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Transcript AFRALO 04.08.10 EN

Woman: So, good evening everyone. We will be starting today's teleconference. Today is August 4th, and I'm going to ask Gisella to then do the roll call.

Gisella Gruber-White: And good evening everyone. So on today's teleconference we have Tijani Ben Jemaa, Aziz Hilali, Michel Tchonang, Yaovi Atohoun, Hawa Diakite, Baudouin Schombe. And in English, we have Pastor Peters. We have apologies from Fatimata Seye Sylla, and David. Oh, and we have Matthias Langenegger and Seth Greene from staff and myself, Gisella Gruber. Please go ahead, Tijani, thank you so much.

Tijani Ben Jemaa: So we are going to start with item number two. Which is the review of the action item via July 7th meetings, and there are two items here. First the submission of AFRALO regional statements, so AFRALO will be submitting a statement coming from the AFRALO region. And we'll post it in public comments. And this is in regards to the bylaws amendments. And this is related to the board director election by At-Large. So this has already been sent to the AFRALO list and has already been sent to all the RALOS as well, and I've gotten the support from all of the other RALOS already, but I'd like each of the other RALOS to also release a statement. I even asked ALAC to release a statement in regards to this.

So that's item number one. Item number two, Tijani will be sending an e-mail to Kevin Wilson and to Cheryl in order to make them aware. She will be sending an e-mail to Cheryl Wilson to inform them of the acceptance of the IGF workshop and the need of funding from the part of ICANN. And so this has already been done. And I got great support from Cheryl, who wrote an amazing comment in regards to this. She's giving us her full support, so that has already been done. And so at the end of then a talk about what will be happening with this issue and then item number three, still talking about the option items, and give me one moment.

And this is public consultation, and the open consultation period, and the things that we have open. My daughter was, had surgery about an hour ago so I'm not doing too well, so I'm not very there and there's another reason why I'm not doing too well. You will know at the end.

Matthias, if you could tell us what the issues in the public consultation, very well. You have in the agenda the links to go see all the issues on public consultation. You've probably already seen that ALAC was very active these last few days, and they've submitted three statements just recently. One of them in regards to the loss of domain names and how we are able to get them and this is regards to the GNSO work and the PTR, and ALAC released a statement on the initial reports, and you will be able to have access to this initial report.

On today's agenda also, ALAC released a statement as well in regards to the process to, about policy development which was proposed to the GN so a working group, and finally, the statement on travel policy and how to support the ICANN volunteers who wish to travel to ICANN meetings. So you'll be able to find these three links in the agenda.

Also there's a statement that is being drafted at this moment, and this is the statement on the initial report in order to improve the RAA's, or RAA improvement should I say, and the legal document as well for the registries and all the issues and how to improve these documents. And so there's therefore, a working group for the three registries that are drafting this document.

And finally, there is a statement on the GAC4, and the people that are interested in the new GTLDs and it's Carlton Samuel taking care of that issue. And there is a preliminary statement that will be drafted, and in a few days, and so if there's one of you who is interested in any of these subjects, please do not hesitate to either get in contact with Ex-com or staff in order to participate in the drafting of all of these statements. And I think that's really what we have at the moment. And thank you so much Matthias. I think you can then tell us what the working groups are for At-large improvements. And thank you so much.

So we now go to item four. And I'm going to let Seth Greene talk to us a bit about the working groups that are going to be established in order to improve At-Large. So I will be asking Seth to talk to us a bit about this.

Seth Greene: Thanks, thanks very much.

Tijani Ben Jemaa: Well, one second, one second. Oh, okay, now we go. Yes, go ahead, Seth.

Seth Greene: Thanks very much. As you all know, the ALAC At-Large improvement project is moving ahead. We're at the point where, according to a mandate given to us in Brussels, we're now looking for a RALO volunteers to serve on each of four improvement work teams that have been formed. The work teams will include both ALAC Ex-com members and with these volunteers, one representative from each region. The calls, the two things that are most important to know about the calls, and the work being done, is that they will occur, the calls will occur once every two week, and the language the work will be done in, as with many At-Large work teams, will be English.

