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• Chris Mondini on the Stakeholder Journey program: 
  • It looks at the challenge of getting more volunteers, but also more active volunteers 
  • At a very high-level, GSE has looked at some data, to look at where people come from, where they may get stuck, what some of their challenges are. They looked at the structures across ICANN, because each structure approaches this question slightly differently, and each structure and constituency has slightly different needs. They have made some high-level observations about how we might attract people, by looking first at what their question areas are, what their issue areas are. 
  • They have looked at some tools that they can provide to help community volunteers be partners in doing that outreach. GSE will solicit feedback from the community, especially the volunteers who have a passion for bringing on the next generation to having a succession plan, so that the sustainability of ICANN in this community is assured. 
• Sally Costerton on the work of Community Engagement:
  • There has been coordination team inside the ICANN, co-chaired by Sally Costerton and David Olive, composed of senior staff that face the ICANN community. The team includes the Policy Team, the Engagement Team, the Communications Team, which is led by Duncan Burns, the Digital Engagement Team, led by Chris Gift, and the Meetings Team, led by Nick Tomasso. There are two frequent guests, which is DPRD, led by Nora Abusitta, and she has the Fellows Program under her remit in DPRD, which is a very important element of the Stakeholder Journey Program. Another guest is Cyrus Namazi, who leads engagement for the GDD Team. The goal is to try to make sure we have a much more holistic view about how ICANN, as a staffing organization, can maximize the resources at our disposal. 
  • This team is to tackle some of these difficult challenges that the community faces as it matures and grows, such as the great deal of exhaustion in the volunteer community. You see a lot of the same faces popping up in different Working Groups, and while that’s great in some ways, but it’s also not sustainable. 
  • It is also about providing people with tools, it’s translations – it’s access questions, generally, whether that be money to get on a plane, or stay in a hotel, whether it’s language tools that allow you to participate in an even way, whether it’s improving the search on the website so that it’s a more friendly environment. 
  • how do we take a holistic look, as staff, at all of the money that ICANN spends on volunteer support, community participation? Whichever word you want to use. Because we tend to view it in quite narrow pockets. There are particulate processes to apply for travel funding or special support work and so forth. 
  • but we will be able to do so in due course – it’s getting a real sense of, “How much in total, out of the overall ICANN Budget, do we have at our disposal? And how can we make sure that we match that, as effectively as possible, to this goal?”
  •  we’re trying to take what you’re talking about, as a more strategic view of it, to say, “Are there other ways we could do things differently that would make it easier for unpaid participants in the community to have a more equal participation?” 
• Siranush Vardanyan: GSE team should be connected to the Outreach calendars used in RALOs to see At-Large activities and explore collaboration opportunities.
• Rafid Fatani: How do we maintain the old, but also bring in the new and keep them in? One of that is actually maintaining and allowing them to grow within various leadership positions. I, in the ALAC, think personally that we have a problem with this. 
• Sebastien Bachollet: I think it’s good to have new people come in, but they need to be received, they need to be accompanied, they need to be sustained, supported, received in good conditions. Because if that’s not the case, they are going to leave and go somewhere else.
  
• Sally Costerton: GSE will have regular calls with the ALAC Outreach & Engagement Sub-Committee.  I’d be very happy to make myself and some of my team available, once, or regularly, to join that call. This may give us more time to get into more detail about some of the tactical things we need to do.