Heidi Ullrich: So, would you like to just start the meeting? We can do, and as the others come on, we can maybe catch them up?
Dessi Greve: Okay, let's, after we do roll call. Evan, me, Heidi, Dev, Andres, and we have apology at last from (inaudible) Ludwig, I know.
Andres Piazza: Yes. Ludwig, who's that? Dessi?
Dessi Greve: Yes, that's me.
Heidi Ullrich: Hi. Wolf Ludwig is the chair of--Wolf Ludwig, Andres, if you're asking who Wolf Ludwig is, he is the chair of EURALO.
Andres Piazza: No, no, no, no. I was asking who is talking.
Dessi Greve: Who is speaking?
Heidi Ullrich: Oh, sorry.
Andres Piazza: Sorry. No, I know Wolf Ludwig.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay. So if I'm looking at it right, I have the spreadsheet up on my screen, and it's Part A, Information Accessibility and Dissemination, that one?
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, it should be four parts--A through D. But that's going to come down later on the agenda. Who would like to be chair during this meeting? During the last Secretariats' Meeting, it was decided that each meeting would select a chair, another chair. Dev was the chair last time. So are there any volunteers?
Evan Leibovitch: I could do it. There's not that many of us here. I hope it won't be that difficult to do.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Yes, well go ahead, Evan. If you need a second, (inaudible).
Evan Leibovitch: Okay. So, first thing on the agenda, I guess, is to review the minutes of the last meeting. And does anyone have any comments or follow-ups? This is--does anyone have any comments on those minutes? Okay. All right. And so if that's the case, then we'll move on.
Action items, the 20th. Okay. Heidi, do you want to update on some of the action items?
Heidi Ullrich: Yes. Okay. The issue of the adding the global partnership liaison events to the At-Large External Regional Events Calendar, there, what we've agreed is that we're going to start updating them starting in October. But, given the way that they report, the global regional liaisons report, their upcoming activities can only be one month in advance. Okay. So when I start uploading about mid or early October, it will only be for October. So I'm not sure how useful that is to you if you're planning outreach events in your areas.
Evan Leibovitch: You mean to say they don't give you more than one month's notice?
Heidi Ullrich: That's my understanding, yes, which is, I find it a bit odd. But that's what I was told.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay.
Heidi Ullrich: So what--uh-huh?
Evan Leibovitch: Can we sort of bump this up as we change, because that isn't very fair to you or to us?
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, yes, I will--.
Evan Leibovitch: Because we went through a whole thread on the Toronto meeting and the Rome meeting and the idea that, you know, ICANN does a lot of things where it could have some cost savings, and also that we could do some outreach events, and there's not a lot of coordination going on. It was my understanding some of this is going to be discussed in Seoul. But I mean if you're getting told that you can't have more than one month notice, something's wrong with that.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. Just so clarification's sake, the one-month notice is only to do with the regional liaison meetings, where they're going to be. And since there is, my understanding is that there's no North American regional liaison, that wouldn't have been an issue in the Toronto case.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay.
Heidi Ullrich: So I'm strictly talking about where the regional liaisons are going to be in the regions where they are.
Evan Leibovitch: And they don't know that more than a month ahead of time?
Heidi Ullrich: That's what I'm told. But I'm very happy to still notch that up as well, because I understand that that's not useful for planning purposes.
Andres Piazza: Just, Dave, just a question, then. Isn't that the liaison events, that they have their own calendar? How far exactly do they track it?
Heidi Ullrich: They have their calendar in the ICANN portal, which is internal. So I went on there, and the only events-the only schedule I sawwas for August. So I went and asked about thatyou know, that's not useful at all-and then that seemed to be, that was a technical glitch. That information had been transmitted for September but it had not been updated yet. And then we agreed that we would do this for October, but only one month in advance.
But I was thinking that in Seoul--in Sydney, you had the chance to be introduced to some of the regional liaisons. But I was thinking that in Seoul, it would be useful if you could have just one-on-ones with your own regional liaisons where they exist. So I know, Evan, that wouldn't be for NARALO, but it might be useful for the other Secretariats, just to get to know their regional liaisons a bit better so that you can develop a relationship where you can have exchanges there. Would that be useful? So this would be more for LAC RALO and EURALO, et cetera, and also in the Caribbean.
Evan Leibovitch: It used to be that the regional liaison for the Caribbean also did Canada, so that policy was changed for reasons that were never explained.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Yes, that's true. I think it's now only one person. There is a liaison for the Caribbean directly. I'm not sure what happened for America, actually.