Anyone who's interested I would ask to please take a look at the four teams. They're on the AFRALO agenda for today, as well as in an e-mail sent around to the AFRALO Discuss e-mail list. The four general topics, one for each work team are as follows: The first, Work Team A, will be working on ALAC's continuing purpose within ICANN. The second, or Team B, will be working on reviewing and improving ALS participation. The third, Work Team C, will be working on the ALAC planning processes. And the fourth, Work Team D, will be working on ALAC's policy advice development procedures.

These four general areas come out of the final report, written by the At-Large review work group that recommended implementing thirteen recommendations. These recommendations, what we've done is we've taken these recommendations and we've organized them under the four topics of these work teams. And in the e-mail that has been sent around, as well as on the agenda, people can see which recommendations are organized under which work teams. So, depending on peoples' interest, we're very eager and looking forward to receiving volunteer requests from the members of the ALSs, of the RALOs.

Finally, I just want to add that we ask that interested parties respond by e-mailing the At-Large staff, that's at the normal e-mail address. That's staff@atlarge.icann.org

Tijani Ben Jemaa: I'm sorry, repeat that address, please?

Seth Greene: Certainly. It's the normal At-Large staff e-mail address which is staff@atlarge.icann.org. All one word, no hyphens, etcetera. No later than Wednesday, the end of Wednesday, August 11th. So that's next week. At this point, are there any questions?

Tijani Ben Jemaa: Thank you so much for this presentation, first of all. And in my case, I think that each working group definitely needs to have a member from AFRALO, and so I definitely hope that each of the members in this teleconference, and even those that are not here with us today, are really interested. So we see many of these members in the working groups. And actually it was not a question, it was more of a comment, says Tijani. Do we have anybody else that has any questions? Well then, in that case, thank you so much. And we will try to be present in at least one of these working groups, thank you so much. And so now we will go to the other items in the agenda. We have now item five and this is the update on the improvement process. No, sorry. Now we're going to go to item five. Question?

And so the question, comment was, then just to clarify that all of these suggestions were then divided into four working groups, and that is in fact what was done.

So now we're going to go to item five, the review of AFRALO elections. So there is a link here in the agenda so you can review. And there were many nominations. Personally, I really want to thank Khaled Koubaa who nominated me to be the AFRALO representative with ALAC, and I thank all of you, because all of you approved my candidacy and my nomination, and I promise you that I will try very hard to, for one thing, improve the AFRALO participation within ALAC to the highest level. And I will put all of my energy into that.

And I am hoping that I am able to really be the voice of the African RALOs within ALAC, and be able to show that as well. Also, Dave had nominated Aziz as the secretary, and of course, he got a great support and everybody supported that nomination. And then I also had proposed to extend Yaovi's term with the non-com, because he's done great work and I can tell you that he works very well. He's always present in these meetings, and it would be great to see him.

And once again, there was great support to that idea. So finally then, we had three nominations for three posts. And of course there were people that did not participate or give us their opinion in regards to what they wanted. There were some ALSs that did not tell us exactly what they wanted. But for those people that are present and that work, we got that support. We got their voice, and we got their opinions on these nominations. Do we have any comments in regards to this? Yaovi.

Yaovi Atohoun: First of all, I want to thank you personally and thank personally all, those of you who supported the extension of my term so I can be the AFRALO rep within nom-com. We've seen a great evolution in our work. And Yaovi, you can very well, in order to continue your work, you can update the wiki or send things via e-mail. I know that there's a page on wiki, asks Yaovi. Is this a page that I can work on so I can send mail and information? And is it possible to post information?

Tijani Ben Jemaa: Well, this page was updated based on the e-mails that were sent. But if you go to the wiki page, you will be able to find your name, nominated by me, with everybody's support with the nomination, and thank you so much, that's what I wanted to confirm. And that is on the wiki page. And just a question, Yaovi, because we still have not received the acceptance of your nomination. So we're still waiting, in e-mail, where you're officially accepting the nomination. Thank you so much, I will be working on that, says Yaovi. In my case, of course I sent an e-mail to thank everybody for their support, and of course I accepted my nomination. So I hope that was rather implied.

