some comments directly to Rob (ph) who understand what was the environment in that situation and the board at that time because not much people that was there in that time are still there. So, it's a lot of – I personally talk with a lot of lawyers from Europe and from United States just to understand their point of view concerning to our bylaws. It was really (inaudible) the bank and exchange of information but I just got an e-mail here from Becky (ph) that there is the lawyer with the (inaudible) ICM in that (inaudible). Anyway this will be the board (inaudible) the legal situation, board will need to face these decisions in (inaudible) not later.

Cheryl: Okay.

Vanda: So, anyway, one point that we're going to have to decide over there.

Sebastian: Generally speaking about the working group on GTLD, I didn't see a lot of trusts even request from the chair of this working group to work on the matters and maybe we can try to push to remember that they are a working group and the chair needs to involve those people.

Allen: I think we probably do need to do that. Yes.

Cheryl: That's part of our planning for Sunday.

Sebastian: I know. It's just –

Vanda: (inaudible) something, some systems, (inaudible)

Allen: Sebastian, we can add that to the list of strategies that maybe we should have people working on e-mail in between teleconferences.

Sebastian: You're right.

Allen: Interesting concept. We should try it one day.

Cheryl: And just have an acceptance that people will work in certain forms of meetings and then you properly plan and allocate times and agendas to get that work done. But at the moment we don't do either very well at all. But it is a nice segue into meetings. We need now need to look at the final meeting schedule for Nairobi. Heidi, I guess the floor is yours.

Heidi: As you might imagine, we have a very full agenda and it gets considerably more full with every passing hour. I'm just going to pop the link into the Adobe Connect so everyone can see it as well. You'll see that Sunday's going to be very much dedicated to the ALAC improvements. In the morning we'll have the regions reporting from their ALSs on the activities they would like to see in the fiscal year '11 budget as well as 2010-2013. We are then moving on in the afternoon to very full discussions, lots of presentations. We're going to have hopefully confirmed very shortly a meet and greet from David Olive, the new Vice President of Policy. We're going to have the entire session in the afternoon be dedicated to At-Large review, the larger dynamics, including very much the strengthening of the working groups. We'll also have some of the ALAC improvement issues of optimizing ALAC EURALO ALS structures. Steph (ph) will be joining via Adobe Connect.

Cheryl: Good.

Heidi: We'll have various presentations on the issue of the working groups. Mick (ph) will be joining us on the issue of ICANN participation and engagement. And then the final session in the afternoon on Sunday will be promoting ICANN through At-Large activities and Vice President of global partnerships, Teresa Swinehart (ph) will be giving a short presentation and then will be participating in the entire session for the afternoon. Also, we'll have either Craig Schwartz (ph) or Tim Cole (ph) present remotely on the issue of regional registry-registrar events. They are very aware of what happened in Toronto and they wish to (inaudible)

Cheryl: Excellent. Heaven's above. We're learning from our mistakes. Who let that go on?

Heidi: Baby steps. We're also going to have Sylvia (ph) who is going to be on the ground in Nairobi as well as Shiva (ph) calling in remotely, providing a presentation on At-Large outreach and how to improve that. That will be useful to have Teresa there. We're also going to have Rudy and Ron provide feedback from Seoul and the activities between Seoul and Nairobi on the issue of PPDLD and the education of ALSs. And then also we're going to have a presentation by Carleton and Dave on their new PAD. I would like to discuss whether we want to adopt that one or whether the ALAC wishes to adopt that one or continue with the one that staff have developed.

Cheryl: I would like to see more than their PAD improvements. I actually like the general dashboard that Dave and alternative Tobago (ph) computer society have put together to EURALO.

Heidi: I'll have Dave present on that.

Cheryl: Yes.

Sebastian: I agree with you.

Cheryl: It's a very nice tool and I would love to see that adopted across the other regions.

Sebastian: Yes. And you have set up this meeting for the afternoon but you bear in mind that we need all night to finish the meeting because there are so much things that we will be discussing and I don't know how we will cope with that. It's good.

