[alac] Latin America & Caribbean RALO

[Sebastián Ricciardi <sricciardi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear  friends,

 

I would like to give you an insight regarding the status of the Latin
America & Caribbean RALO discussions.

 

As you know, we had a meeting in Buenos Aires with 20 ALS and potential ALS
to discuss our operating principles and establish a common criteria. Please
note that we invite not only certified ALSs, but also those who are now on
our ?waiting list?. This is related to the search of consensus between all
the groups involved, and principle of openness and transparency we want to
reaffirm.

 

The meeting was a surprise for me. For all of them, it was very important to
launch the regional structure ASAP. Even when some efforts are needed in
order to give them a better understanding of what is inside the ICANN role
and scope and what is NOT in the ICANN scope, and to explain them clearly
the way ICANN works (consensus development, PDP, different constituencies,
etc), they show a tremendous interest in participate through the existence
mechanisms.

 

Most of them acknowledge that the mechanism could be better, but they also
believe that this is a good starting point.

 

What was decided?

 

*       RALO will not be an organization with a broader scope than ICANN. It
is formed exclusively as a vehicle for the user opinion in the ICANN
process.
*       RALO will invite and encourage other organizations to participate.
*       RALO doesn´t need to be incorporated. This can be done in the
future, if it becomes necessary.
*       The work and discussions will be online.
*       It will be one physical meeting per year.
*       All the decisions will be taken by rough consensus. Discussions will
be on line. We will only vote on ALAC representatives.
*       Only certified ALSs will have vote for selecting ALAC
representatives. 
*       The end-user participation will be encouraged, although we will
suggest the user to get organized.
*       The RALO will have a SECRETARIAT. Functions of the secretariat will
be similar to those of the GNSO secretariat.
*       We will have an ASSEMBLY formed by 2 members of each certify ALS.
*       The ASSEMBLY will set up ? if it is needed ? TASK FORCES to deal
with policy issues. Every member of the ALSs and even individual users will
be able to participate in those TF.
*       We discussed financing. We are planning to rely on ICANN help in the
very beginning, but also to seek other sources of financing.
*       We are drafting Operating Principles and MOU to discuss on line.
*       We will have another meeting for close the pending issues.
*       We plan to lauch the whole thing is Sao Paulo.

 

I would be happy to discuss with you any idea/suggestion you may have, and
to respond doubts or enquiries aswel.

 

Best regards,

 

Sebatian