Very well, we will continue if there are no other questions or comments, we will now continue.

We are going to do item six, and this is discussion on CCNSO Working Group Paper on Delegation, Re-delegation and Retirement of CCTLDs. And so Matthias if you can help me with that. Unfortunately, I'm not too aware of this subject. I know that there are many AFRALO participants who are very interested in the CCTLD issue. So I really just wanted to know if we had people that were interested in working on the subject, because I know within ALAC there is an intention to come up with a statement in regards to this subject, so we are wanting to find people who are interested in the subject in order to participate. Right. Right. The CCNSO I know that carried out a document and so ALAC will be releasing a statement, correct? Yeah. Yes Hawa, what were you going to say?

I can hear you. Hawa, can you hear us?

“I'm sorry, I didn't hear,” said Hawa.

Did you just hear what we said, Hawa? We were talking about item six, this is Discussion on CCNSO Working Group Paper, and this is a document that was carried out by CCNSO working group in regards to the delegation, re-delegation, and retirement of CCTLDs.

Right, I did not see that document; I would like to see that document. Right, well if you interested in that, then that is something you definitely need to look into. And you will see the links, in the agenda, Hawa. You will see the links on the agenda, so you can take a look at that.

Right. I just got to the office. I'm not in the office, I'm at home, but tomorrow then when you get to the office, you can take a look at that, and you can let us know if you want to participate in that statement that will be prepared.

Very well. Okay, Aziz, yes, what were you going to say?

Gisella Gruber-White: And so Aziz now, for those of you in English, is speaking, unfortunately there is a bad connection, give me a moment while I try to gather what his statement is.

Okay so, what he said he, and once again in English, please give me a moment. We are trying to decipher what Aziz is saying. Give me a second while I try to determine this.

So, Aziz really thanks everyone who deposited their trust in him, and he promises to use all of his energy to really accomplish all of the work by AFRALO.

Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well. So now we are going to talk about then item seven, which is the discussion on the initial report from the GNSO Working Group on Vertical Integration. So, everybody is very aware of this issue on vertical integration. There was basically an imposition, a separation between registries and registrars, so a lot of options, so we had a vertical integration and now it has become one of the most, should we say, broached about in complex subjects in all the subjects that we deal with.

And so Matthias told us that there is now a discussion on this report, that it's taking place, I know that there is a GNSO working group that carried out a report and now this report is available for discussion at At-Large, but you will see here the links on reference for this issue. So if you have the desire and the chance to participate in these discussions, please let your voice be heard. Do we have any questions or comments?

Yaovi Atohoun: Yes, thank you so much. We had a conference related to the subject. But the document is definitely rather complicated. And we definitely have a lot more to add now, on this subject. The document is very long. So I do think that we should definitely organize another conference on this subject so we can get more information on this issue. Thank you so much.

Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yes, Yaovi, in At-Large, at this time, a lot of people are very interested in this subject, and yesterday I think that we got an e-mail from Azan and they really liked this e-mail because he really broached the subject.

Hawa Diakite: Tijani, and I'm so sorry, I can barely hear. I don't know if it's the sound at my home that is not working, or what's happening. But I can barely hear.

Tijani Ben Jemaa: Because Hawa, we can actually hear you very well. We can actually hear you very well, Hawa. So let me go ahead and continue about talking about vertical integration. So the ex-COMM, the ALAC executive committee, will be having a discussion on the next steps and stages on carrying out in ALAC our At-Large document related to vertical information. And that's the latest information I just got from Heidi.

Any more questions? Or comments? If not, let me go ahead and continue.

So the next item then, we now have the update on the At-Large board selection process. So I'm going to let Yaovi and Baudouin speak to us a bit about this. Yaovi and Baudouin who are members of the BCEC, and I think they are the ones that are the most aware on what's happening. And then I will talk to you guys later about the bylaw amendments, and that's the one thing that I can add, because I definitely am not part of the BCEC committee, of course.