Evan Leibovitch: Well, the US has never had one, but once upon a time there was a fellow named Jason Mathaus whose territory was the Caribbean and Canada, and when he left, he was replaced with somebody just doing the Caribbean.
Heidi Ullrich: I wonder if that's because of just their personal backgrounds?
Evan Leibovitch: I have no idea. We were never given an explanation.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, I'll look into that. I'll look into that issue. But for the other, for EURAL and LAC RALO, would that be of interest to you, to have just an informal meeting with your regional liaisons in Seoul?
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Well, I think definitely that will be useful. But I mean, I've mentioned quite a few times who was our regional, and--
Andres Piazza: I don't know. Dev, you are meeting very frequent moments with the Chairman, but every meeting I attend that's following (inaudible) there, I take the time to chat with him or to deal with some informal discussions. So it is something that could be really useful if we proceed to put it in our agenda.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Well, it could be, but I don't know. I mean, I meet with him informally at all of the ICANN meetings and at regional events in the Caribbean.
Heidi Ullrich: Oh, okay. Have you, since you know them informally, do you follow up with them on their, you know, where they're going to be, et cetera? Is that something, if you're planning regional events, could you just, would you feel comfortable in contacting them and saying, "Are you going to be there? Could we work together?"
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: The chairman? Yes. Yes.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay.
Dessi Greve: As for EURALO, I had the chance to meet personally our liaison, which is Maximiliano. But we didn't have a chance to talk a lot to actually develop some useful cooperation. But this is something that I'm going to make a note and bring to our chairman and the other participants who are going to go to Seoul. So I hope we will have some more frequent contact with Maximiliano in trying to coordinate on events or what's happening.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. Well, then, so, what, why I'm asking this is not only for, just so you're sure or you're comfortable with them and where they're going to be, but also because of the, at the new At-Large External Events Calendar, each of you have been given authorization for posting. So if you are in touch with your regional liaison, this is something that you could do. You could gather from them where they're going to be, you could gather where your ALSs are going to be, and then indicate that on that External Events Calendar. I know that, for example, in like RALO, one of their ALAC members has volunteered to do that. So that's something that you might want to ask your ALSs for volunteers. If you don't, the Secretariats don't wish to do that, or we wish to have that down to your ALSs, you might want to ask them for volunteers.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Well, this is Dev. Just a quick question, because actually, I'm having technical difficulty, because I still don't seem to have access. I have read-only access, it seems, to the Google calendar. I was wondering, isn't that when people who have Gmail accounts, who are the Google, is it adding it through, are you adding it to the Google calendar?
Heidi Ullrich: I think it is, yes. But I can double-check with Matthias on that.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay. But are anybody else able to use the Google Calendar to add events, because I still don't seem to be able to do so. I mean, I'm able to read it so I can input it on my calendar, sure, but to actually edit it, I'm not sure, I can't seem to do so.
Evan Leibovitch: I think what I'm finding is I have actually four different ICANN calendars that are plugged into my Google calendar, and one of them seems to be maintained and the other ones aren't. But I haven't added something into it, but they certainly show up on my calendar.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, Evan, this is something that we can discuss with Matthias, because you should only have two. You should have the, what's going on in At-Large with all of the running votings, et cetera, and then you should have another one for external events.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay.
Heidi Ullrich: The former is in blue and the latter is in a gold or yellow color.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Well, I'm, well, this is Dev. I mean, I have that as read-only access, though. But I can't really add any events to it. So maybe that should be something for Matthias to check again.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. I'll make that an action item as well as for Evan's issues. Okay. Any other questions there, on the first action item?
Evan Leibovitch: Well, let's see. The other one was going to be Nick and the other action item was actually making the spreadsheets. So I guess those are all pretty well--.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. Just following up on the second action item, on Nick reaching out to plumb DiploFoundation. That is actually in the implementation plan, the draft implementation plan that is out right now for comment. So that will be done, but it has not yet been done. Okay? I think that's all the Seoul, or the action items.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay. I guess we'll move on from then. So we have the Seoul Secretariat Meeting agenda. So that points to another page that has--actually, that page has the entire Seoul agenda on it. And the Secretariat Meeting, you have to scroll down. It's the Wednesday, 1230 to 1400. Do I have that right?