Heidi: Cheryl will be moderating.

Sebastian: Yes. But even if she's right, it's not just a question of if we are face to face we need to have some discussion. For example, it's great to have (inaudible) I guess for the first time coming to ALAC meeting but I'm sure that five minutes or ten minutes will not be enough because we have so much things to tell her.

Heidi: Two things. Again, she is going to be there the entire afternoon. So, any questions that concern, for example, the issue of the At-Large outreach by Sylvia, the PPTLD issues – she can discuss those as well. A way to gain some time is if we during lunch had everyone go grab sandwiches at the sandwich bar which I'm told will have many sandwiches available and then return and continue through the lunch period for a working lunch. That would give us some time.

Sebastian: That's good. I just want to ask if we – we have already got feedback from Rudy and Ron and we know something of what they will tell us. How do we do with Sylvia and Shiva? Because for the moment we don't see nothing and don't know if they are really working together or not, if it will not be done the night before the meeting.

Heidi: Yes. All of the presentations for all At-Large meetings will be going out today and tomorrow. They'll have about a week and a half, ten days to do that.

Allen: Heidi, clarification – you said if we go get lunches from the sandwiches then we can gain some time back. But we have Teresa coming at a fixed time at 4:15 in the afternoon.

Heidi: That can be adjusted. The invitations have not yet gone out. We can adjust the time.

Allen: We have her speaking for five to ten minutes but if you add up all the other five to the ten minutes, there's only about 20 minutes left in the whole meeting for actual discussion and that's on all five topics.

Heidi: The five to ten minutes includes presentation and discussion. That was the idea.

Allen: That seems rather tight for that particular one but okay.

Cheryl: It is tight which is why I'm more than happy to go for the working lunch.

Sebastian: But the question with the working lunch, that's definitely a need but if the topic of reviews starts when the non-ALAC people came on the room, then we can't start and it will be a follow-up on what we discussed in the morning or we have to schedule something during the meeting that it's not just a working lunch but with a topic. For example, we can eat and have David talking to us or Teresa talking to us. But we need to have one – I think during the working lunch. If not, it will be a continuation of what we do in the morning, maybe that's okay, we need an hour and a half more to finish the morning work. Maybe it's good. My point about Shiva and Sylvia, it's – I think I will be happy if we can have a tutor, something watching what's happening. But I want to have your impression or feedback on that.

Cheryl: Okay.

Vanda: Sylvia is going to talk with me probably this night or tomorrow in my office to talk about what is going on in the – what is the progress here. She's visiting a lot of people, trying to find places, make some charts, and calls around. I will have more clear position after that than I can exchange some ideas with you, what I get from this.

Cheryl: That works for me. I realize it's a fairly packed Sunday but I'm not sure how we can improve that other than by doing the working lunch and perhaps scrabbling some time back from coffee breaks. What's the situation logistically with coffee breaks? Do we have to go purchase coffee somewhere or are there going to be coffee stands set up or what?

Heidi: My understanding is that there will be coffee stands set up outside so we just would need to go outside the room and they should be there.

Cheryl: Very much like Cairo, we'll have a station literally outside the room and we can just grab them and come back.

Allen: Do we know if they're going to be set up continually or just for that half hour? Are the breaks hard breaks?

Heidi: Let me see if I can get some answers. Just a moment.

Cheryl: That would be useful to know. Thanks, Allen.

Allen: It's particularly hard when we have the little snippets of sections that are being done remotely.

Cheryl: Yes. Do you see then, Sebastian, assuming we do working lunches and shorter coffee breaks and things like that, do we need to reshuffle the order of things to make it work more effectively or what?

Sebastian: To be honest, I am sure that I have no trouble to be seen by – I can staff my share or senior – I am not sure that we need to discuss prior because as it is written, it's something like we give a presentation and it's a point of view of ALAC At-Large. It's not the case. It's really an ongoing process and discussion. But I have no – I came with a problem with no solution. Sorry. I have no idea what really to do except if we can find a way to help Sylvia and Shiva and maybe Rudy and Ron, what they are doing. Maybe it's the only way I see. My main question is do we think with the morning time we will finish before the lunch? If not, the lunch, it's a good time to finish it. Then we don't need to rush everything. If you're saying we can finish prior to the lunch, then we need to have something done during the lunch.