Yaovi Atohoun: Well, what I can tell you, we then, now at this moment, there's this new document that has been released in English and in French. So you will see a lot of the information. This has been translated into French and Portuguese as well. But in regards to the committee then, we are still in decision levels, at the decision process, really. And so this is really what I can tell you. We are still working on the selection process. But as an AFRALO member, I know that there's been a lot of discussion in a lot of the African community who are very interested in this subject, of course. And so, I know that at this moment we are still waiting for more input from a lot of the people in our ALS group.

Because we definitely need someone within the board, and I do have a question, Yaovi. In the statement of interest, which has just been published, I read something about the midterms. Or term limits, excuse me. Term limits. Now I am completely against that comment. I know that Haong had actually posted this question in the list. In regards to what is the time period for the candidates. And what I said was that it was not necessary to put any term limits on the terms. And if it is necessary, I thought that three and a half years would be a good term period. Because if we are going to have a short term, then people are not going to be able to really show that much interest.

So I know that those of us here in AFRALO are against the six month term. Everybody in At-Large said it, everybody talked about this in Brussels, I sent in an e-mail myself. And so it seems to me that all of the AFRALO members are also in agreement with me because they sent me their support for this position. So why include in the call out for SOI a reduced term limit? I do not understand.

It's a very good point that you've raised. The committee obviously is working with what they do have available at this time. So the committee just based themselves on whatever documents they had available. And that's really the issue. I don't agree with you, because the available documents were simple projects. You're talking about the bylaw amendments. That was just a project which was then submitted to public comments. So that's not really the case. I mean I think that's something that should not have been included in the documents.

I understand what you're saying, that it was not a good idea to mention that, right? Okay, I got it. I will definitely let them know and inform them of this at the next meeting, then. So I think that we've broached the subject in detail.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: And so, Aziz is speaking right now. Could you repeat that again, Aziz? I'm sorry. Okay, let me go ahead and decipher.
Gisella Gruber-White: And one second please for English. Aziz is speaking, and there is a bad connection, so when he speaks, I have to get a relay from the chair of the meeting to make sure that I understand.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yes, Aziz, you were asking about the AFRALO statement in regards to bylaw amendments. This has already been sent out. We sent a light statement and I included all of the comments and I sent this to the public comment list and I sent this to all the RALOs as well. I sent all this to the list but there is no response on the public comments.
No. The other task that was given to me was to send an e-mail to Kevin Wilson as well, who is ICANN CFO, and to Cheryl, to inform them about the IDF workshop, and that it was accepted. And we are now waiting for ICANN financing. And it's something that I was waiting for and that I sent. And I also got great support as well from Cheryl, who also sent her statement in regards to what she thought of this to all of the officials in ICANN. And at the end of this meeting there is a specific subject in which I want to give you the result of this important issue. Let's go ahead and continue.
So now we've spoken, it seems to me, in detail of this subject. Now, next item, and the next item is item nine, and this is ALS applications. In regards to this subject the staff is going to give us an update then on Binary Egypt, and you will see the ALS tracking document.
Aziz Hilali: And thank you so much, can you hear me, Tijani? Great. So there were some problems with the Binary Egypt application, because we did not receive all of the required information. I know that there were some issues with the application because it turns out that it's more of a company and not a non-profit organization. So we got in contact with the president of the organization, Mohammed in this case and we are still waiting for an answer. And we are also waiting an answer, and we are also waiting for (inaudible 38:53) who is part of ICANN staff to be able to get in contact with Mohammed. And unfortunately (inaudible 39:00) is on vacation and he will not be back until next week. And he will take care of getting in contact with Mohammed to speak about the application. We got the impression that Mohammed doesn't speak English and there's a lot of misunderstandings and we were not able to really understand what he was saying.
So we definitely know that they want to pursue their application. They have told us that they're not a private organization that they work for the users and for their interests. But we definitely need more information in order to continue with the process so we're still waiting on that. Thank you, so much. Also, if we did not get the adequate due diligence it's because we've not been able to get in contact with then. And also, I get the impression that this organization had used the ICANN logo let's say in a way in which they were not allowed.
First of all, they have not been accredited. And if even if they're accredited they're not allowed to use the logo in that way, is that not correct? That is correct.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: That is correct, and that's another problem that we will be discussing with them as well. Very well. So I think that's all we have to say in regards to that subject. Do we have any other questions, comments? No, very well.
Item 10. This is the recent and upcoming activities of AFRALO. So, AFRALO. We have the IGF workshop Vilnius, as I told you. So, Mohamed was called very late by the operators, Mohamed, are you here?
Mohammed El Bashir: Hello?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Mohammed, can you hear me? So, anyway, we sent the e-mail. We got very strong support from Cheryl.
Mohammed El Bashir: Yeah, it's Mohammed.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: There you are. Okay, Mohammed. Give me a moment. I will let them know that you are finally here. So anyway-