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, that's absolutely correct. And these issues are actually the ones that fell from Sydney, because I thought that as a starting point, those might be of interest. But I think one of the main reasons for this call is to discuss what you would like to have on the Secretariats' Meeting in Seoul.
Evan Leibovitch: Well, I have a couple of suggestions. I don't know what everyone thinks about it, but one of the things that's happened, I've had a couple of side conversations with people that have resulted out of some email exchanges that have happened over the last couple of days, which effectively is, "How does the chair organize a mailing list where you've got a number of people who are bullying a lot of other people?" And I'm wondering if that is an appropriate discussion to have at the Secretariat level. Because we've got chairs and secretariats who are managing all the regional mailing lists. And I'm wondering if anybody is running into, on a regional level, the same thing we've been talking about happening on the global list.
Nobody's got any problems? Everyone's got really nicely, smoothly working mailing lists and nobody's trying to bully anyone else? If that's the case, you're all running a lot smoother than we are.
Okay, so I guess that won't be there.
Heidi Ullrich: Another item might be on the issue of mailing lists-I'm just going to throw it out there-is the idea of, "Do you feel that your regions are having enough discussion on the mailing list? And if not, how might be ways to increase that?" Or, as was said in some of the emails from, leading on from Evan's issues of cultural differences, would be that in some regions, face-to-face communication is just much more comfortable, and that's how things are done there versus the mailing lists.
Evan Leibovitch: Well, to me there needs to be a discussion, and I don't know if it's at the Secretariat level or at the general ALAC level. Rather than have, like to me, rather than have the same old thing that talks about travel policy, we need to find out how to engage ICANN better in just having more idea of what, you know, the money that's being spent on us and how to allocate it. It sort of touches on the whole travel policy thing, because some of this is, as you say, which I agree with, that a lot of people communicate better face-to-face. That sort of suggests that we should be advocating for more face-to-face meetings, which then gets into the whole travel allocation policy and so on.
Heidi Ullrich: Is, in fact, the only meeting so far that has travel even listed as an item is the initial Sunday meeting between ALAC and the RALO Secretariat.
Evan Leibovitch: And I was, in fact, wondering whether or not I should suggest to Cheryl to make that a little bit more broader-reaching than just travel policy. You know, some kind of At-Large say in its own budget, which right now, it has none. Anyone here have any thoughts on that comment?
Dessi Greve: Well, I remember that in the summary declaration in the Work Group One, there was a strong recommendation that an opportunity for RALOs to organize at least one regional meeting has been made. And I further called several with a suggestion that there should be some funds allocated for that kind of meeting, but what happened afterwards, I cannot recall.
Evan Leibovitch: Heidi, are you aware of any follow-up at all that's happened since then?
Heidi Ullrich: I am not aware of any significant discussion, no. I know, it's just like Dessi said, that on the EURALO call this past week, that there was some mention, but I'm not aware of anything, no.
Dessi Greve: Right, so there hasn't been any change in policy, in policy into that regards.
Heidi Ullrich: Not that I'm aware of, no.
Dessi Greve: Yes.
Heidi Ullrich: So is this something that you would like to have at the-again, it's on the initial Sunday ALAC and Regional Secretariats' Meeting. Is this something that you'd also like to have at the RALO? Just the Secretariats level as well? Perhaps refer-what we could perhaps do is, given that there are a number of agenda items on the Sunday meeting, I don't know how much time is going to be allocated to that. If you were to choose to have this item on the Secretariats agenda, then you could bring the results of that discussion back to the wrap-up session on Thursday.
Dessi Greve: I don't think that being discussed on the Secretariats' Meeting is going to be enough to get enough attention.
Evan Leibovitch: Yes, this is going to be something--.
Dessi Greve: It should be discussed at the At-Large level, ALAC.
Evan Leibovitch: Without ALAC's support, this isn't going anywhere. So maybe, Heidi, in the area where we talked about internal organizational matters, where it's saying "At-Large Travel Support," perhaps we consider asking ALAC to make that a slightly broader issue of just budgetary and these regional meetings.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay.
Evan Leibovitch: Is everyone else okay with that?
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Yes, I'm okay with that.
Andres Piazza: Me, too.
Heidi Ullrich: But what, I'll bring that up with Cheryl, and it might require that one of you, or on behalf of the Secretariats, request that item to be expanded.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay. I guess it's safe to say by consensus that we've had at this meeting, we're making that request.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay.