Cheryl: Okay. Heidi, go ahead.

Heidi: Yes. Nancy Lupianno (ph) has said that the coffee bar will be a very short walk from the tipha (ph). The coffee will be available only during the breaks and the sandwich bar is a walk up or elevator, just one flight up, that's where the sandwich bar is.

Cheryl: Yes. With every one of the delegates standing on it at exactly the same time.

Sebastian: Don't worry, we'll just get one sandwich for everybody. We will struggle.

Heidi: Can we adjust the schedule so we would be there before?

Cheryl: I'm thinking if we look at adjusting our schedule so that we do have advantages in those break areas – what were you going to say Allen?

Allen: I was just going to say that I would hope that the sandwich bar will be open slightly outside of the official lunch hours, otherwise we have no choice – and 100 people to stand on it.

Heidi: Yes. I'm just asking Nancy that now.

Allen: I'm going to have to go in a little while.

Cheryl: Yes. I have another meeting with you shortly.

Allen: No. I know. But I have things I need to do in between.

Cheryl: Not a problem. Now, to that end, do you want us to tweak the Sunday session to work around – admittedly, Sunday's not going to be so crowded because it's not a normal day. I think we can manage. Like you said, Sebastian, you've come with a problem with no solution. Allen? Vanda? Dave? Is there a tweaking that you can see, looking at that Sunday agenda that will make it work better?

Allen: We have 3.5 hours allocated to the At-Large review and implementation. Do we really have a good idea how that time is structured? That's a huge block of time.

Cheryl: Seth (ph) ? You're on the call for a reason.

Seth: Yes. I was muted. Sorry about that.

Cheryl: Unmute. Get past that. Come on.

Seth: No. I do not. I myself do not know yet how it's structured. I guess I'm very helpful. Even about the technology that I'll be able to be participating. I'm a little nervous about that. No. I don't have an answer to that at this point.

Heidi: This is Heidi. Just a couple questions. We will be testing repeatedly the remote participation on the Saturday the 6th so we will ensure this all works well. In terms of the ALAC improvements implementation, we could during the 11 to 12:30 slot discuss the next steps. We'll have a briefing paper at that time. That might present some initial ideas on the project outline. That might be one way of moving forward in that time slot.

Cheryl: That would be good.

Heidi: Again, keeping in mind that that particular time slot is, I believe, two AM in New York. So, Seth, that would require you needing to be on that which I know will be somewhat painful.

Seth: That's alright. If Cheryl can do so frequently, I've been inspired.

Cheryl: Can I just say you are a very clever man. At least from your survival mechanisms. You're displaying superb survival skills. Well done, Seth. We will tweak. Let's move on from Sunday. Sunday night, we've got the AFRALO showcase event.

Heidi: And we are having a call this week with the Nairobi outreach group to walk through that event. We're also in talks with travel constituency at the moment to – let's see if I can get the name right. Is it Nee Kwaner (ph)?

Allen: Nee Kwaner. Yes.

Heidi: To get him, he has registered and we're trying to get him –

Cheryl: He's registered as an At-Large person. God love him.

Allen: No one else wants him these days.

Cheryl: Don't say that.

Allen: No. He was on the review committee which was his last real involvement in ICANN.

Heidi: So, we're waiting to hear back whether he can take the funding from James on that. If so, ,we would very much hope to have him to be a speaker given his background in Africa regarding the internet to be on that session as well. That session's going to be about 90 minutes and it's going to be running somewhat in parallel with the fellows' social event as well. That will work as a nice segue. We're hoping that the fellows, after they have about 30 minutes in their social event or an hour, then they will come over to our showcase. Both events will be taking place in the delegate's lounge of the KICC (ph) starting at 17:30. We can set posters and all of the materials up on the Saturday so it will be ready to go.