Heidi Ulrich: I'm here as well.

Tijani Ben Jamaa: Oh Heidi, you're here, great.

Heidi Ulrich: Hi Mohammed.

Mohammed El Bashir: Hi Heidi, how are you?

Heidi Ulrich: I'm fine.

Tijani Ben Jemaa: So, I know that I've already invited very reputable speakers for the conference, and we really need to know at this moment if we are able to make this happen. Because if we don't have the money, we're not going to be able to make it happen.
Heidi has also tried to get in contact with them. We still have not received any news. And the deadline in order to get the bio from these people was on the 31st. Because the thing about the speakers is we can't just tell them just like that, “Well, we can't do this or we can't do this, it's not very serious.” So, today I got an answer from (inaudible 42:57) finally. And it's basically an answer that has nothing new. ICANN basically is not moving. ICANN does not want to finance anything at all.
You know, it reminds me of government, in a way, they have all these little ticks and tacks and they're not able to get out of their little rest haven, and so they're not efficient. And this is what I'm seeing is happening with ICANN. They basically are telling me the At-Large financing is limiting to ten plus fifteen in order to the ICANN meetings, and that's all. So if you want to organize a general assembly of your RALOs, we can then take two from here. And so that is something that can happen, but if it's not a General Assembly, then we cannot give you the support.
So, how do I say this? It's this very stressed working group. And you know, what we asked for financing was nothing. It was ten thousand dollars, I think. It was not a big deal. We even said six thousand dollars, if possible, if that's not the case, and this is the response that I got. And I think that even if we would have asked for a dollar, it would have been the same response. Because there's something about not being able to go over, and this is the second reason why I'm not in a good mood. I'm very disappointed. How am I going to tell these people now?
Because I had already asked for their bios, actually. This is something that I had worked. So I asked for their bios. And so tomorrow I'm going to have to send them an e-mail and tell them we're not going to be able to do this workshop. And so for me, it really is a shame. I am ashamed because I was very gullible. I really believed that we could make things happen, and unfortunately that is not true. So, can we try to reconnect Aziz, because he's been disconnected?
So, this is what I have to say. Is there anybody that has something to say? Any comments?
Heidi Ulrich: Tijani? Heidi.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Go ahead Heidi, and slowly, please.
Heidi Ulrich: Thank you, Tijani. Firstly, I want to say thank you again, very much, for taking the initiative to plan what seemed like a very useful panel at the IGS, and everyone here that was dealing with your response noted that as well. And I do fully understand your disappointment on that, but I do want to stress that this is, for this particular instance, but again your request I think will be something that they will consider as they go forward, particularly in fiscal year twelve. That they need to understand the process for processing these types of requests. So I think that you should be applauded not only for planning this panel but also for making inroads into how ICANN processes these requests.
And again, we all know that ICANN has experienced a budgetary crisis not only in fiscal year ten but also the increase in the budget for Fiscal Year ‘11 was flat. So there really is no additional funding for these types of events. But fiscal year twelve might see a change in that.
And again, in fiscal year twelve, as was announced at the Brussels meeting, will have a different type of development of that budget where the advisory committees and supporting organizations will be able to put their input in much earlier than has been in the past.
So, again, I do see hope in the future for that.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Thank you, Heidi. Thank you. I don't know really, thank you so much for your kind words. You did it earlier, you're doing it again. And I don't know what I would have done without your words.
But my big fear, because the problem is that we have been told to come up with proposals for 2011. We were told to come up with specific things. And these are things that once again, they have not considered. I hope that this mentality changes. Because if this is not the case then we're not going to be able to do much.
But thank you, again Heidi, for you words. And thank you to the At-Large team. And thank you to Cheryl, who gave us great support, and who's really been a great part of this as well.
Yaovi Atohoun: And Tijani, I definitely want to tell you, do not get discouraged please. You have a lot of energy and you've put a lot of work into this.