Evan Leibovitch: All right. Are there other issues to deal with the Secretariat Meeting? I mean, we can pick up some of what we're talking about here and have probably more people sitting around the table there. Is there anything in specific that anyone would like to raise at the Seoul meeting that we don't have on the list?
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Just a question, really. The Secretariat work plan, that includes the Secretariat proposals for improvements?
Heidi Ullrich: Yes. That's what that is, and that's what we're going to be discussing a little bit later. At least, I just wanted to show you what we've done to that document and how, you've now, we're going to be sending it to you to review and to add your comments and your requests. So I think, actually, because I know that that issue was on the agenda in Sydney. We didn't actually get to that because there was so much enthusiasm with all the new projects going on in the regions. So perhaps if we kept that issue on the agenda and just made it more prominent, or higher up on the agenda, so we could spend more time on that. Is that something that you'd like, to actually come out of Seoul with that document completed and approved?
Andres Piazza: It would be a nice goal.
Evan Leibovitch: Yes, I think so, yes.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Yes.
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, because, you know, looking at it and speaking with Nick and Matthias today on that, and Evan, you might confirm this, is that this was being discussed in New Delhi and Paris, et cetera? So some time ago, and not much has been done to that.
Evan Leibovitch: Yes, I mean, it's definitely been punted from one meeting to the next. But this is the most complete I've seen it. Okay. Is there any, are we finished with this agenda item?
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, just for my own confirmation, so all the issues that are on the current agenda will remain, and we'll just move this increasing cost via the Secretariats' Work Plan, just leave it where it is as the first agenda item, and we discuss that and come to an agreement?
Evan Leibovitch: Yes. I mean, the other agenda items are pretty open-ended, anyway.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. All right. So I'll go ahead and send that around as the consensus for the agenda. The deadline for us is the second. That's why it needed to be agreed to today. Okay, thank you for that.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay. All right. Next thing, the item on the agenda sheet, is the At-Large Director appointment process. Well, as some of you know, NARALO at its meeting, we had a meeting a couple of weeks ago when we had our own regional meeting, and it was decided that we wanted to have a separate single-issue meeting that did nothing but bang heads together to come up with an idea of what we thought would work.
What we did-the results of what we did have actually been posted up on the Socialtext Wiki page now for-I think they've been there for at least a week. And essentially, I'd like to find out what other regions have been doing, if they've had a look at our proposal, and if there's anything that we as a Secretariat list can contribute to that.
First off, what have other regions been doing along the lines of coming up with a process to pick the Board rep? Dessi, has EURALO been doing anything?
Dessi Greve: Yes. I have initiated a proposal for discussion on the EURALO discuss list. And I had always thought, Wolf Ludwig, our Chairman, that he actually doesn't expect much activity on that preliminary discussion because people would like to participate with the meeting in order to write some questions. So I guess that EURALO is going to actively participate in that meeting, not only with the ALAC representatives, but also with (inaudible) representatives. And before some questions have been write and answered, I personally wouldn't expect much of discussion, because this is a very broad issue, and people really need some questions first to be asked and answered.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay. Is EURALO going to have a proposal for a process by Seoul?
Dessi Greve: I doubt that we are going to issue a proposal for a process before the call.
Heidi Ullrich: No, for Seoul, Dessi.
Dessi Greve: Oh, for Seoul. I'm sorry. Well, I guess after the call, other things are going to move.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay.
Dessi Greve: But I cannot give you more information on that issue before the call, which is scheduled for the sixth, seventh, and the eighth, right?
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, exactly.
Dessi Greve: So it's still not closed for both of those.
Evan Leibovitch: As long as you could just make sure that there's some notice of the meeting that's passed around. Sebastian was extremely helpful participating in the North American call, and there might be others who might be interested in at least looking into what EURALO is doing.
Dessi Greve: Yes, I expect that everybody from the Board and from every discussion list are aware, because I have sent a reminder and the invitation for discussion, so people are aware of that issue.
Evan Leibovitch" Okay. Heidi, can you just make sure that it's on the calendar so that the other regions know when it's going on?
Heidi Ullrich: Yes. In fact, all of the Region Secretariat have been made a request to post the information of not only the NARALO information draft proposal, but also the upcoming meeting. And I know that several have followed up on that.
Evan Leibovitch: So each region is in the process of doing its own meetings on the issue, right?
Heidi Ullrich: I have asked them that they need to discuss that with their ALSs on the list. And then if they wish to have a follow-up call, then that we would be there, yes. We would be able to help them on that.