Cheryl: That's fantastic. What we need is all of us there. We've got to make sure everyone's there.

Heidi: Yes. And we're also going to confirm the speaking order. For example, it would perhaps be Apati Mata (ph) and Tijani, and then perhaps me, Cheryl, et cetera. So, we'll be discussing that as well.

Allen: This seems to be in violation of the – what I was told was a rule at the convention center will close early. I presume this is all coordinated with the travel.

Heidi: This was the actual idea of the meeting people to move it from the LICO (ph) to the delegates lounge in the KICC. And there will be shuttle buses as well afterwards.

Cheryl: They're making an exception. It's easier to keep secure that way.

Allen: I just wanted to make sure everyone knew about it.

Sebastian: Sorry to change a little the subject but can we talk about the LICO? Did we have confirmation about the hotel where ALAC people will stay?

Heidi: Again, this is what I'm hearing from meetings and I am aware that you have not yet received confirmations on that but I'm being told that no one will be getting on a plane without knowing where they will be going.

Sebastian: That's great. But in fact we need to organize things and meetings and evening meetings and so on. Even if I don't receive it, I would like to be sure that you confirm this thing two weeks ago.

Heidi: Yes. That's what I'm hearing. I don't know why – they're supposed to confirm it, to send messages.

Sebastian: That's okay. That's a good hearing. Thank you.

Allen: Heidi, I've also asked repeatedly about airport pickups and the passport issue. Should people come prepared with copies of their passport or not? I've not gotten any answers.

Cheryl: You mean to the KICC?

Allen: The KICC, just traveling around in the city. Many cities, people recommend that you never carry your passport in a city with high crime. You carry a copy. At one point we were told you will not get into the KICC without a passport.

Heidi: Let me just ask. Just a moment.

Cheryl: We need that settle. That was something that was discussed and we were promised a firm and definitive reply at the community briefing on security. Vanda, is that something you can poke about from the board?

Vanda: Yes. The board will have an order tomorrow. Any person from the board that wants to obtain the call from the whole (inaudible) about security issues can join. Try to join. Maybe a more specific point will be allowed to everybody knows because we'll have to deal with a lot of things. The call is for the staff but members of the board can attend. Try to do that. What I know, especially coming from (inaudible) council is in such a place like Nairobi or wherever, it's better to carry a copy because you will not be confused by the police over there with any Somalia people. Certainly they will not stop you to check that. The importance is to have some identification in case you have problems, get hurt, get lost, to prove that you are that person.

Allen: Vanda, the problem is in some countries, the police insist you carry a real passport and also we were told that the convention center would not let us in without our passports. All we need to know is what the rules are.

Vanda: Yes. I don't know. Probably they don't have –

Cheryl: They need to make some then.

Heidi: Cheryl, Nancy's answered that. A copy of the passport is fine. Also getting back to the question about the snack shop, yes, it's open all of the time.

Cheryl: That's good. Copies are fine. We need to tell all of our travels to come with a couple of copies of the main part of their passports and that's what they carry, leaving their actual passport secured in the hotel in whatever mechanism is best to do so.

Allen: The stories are that in some hotels the little safes in your room are not safe. That needs to be verified or take whatever precautions.

Cheryl: Yes. I was leaving it as a very open statement.

Allen: I know. But some people assume that a safe is safe. I need to go.

Cheryl: Alright. I know. Moving through our agenda, do you all see anything other than the same old same old that we've missed? We've got vertical integration. We've got geographic regions, we've got compliance, briefings, and discussions. We've picked up who is studied. What we've done is try to pick up as many of the opportunities and-or discussions from as many of the topics that are going to be in our PAD as possible. So, if I can just ask you to have a really good look at this agenda and to get back to Heidi and I and the rest of the list as soon as possible if you see any glaring errors or omissions? Thank you very much.

Dave: I'm dropping as well. Thank you.