And I think that in the future that there's still a lot more that we will be able to do. And as we said, for 2012, I think that there is hope, and we need to start working on this. There are these issues with the budget. So there is a lot of work to do. There is a lot of energy. There's a lot that you do, and just do not get discouraged.
Thank you Yaovi, and I have to say this, if the officials in ICANN are not able to rework the budget allocated for At-Large, now you can imagine the budget that I asked. It was something that I asked for because it's going to be for ICANN's benefit in order to improve their image, to promote their presence in the international scene. Because as you know, it's not a secret. If ICANN becomes a really respected organization, it's not just about little forums where the CO speaks. We need to see real action, real contribution on these forums. And things like workshops are the actual backbone of IGS. So we need to be present in many of these workshops.
The name of ICANN needs to be seen in a lot of these workshops that are organized.
Heidi Ulrich: Tijani, could I speak?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Let me go ahead and tell him, Heidi, because he's still speaking.
Yaovi Atohoun: And I know that I proposed this workshop on the name of enough ICANN-AFRALO workshops. So this is not money for At-Large, this was money from ICANN. And this is what ICANN does not understand. The At-Large budget is one thing. And they have to realize that this is not something that we're asking for At-Large. We were asking for something for ICANN'S image.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Go ahead, Heidi.
Heidi Ulrich: Yes, I would just like to clarify a couple of things and then also talk a little bit about the upcoming travel support call that will be taking place next week.
Firstly, I just want to stress that there is no At-Large budget. Related to At-Large activities there are two. One is for Policy Development in general, again that's all policy development. That's GNSO, that's At-Large, etc., and the other one is Travel Support. And within there currently there is $380,000 dollars for all of At-Large travel support. And it is up to At-Large or ALAC to decide how those funds are distributed.
So that's something that you can discuss with Kevin next week during the travel support call. And I believe that there will be further discussions within At-Large on that topic. And also on next week's travel support call, we have invited David Olive, who is the Vice-President of Policy as well as Mandy Carver, who is the deputy director of the Global Partnerships division at ICANN to be active listeners in that call.
So these are some important issues, Tijani, that could be discussed during that call. Thank you.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: I will not miss it, Heidi. Rest assured I will be present and I will definitely talk about these subjects. But thank you so much Heidi. And Michel has something to say.
And, I'm sorry, give me a moment in English. Michel has a bad connection, let me make sure I decipher what he's saying.
Michel Tchonang: I also want to as well stress my great disappointment in regards to this. We've definitely worked very hard as well. And it's definitely time to rework a lot of these issues. Because how are we going to be able to organize a lot of these activities? And work with everything that we need to work with without getting the proper support? So, it does seem to me that there's a lot yet to be done. This is a very import issue, I think. And this affects us all. In the participation aspect.
Because once again, we talk about that a lot of the options and a lot of the things that we do are within the framework of ICANN, and for the benefit as well. You know, for example, I know that we have a similar issue on a capacity building, for example, there was an issue with the budget in that sense as well.
Many things were basically put to the side. So I really don't understand. And it's true, none of us really understand what's going on, because for ICANN, travel support, whatever, hotel, whatever, plane ticket, whatever, per diem is part of travel support's budget. But they put all of that, they have their budget for that. And since they added up this budget based on ICANN meetings, there's no way to get out of that and work with anything else. And so, it seems to me that there needs to be a reworking of the budget for a lot of the projects that have to do with visibility for ICANN. That is an issue. We're asking, and I was very clear, very clear with Kevin. I said to him, “I don't want you to give me money, I want you to take charge of things like our plane tickets, and our hotels, and the per diem.” And that's a way to make things transparent.
But once again, we go back to the issue. Travel support is dealt with the same manner, so. Heidi is telling me that ALAC is the one that determines the support for travel that they have available. So, I mean, you know, ALAC is obviously not going to reduce the participants for their meetings. That's not something I would allow either, because it's also important to have regional participants and that all the members are present. And we all know that.
