[board-09georegionswg] Geo Regions Review WG - 25 May Meeting Report

[Robert Hoggarth <robert.hoggarth@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Working Group Members:

Set forth below are the matters and recommendations agreed to on today's WG 
call. Note that the WG attendees would like feedback ASAP from fellow WG 
members on these matters - particularly any objections to the recommendations.

WG Attendees:

David Archbold
Cheryl Langdon-Orr
Fahd Batayneh

Staff Attendees:

Bart Boswinkel
Pablo Hinojosa
Rob Hoggarth
Glen de Saint Gery

Apologies:

Janis Karklins
Paul Wilson

Overview:

The attending WG members discussed a wide range of issues and ideas.  The made 
a number of recommendation summarized below.  Please review them as soon as 
possible to note any concerns or objections.

Survey Feedback:

To date there have been 28 responses to the survey document.  WG members on the 
call expressed disappointment with the level of response to date and briefly 
discussed whether the reason was lack of community interest or understanding of 
the issues.  Given the discussions about the preparation of the Interim Report, 
WG members on the call left open the possibility of keeping the survey open 
longer. Please continue to encourage members of your specific communities to 
take a few minutes to take the survey - see - https://www.bigpulse.com/p9044/.  
 Rob will report the number of respondents as of June 1 so that WG members can 
consider whether to extend the time the survey should remain open.

Interim Report Next Steps

WG members on the call acknowledged that the draft Interim Report requires much 
more substantive input from WG members and that the time necessary to complete 
that effort would likely not meet the present deadlines created by the WG.  
They further agreed that additional community perspective would be helpful in 
developing the report.  It was recommended that the current draft version 
(dav4RHv4) be cleaned up to remove references to individual WG members and that 
the WG post the draft report for community comment and discussion in Brussels.

Now that the WG is contemplating some community discussions in Brussels that 
would include possible feedback on the draft document (you'll see below the 
recommendations for a 1 1/2 hour workshop on Thursday morning in Brussels), it 
is necessary to circulate the document to the community by 31 May. You may 
recall that the ICANN Board's Public Participation Committee requires that any 
documents to be discussed at an ICANN meeting be circulated three weeks before 
the start (opening session) of the meeting.  The recommended modification to 
the Interim Report timetable will give all WG members more time for community 
interaction and thoughts about the document and allow a more complete and 
substantive document to be produced after the Brussels meeting.

Unless there are any immediate objections to this recommended approach, Rob 
will clean up the present draft into a version "dav5RHv5" to circulate to you 
tomorrow and then subsequently to the ICANN web team for posting on the main 
ICANN site and on the Working Group Wiki - 
https://st.icann.org/geo-review-wg/index.cgi?geographic_regions_review_working_group_wggr_wiki
 - by the end of this week.

Rob will also ensure that the Board is informed of this timetable adjustment at 
its Brussels meeting.

Brussels Plans:

WG members agreed to schedule a session/workshop on Thursday (24 June) morning 
in Brussels.  Dave (in his Chairman's capacity) will start the session with an 
overview of the geographic regions framework and the remainder of the meeting 
will be an active dialogue between any WG members who can attend and the 
community discussing the potential future applications of the Geo Regions 
framework.  WG members on the call agreed that this session (which will be 
recorded and transcribed) could help flesh out community views about potential 
future options for the geographic regions framework and spur further 
substantive thoughts by WG members for preparation of the Interim Report.  
Given the tight schedules of WG members in Brussels, tentatively, the workshop 
session will substitute for an in-person meeting of the working group.

Timetable:

Assuming no objections to the above recommendations by attending WG members, 
the remaining dates now on the WG calendar leading up to Brussels are:


 *   26 May:  Cleaned-Up Draft v5 of Interim Report circulated to WG members
 *   28 May:  Draft v5 of Interim Report forwarded to ICANN Web Team for posting
 *   1 June:  WG Survey Closes (could be extended)
 *   15 June - 1200 UTC:  Scheduled WG Call - Finalize Agenda For Brussels 
session/workshop)
 *   24 June - Brussels Meeting:  WG Session/Workshop for community (8-930 AM 
Local time)

Next WG Call:

Consistent with the agreed upon every-three-week timetable, the next call of 
the Working Group is scheduled for next Tuesday, 15 June at 1200 UTC.  At that 
meeting the WG will finalize plans for its 24 June session/workshop in Brussels.

Warm regards,

Rob Hoggarth