Cheryl: Yes, Dave. I realize that. Thank you, Dave. Heidi, I'm not sure we're going to do much better than we have done with that at this stage. I'm sorry, but utility we are being a little heroic. Can I ask how we're going to put together sort of the sign-on sheet, who's going to make the macro document that has the ability for us to say, "Yes, I desperately want to go to the potential consumer constituency meeting at five PM local time on Tuesday," that sort of thing. Heidi? Are you on mute? Have you dropped off?

Sebastian: (inaudible) You are not alone.

Vanda: (inaudible)

Cheryl: Thank you. I need all the support I can get at the moment, I can tell you. Yes. She's dropped and she's dialing back in. Unless that was the last time. Maybe she'll just leave it up because it's happening so frequently. Okay. But we do need to make sure that is distributed in advance of our meeting as well and I'm very, very aware that we are now talking middle of next week. People will be traveling. We need that paper work out as a matter of priority. Is there anything else that we absolutely positively have to do in preparation for Nairobi? We've to some extent discussed the outreach work group and AFRALO showcase and we'll have more information that I'll ask Dave to get back to us through the week after they have their meeting. Heidi, are you back?

Sebastian: Just I can tell you we decide not to have a EURALO meeting during the Nairobi meeting to leave time for other things and to leave time for staff not to organize one more meeting.

Cheryl: Thank you. I must say I know there's advantages to doing things when everyone's together, but it does put a lot of strain, particularly on these compressed times. I'm most concerned with the compressed times. Okay.

Sebastian: Especially for Europe it could be during the same time – hours, days, it was not good. And if she is not back I just want to give you one information. Maybe you already have. But Desi (ph) who is secretary of EURALO, she's waiting for twins and she will not be able to travel even in Brussels. We are discussing if she needs somebody else to take her role for EURALO or not. It's good news.

Cheryl: It's wonderful news. I'm delighted to hear it's public. Yes, I did know. I'm very, very pleased to hear that it's public and all is well with the pregnancy so far. Of course with the exception of face to face traveling, if she's been advised not to do too much of that, it really shouldn't effect her ability to function too much. I hope EURALO won't be biased or some form of sexist in their decision making.

Sebastian: Frankly, me at least, I don't know about EURALO, but I would love to have her stay in her role but the question is she may make a decision by herself. It's not sexist at all.

Cheryl: That's very different.

Sebastian: The second point is that if she was pregnant for one baby, I will have pushed, but for twins, I don't know.

Cheryl: Luckily I do know and in fact it's very much a matter of how things are going and taking the medical advice and the personal decisions. As well as EURALO is supporting that, that's a very good thing. But it's wonderful news and I'm sure many of us are happy to hear about the pregnancy and she's lucky she's got twice as nice.

Vanda: I'd like to ask if we're going to do some video exchange of ideas about the budget?

Cheryl: I think the answer is yes followed by when.

Vanda: That's the point. I personally suggest that we can – when you arrive, because we can do during Saturday some face to face.

Cheryl: That's very likely to be the possibility. I know Allen will be there then. Sebastian, when do you arrive?

Sebastian: Saturday morning. I'm fully available for you on Saturday.

Cheryl: Fantastic. Vanda, you're obviously going to be there during Saturday?

Vanda: Yes. Because I have one meeting, just one meeting, that's public participation, let me check what time is that. 1:30.

Cheryl: Okay. It sounds like to me –

Vanda: - four o'clock. It will be tight. At least we need to get together and debate about that. It's a lot of interference with the strategic (inaudible) whatever we want to do and if we don't pay attention, the budget –

Cheryl: I agree. That's one of the things that bothers me about the beefed up security and stability issues and of course triple-X doesn't help either. So, let's schedule that time. I wonder when Dave is arriving. Do you have any idea? No? What I'll do is I'll check when Dave is arriving and Carlton, but regardless, those other two will be there, yes, I think we will get together and Heidi and I will find a time that works with you. Your meeting starts at 1:30, Vanda?

Vanda: Yes.

Cheryl: And it's expected to be what? An hour? 90 minutes?

Vanda: Probably 1.5 hour. Maximum two hours. It's not so bad.

Cheryl: So, we could look at something for 3:30, four o'clock then?