Very well. Do we have any other comments?
Mohammed El Bashir: Mohammed, here.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Oh, Mohammed, yes. Mohammed, I'm so sorry. Your connection was not very good so sometimes I couldn't hear very well if you were trying to speak or not. But please, go ahead.
Mohammed El Bashir: Thank you very much. Apologies for joining late, I've been called late by the operator. First I would like to thank Tijani for all that she's done in trying to organize the workshop. I was one of the proposed speakers in that workshop because I'm involved in (inaudible 1:00:10) as a topic for the workshop. With the recent news regarding (inaudible 1:00:22), although it's disappointing, I think the whole process was a very good exercise to show that AFRALO could lead initiatives and could work on things that actually showed that we can produce very good outcomes.
So, I don't want Tijani to feel disappointed. This experience will help us to plan future workshops. And I guess it's very important that (inaudible 1:01:02) with respect to the financial stuff within ICANN that those types of activities, workshops, outreach are important. And when you (inaudible 1:01:12) a good group of people who can represent the internet users, and they are involved with ICANN, this is a good approach to ICANN to represent that. (Inaudible 1:01:43). So, we hope that this can change in the near future.
We can use this also as an experience to plan for future workshops, similar workshops. That's a good approach AFRALO can take to have something, I would say an interactive (inaudible 1:02:02) if I can recall it, other than just bringing people to the meetings. Those workshops would be a very good vehicle even to position AFRALO. Let's forget about this one, and let's apply it for further activities and try to get the support earlier next time. Thank you very much Tijani.
Heidi Ulrich: That was wonderful, Mohammed.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: And thank you, Mohammed. Thank you. What does make me rather unhappy, I have to say is that now I'm going to have to tell very reputable speakers that I was able to secure to participate in this workshop. I'm going to have now to tell them, “We're so sorry, we're not going to be able to have this workshop.”
My credibility will be shot in this process. Nobody will believe me in the future. And, it's kind of like the chicken and the egg. Because we had to propose a workshop. We had a deadline to propose a workshop. We had to propose a workshop, and we needed to provide the names of speakers. So I had to get the names of the speakers before getting ICANN'S agreement for the financing; that was a requirement because there were deadlines. And I did that. And also, we were told that there was a deadline where we needed to show the resumes of the speakers. So we needed to get the resumes. And we needed to come up with the bios. And so, at the last minute, now I'm told, “No, we can't do the workshop.” And now, what are these people going to tell me? “Well, we don't believe you, we're not going to believe you in the future.” That really does annoy me.
But I'm going to stop complaining. I'm going to stop complaining now. Very well. Do we have any other comments? Did you want to say something else Mohammed? Hello? Mohammed? Did you want to say something else? No, I'm sorry. I thought I heard you, and I just wanted to make sure.
Okay, and now we have a comment from Aziz. Give me a moment.
Aziz Hilali: Okay, so the people who need the financing, or the financing that we need, we need the financing for the four people from AFRALO. The rest of the people, I was able to find great, great speakers who were coming to Nigeria anyway.
So, we didn't need any financing for them. We just needed the financing for the AFRALO members. The financing was needed for the AFRALO members. But the issue is, and AFRALO-ICANN workshop without AFRALO members, it really doesn't work. And it's one of the first workshops that were approved.
And that is something that you also need to be aware of as well. And it was accepted, first of all, because it's a very important subject. And second of all, because of the diversity of the speakers in regards to the subjects, in regards to the regions and the government and the private sector and all these things, this whole diversity was part of these members.
This is a workshop that was accepted at the beginning. And a lot of the workshops that were given their green light, I know there were workshops that really fit this requirement of diversity. So, obviously, if we don't have the African people in these workshops, the members of our time in regards to that, then it doesn't have the same value.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well. Any other comments? This is Michel.
