[board-09georegionswg] Concluding Geographic Regions Review WG Effort - Update
Dear Former and Current Members of the Geographic Regions Review Working Group, Greetings to you after a long hiatus. I am sending you this email because you are either a current or past member of the Geographic Regions Review Working Group and the purpose of this note is to inform you of the plans to finally present the Final Report of the working group to the ICANN Board. Since Dave Archbold¹s retirement, our working group effort has been paused and the conclusion of the geographic regions review has been delayed. You may recall that the last official work Dave completed was to reach out to the various communities who supported the work of the group and ask for their feedback. Dave formally requested feedback from all SO-AC leaders and specifically reaching out to the ASO, ALAC, ccNSO and GNSO and we received written feedback from the ALAC, ccNSO and GNSO as late as the beginning of last year. Recently Cheryl Langdon-Orr, one of the members, raised her concerns about the long hiatus. In order to fill the Chair vacancy to carry the effort over the finish line Cheryl has graciously volunteered her services to fill that role and we have begun efforts to complete and submit the working group¹s Final Report to the ICANN Board with a goal of completing the submission before the ICANN Public Meeting in Buenos Aires. Under Cheryl¹s direction, I am reviewing the most recent input from those communities and am adjusting the Final Report package to include that community input. I plan to share that updated package with you by the end of next week and to offer a three-week review window for any comments or feedback you may have. It is important to note that I will make no substantive changes to the working group¹s final recommendations, but will focus my efforts on packaging the recommendations and the community reactions so that the Board has a clear understanding of the process to date and the contents of the document package. There will be a short transmittal note prepared under Cheryl¹s signature so that the Board has a community point of contact to field any questions about the long and productive work of the working group. Although the work of the working group was subject to workshops at 6 ICANN public meetings, three lengthy public comment periods and a final opportunity for SO-AC feedback, the first step of the Board¹s review will likely be to direct staff to post the document for Public Comment and we expect the community will be given a generous period of time (at least three or four months) to further review, react and comment on the recommendations. Recognizing that the pace of Board and community work matters continues unabated, there seems to be no perfect ³quiet time² to bring the effort to a conclusion. But you have all contributed over the past several years to the development of extremely useful suggestions and recommendations to the Board that are still valid and timely and it is time for them to get a final review by the community and receive consideration by the ICANN Board. Thank you, in advance, for any final input or advice you can provide on this effort to complete this work. I look forward to this final collaborative step with you all! Best, Rob Hoggarth Attachment:
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