Sebastian: Unfortunately Dave arrives Saturday at 6:45 in the evening. Carlton we don't have information yet. Allen we don't have information yet.

Cheryl: We'll just have to make do with what we can, I think. We'll just go ahead with those plans.

Vanda: (inaudible) the board will be split between two hotels.

Cheryl: Are you? Do you know which hotel you're going to be in?

Vanda: I don't know. I asked to be where ALAC is to make it easy. (inaudible) bucks a day, (inaudible) will close (inaudible) and the people will go to the hotel, one hotel, and stay there for – with the rooms available, some facilities around, just to use the night because it's very difficult. We can have these absolutely and every day we have a lot of issues to debate and that goes too late, eight, nine. They are overnighting like that. Some facilities, hotels available, something like that to make sure people will continue to keep in touch.

Cheryl: That's good. Alright. In terms of the ALAC improvements – sorry, we should now look towards the At-Large director selection process. I'm not sure, seeing as we have no comments to review what else we can do. I'm only concerned in terms of the milestones now with the delay in getting the ADSC up and running, I just think we can't afford to drop behind in our milestones with putting out the call for SLI as soon as possible. So, I think we're just going to have to look at this time next week the ADSDT – the design team will have met again and I would like to think that by then we'll have got this minor hiccup raised by Evan today all sorted and we get back on track as soon as possible. Is there anyone else who wants to raise any points or make any issues on that?

Sebastian: I agree with you that we need to try to keep to our milestone because a lot of people are trying to have us outside of the track. We need inside to be on track.

Cheryl: Yes. One of the things I'd like to aim for if at all possible is that we have the system set up and stuck to, to the best of our ability, so that we have our outcomes finalized in the Brussels meeting or for the Brussels meeting. So regardless of whether or not we are officially set in the board on the Brussels meeting or in the October meeting, we will have met our achievements and our milestones on time. If for some other reason some arcane legal requirement of quadruple checking somebody's birth certificate or whatever it may be – I'm tongue in cheek there as you've hopefully worked out, but sometimes for the tape and the transcript, it's not obvious. For whatever reason, if there is some form of delay beyond the mid year meeting in Brussels that it will in no way shape or form be due to anything but our best efforts and our part of the work being completed. I think that's something we need to keep our sights certainly on achieving. To that end then you may need to keep a watching brief on what time course and planning is going on when things come to the board in terms of bylaw reviews. We know all the bylaw reviews are going to take a certain minimum amount of time. At this stage, I can only assume that is going to push us past Brussels. But we want to be very careful that –

Vanda: Probably. It's a lot of issues that come on this meeting. I don't think we're going to have time enough to do all the things because things are entered into the agenda (inaudible) just remember that IDM. I believe IDM will have no problem from our point of view because this is what the situation of the previews that they do not allow three or one this kind of thing. Three, two, one, and if I have then in all this debate in China with all the Asian people over there, I do believe the interest of those people that are the ones that really need to be attended. It's in the way they ask it for. So, I believe it's nothing really that we need to spend much time on that. And certainly we can get Jamie's (ph) position on that but I believe it will be for that and what he's saying because if he's saying debate, they are asking for (inaudible) many times.

Cheryl: Yes. Okay. Alright. Just if we try to I guess with the ALAC improvements which is where we need to head to now, with the next steps, without asking Seth to repeat what he said in our ALAC meeting, I appreciate the opportunity to be grilled and to discuss and to talk as is planned, as you heard, in the ALAC meeting with a three-way conversation between Seth and Heidi and myself. But I would very, very much like and I would trust that Seth would also appreciate and find rewarding an opportunity to have a bit of a pre briefing or get together or discussion just with the executive committee at some point in the process of ALAC improvement. So, I was hoping that as a group the evening, this morning, this afternoon, wherever you have to be in the world, we might be able to discuss with Seth what type of relationship he would like to have with us as an executive committee as opposed to the ALAC as a whole and of course the ALAC and regional leaders which he'll be working with jointly and separately – jointly of course in Nairobi and separately because I assume he'll need to. Are we willing and able, I guess is the first question. I see a great big green tick from Sebastian. Seth? Are you planning on working with us, for us, or despite us?