This is definitely, as we said, a very important subject. We were at least able to come up with this proposal, and that was important.
I will tell you this. Never again will I be asking for another financing like this. We had asked financing for the outreach that we wanted to do in Nairobi. We never got a formal response. But basically, we're being told, how do we finance ICANN when they're richer than us?
So you wonder how it is that this works. And how you're able to accomplish these things. And for this, we asked for these funds, and it wasn't that much. And I think it's best to stop at this moment because it's very painful, but it is the way it is.
Heidi Ulrich: Tijani, could I respond to that please?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Go ahead, Heidi.
Heidi Ulrich: Thank you, Tijani. I do want to stress that I highly encourage Tijani and other members of AFRALO to continue in these actions. I can assure that this request was considered at very high levels. That there is now an awareness of such requests and how to deal with them in a more effective way. How to include this? Mandy Carver from the Global Partnerships will be on this travel support call next week with Kevin, with Steve, with David Olive. So this is the first time that we're having on a call regarding travel support so many senior people from ICANN.
And I view this as being driven by Tijani's request for this. So I do see this, even though this particular request was unfortunately turned down, that there is hope in the future. And Tijani I would think that you are well-place to lead that for AFRALO.
Mohammed El Bashir: Hello?
Gisella Gruber-White: Yes? Hi, this is the interpreter. Who is this? Yes. Did you have a comment, I'm so sorry, Pastor Peters, I just can't hear you very well. I highly apologize.
Pastor Peters: I'm sorry; I’m in a bad connection here. What I want to say, the record of this conversation, will it be posted online for (inaudible 1:11:32)?
Heidi Ulrich: Hi, Pastor Peters, this is Heidi Ullrich begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting with At-Large staff. Yes, the recording and a summary of it will be posted.
Pastor Peters: Okay, thank you very much, because I've been on and off because of the network so I want to read through and make my contribution in writing.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay, and Mohammed, ALAC activities, do you have any information on that, or Heidi?
Heidi Ulrich: Yes, sorry, I responded. Yes, Pastor Peters, there will be a recording posted as well as a transcript of this call.
Pastor Peters: Thank you so much.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: And then for Mohammed or from Heidi, do we have any upcoming ALAC activities that you'd like to share?
Heidi Ulrich: Again, we have the travel support call that will be next week. Please look for the exact day and time on the afore discussed list. And I believe that is it for upcoming community calls.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Thank you very much. Very well. Do we have any other comments, or anything else that you'd like to discuss? Any other business? I wanted to speak about the next ICANN meeting.
So, I was, in regards to the visa issue for the next ICANN meeting, I wanted to know how that's going to be dealt with. Because this is going to be in Columbia, I know that I'm supposed to go to the Ivory Coast and there is a difficulty in getting the visas in regards to that. So, I really want the staff to really start working on this issue now. How are we going to deal with the visa issues? Especially for all of the African members that will be participating in this conference.
Because what I'm saying is, we don't want to get a separate plane ticket, it would be good to get the type of plane ticket where we are on the way to the country that issues the visa and then we go directly to the country where the conference is going to take place. And I will ask Heidi. Heidi, if you could please.
Heidi Ulrich: Thank you Tijani, and again thank you for bringing this very important issue up. I have heard a lot of discussion between Kevin, Cheryl, and I've been part of that discussion on the need to start as early as possible for the travel plans for Cartagena. So I will contact Steve to see when the travel procedures for Cartagena will be produced. Within those travel procedures you will have the details on how visa issues will be handled.
So I will urge Steve to produce that as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Thank you so much. Very well. Any other questions? If not, if everybody is satisfied, then I think that I'm going to thank all of you for being present here today, and I wish all of you a great evening, and thank you so much. You take care, everyone.
Heidi Ulrich: Thank you everyone. Thanks, Mohammed and Pastor Peters.
Gisella Gruber-White: Take care, bye-bye.
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