Seth: Certainly with you and with us. Yes. I think that would be incredibly useful. I agree, Cheryl, to have that talk.

Cheryl: I think we can remain at your beck and call but something I think we probably – if we can fit something in, albeit it fairly short and informally, even if it's just over Skype so we see back into the executive committee, so everyone's fairly aware – I know you're in Skype now, Seth. I think more information shared the better, from my point of view anyway. Heidi, did I hear your dulcet tones?

Heidi: Yes. Definitely I think we should discuss the next steps with the ExCom. I think it would be useful if Seth and I just had a little bit more time to talk together and with Cheryl and then discuss with the entire ExCom.

Cheryl: Sure. Not a problem. I just don't want – it's not a matter of me fearing I'll feel disenfranchised. This is not a group that's easy to disenfranchise. It's rather more that we maximize our opportunities before we're in the full puddle and I for one want to know if I'm drowning or wading when we're dealing with all of this in our face to face meetings in Nairobi. With Seth not being in the face to face situation but doing it remotely, I think that's probably fairly important to establish with him as well.

Heidi: Yes. Absolutely. I know that Seth is now holding the pen on the ALAC improvements outline. So, we can work on that. He's also holding the pen on the briefing note that will be presented or discussed during the ALAC meeting with interested members of the SIC and BGC. So, that document might be something that the ExComs can take a look at before it's finalized. That document contains some background on the entire process, including incorporating back in to the ALAC improvements the At-Large director's election process as well as the next steps in terms of –

Cheryl: Okay. That's fantastic. Did you want to cover anything more off in the executive meeting under item five of the agenda? ALAC improvement next steps?

Heidi: I think that was my aim in putting that there.

Cheryl: Seth? How about you?

Seth: That's exactly what I was hoping we would touch on. Yes. I think next is the conversation – I guess, Heidi, just you and me and bringing Cheryl into it at some reasonable hour.

Cheryl: Yes. And then again – the wider – and then –

Seth: Yes.

Heidi: - Nairobi after that.

Cheryl: Okay. Now, I'd just like to move to the last piece of our agenda other than any other business and ask Vanda while we still have her is there any particular matters she needs to share with us for the upcoming board meeting?

Vanda: The agenda this time is difficult to finish because if there comes another (inaudible) and another line to be included but (inaudible)

Cheryl: Just adjust your microphone. You're fading a little bit.

Vanda: Yes. Okay. I'll speak – I put – out of the (inaudible)

Cheryl: Yes. I understand what's happening. When you're referring to any details, if you can just be careful where you're speaking so we can hear you better.

Vanda: (inaudible)

Cheryl: If there's nothing we haven't already captured in our conversation so far?

Vanda: I don't believe there is something new that we have.

Cheryl: If something turns up –

Vanda: If I find something new it's (inaudible) another point. But you just remember that I said couldn't we have updated our telephone numbers because that's what we're doing in mobile phones in case someone is missing or not appearing or something like that. It's important to have an update telephone number. It's something I put in the report. It's something important because we're doing that and it was the security team that asked us to do that. I don't see much. Let me open here the last e-mail. Let's see. (inaudible) operating plans, (inaudible) approval, (inaudible) then a recommendation for all the group, no? Improvements (inaudible), review, working group reports, proposal profit for electing board members. That's the issue we are (inaudible) committee meeting, blah, blah, blah. Nairobi – so there is nothing really that we really don't see that is read. (inaudible) Two points more importation information for the meeting, (inaudible) expression of interest and operations plan and the approval for consumer (inaudible).

Cheryl: Excellent. Sounds like your report will be very interesting but we don't need to get stuff to you, input you've already got. Thank you very much for that Vanda. Is there any other business?

Vanda: I don't think so.

Sebastian: Just one point on the ALAC meeting. It was a question about Isaac Cameroon (ph) and check on the Isaac website. There's no Isaac Cameroon chapter yet I can say. It must stay on all for – because they can't apply to be ALS until they are not yet a chapter of Isaac.

Heidi: Sebastian, this is Heidi. I believe – I need to double-check this but I believe that we were in touch with them and they assured us that their website would be up at the end of either this month or March and then we would continue. I'll confirm that.

Vanda: (inaudible)

Sebastian: In any case, it will be like the other we are voting on today, it will be depending on the Isaac when they will decide the chapter and it's set up and then it will be able to be an ALS. We need to wait for that.

Heidi: Okay.

Cheryl: Any other business? Nothing else?

Sebastian: No. That's enough already. Thank you very much for your hard work, Cheryl, today.

Cheryl: It gives me a whole half hour to have a shower and wash my hair because I've got to be by somewhere by eight o'clock and the 6:30 meeting will run at least 90 minutes. As Heidi knows, it's very difficult to conduct a meeting with me while I'm in the shower because she's now done it. Thank you all. You've been heroic.

Vanda: Bye-bye.

Heidi: Cheryl?

Cheryl: Yes, Cheryl. I'll stay on. You haven't lost me.

Sebastian: Bye-bye.

Cheryl: Am I sounding desperate? I hope not.

Unidentified Speaker: Do you need to call out on your mobile? I heard you leaving.

Cheryl: No. I won't be leaving until the (inaudible) finishes. I will now go and have my shower and get dressed so I can leave as soon as it finishes.

Unidentified Speaker: We'll call you literally a couple minutes before.

Cheryl: Speak to you later.

Heidi: Cheryl, should we schedule a call with Seth and you tomorrow? That's Thursday, your day. Is that correct?

Cheryl: Depends what time you're offering.

Heidi: Could you let us know what time would be good for you? Actually I'll look in your schedule.

Cheryl: I was going to say not after the funeral.

Unidentified Speaker: Sorry, Cheryl. I've got someone arriving at the door. I didn't see anything in your schedule for the time and I'm terribly sorry to have heard about Joan. I haven't put anything in your schedule yet because I don't know what time the funeral is.

Cheryl: It's 11 o'clock now. I've got that confirmed only last night.

Unidentified Speaker: On your side, maybe you can block out the time that we can't schedule any time. That would help.

Cheryl: I'll do that right now. Thank you. Basically how early in the morning for me, if we can do something around this time tomorrow that would be perfect. Does that work for you?

Heidi: Yes.

Cheryl: Sounds to me like we're on a roll here. If the funeral's at 11, I'll have to be blocked out from 10 o'clock through – well, by the time you do the cup of tea and go back and debrief and everything else, I'll take out the rest of the afternoon.

Heidi: No question, Cheryl, we'll be done before ten.

Cheryl: That's fine. That way if we can pick something around this time which is kind of the 19:00 UTC, that would be perfect.

Heidi: I'll double-check but I think that's okay.

Cheryl: Just get that popped in and it will beep at me 15 minutes before.

Heidi: Thank you, Cheryl.

Cheryl: Thank you. And thank you, Seth.

Seth: Sure, Seth.

Cheryl: We'll eventually have fun. Just not yet.

Seth: Thanks for reminding me.

Cheryl: See you all, bye.

Seth: Bye. Heidi?

Heidi: Hi, Seth.

Seth: I'm still here.

Heidi: You've made it through your first marathon ALAC and ExCom call.

Seth; Actually I had to switch phones in the middle because it ran out of batteries.

Heidi: I'm on my mobile. Both my home phones are dead so I'm on my mobile. I had to have my mobile on power because it was on low battery. Perhaps we should take a 30 minute break or so and then I'll get back to you. I just need to take a break then I'll be in touch. I have some other things to do regarding travel constituency things. So, I'll be back online in about 30 minutes or so.

Seth: No problem. I will talk to you then. And I'm on my cell phone which you have.

Heidi: Will you be on Skype?

Seth: I'll be on Skype. Yes. That's true.

Heidi: Okay. Thank you.

Seth: Talk to you then.

Heidi: Bye-bye.