Andres Piazza: Heidi, in LAC RALO we initiated a discussion of the leads of this matter. And not only about having a proposal, that we didn't have a proposal for the procedure, but a step before, a step behind, and more important, it was still discussed on the At-Large Worldwide, in English, of course, then the meaning of the expression, of the (inaudible) after the Board and of the resolution of the Board.
So I stated very emphatically in Spanish, the discussion in LAC RAL, in order to perhaps set some expressions clearly regarding the importance to send out to the At-Large community, which is the one who has the right to appoint a Director. If ALAC commented plus RALOs plus (inaudible), so I used an argument from Alan and from Evan and from myself in order to establish that. But there wasn't much discussion about this topic and also wasn't about the proposal for (inaudible).
But perhaps from the Seoul meeting, we could have some. But regarding this procedure, then the key issue is not to have our own proposal or a little proposal. Just we are, we would support a proposal that is in a good position to represent the whole community, so either of the three that they are right now, could be good. So we would guess that in order to have a regional position to have another proposal to support one of those, but we're okay with that. I imagine that it won't be any problem for us.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. I just want to repeat what I've heard from ALAC, and that is that the perspectives of the regions are incredibly important to bring to Seoul, and that there should be, by the time of Seoul, a more developed idea of what it is that the regions would like to have in this process.
Andres Piazza: Uh-huh, okay.
Heidi Ullrich: That you contribute. So, for example, what NARALO has done is a really good start on setting out, developing an actual proposal on this. And some of those questions that you've raised, you know, is it ALAC, is it At-Large, et cetera, were discussed on the NARALO call. So it might be useful to listen to the recording of that as well for the full details.
Evan Leibovitch: I think, Andres, that the general feeling that we had in our meeting where we were coming up with the ideas is that the Board itself was going out of its way when it did the mandate to create the Board position, to leave the discretion of how to do that widely up to the At-Large community. And so my feeling is that is up to the RALOs to come up with ideas and to present them. Because if we don't, ALAC will just do it without us. So that is my concern. If this is to be a bottom-up process, the ALSs have to bring ideas to the RALOs. The RALOs need to come up with what works best for you, and then these need to be brought together, I would hope at the Seoul meeting, because if we don't-you know, if we go back and ALAC turns around and there's not any good proposals, they may turn around and create something that might be very-.
Andres Piazza: Wouldn't be suitable, yes.
Evan Leibovitch: So this is sort of like, it's almost putting pressure on us as regions to come up with something. But if I, the way I read the Board resolution is they deliberately made it very vague. So they said the At-Large community. The bylaws have a definition of the At-Large community as ALAC, the RALOs, and the ALSs. What combination of them is used to actually create the process? It feels like the Board has left that totally up to us.
Andres Piazza: Yes.
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, and I think that's very useful. But also, Andreas and Dev, feel free to work with your ALAC members on this. So, I mean, if you're feeling, you know, how to go forward, you're definitely, you can draw on the expertise of your ALAC members as well. And it's as you, as the regional leaders, that will need to come to Seoul with ideas that represent the ALSs, et cetera.
Andres Piazza: We definitely need to. It's really, really important, so I don't know which way, (inaudible) correctly, but if we are not going to have a different proposal, we're going to discuss the current proposal and we are going to support one with a full discussion of that. So that's for sure.
Heidi Ullrich: So far the only proposal that I've seen is the one from NARALO.
Andres Piazza: Yes, me, too.
Evan Leibovitch: And I would be happy to discuss it, take questions on it, make changes to it, in fact, if people here have input. If, perhaps, instead of every RALO coming up with their own independent one, that everyone looked at the one that NARALO did and just tore it apart and built it back up, that works fine for me as well.
Andres Piazza: Uh-huh.
Heidi Ullrich: Yes. So far the only comment on that page is from Wolf.
Evan Leibovitch: Right. And that is because in the NARALO proposal that's put forward, it doesn't address everything. There's a number of optional things that still need to be determined that were not fully determined by the NARALO process. For instance, there's three options at the end. Who does--?
Andres Piazza: Yes, the developing options.
Evan Leibovitch: Right. Is it just the ALS members? Is it just the RALOs? Is it some combination of the two? This is something that is absolutely open to discussion. And even the way we came up with it, we did not answer those questions at that time.
Andres Piazza: Yes, definitely. Perhaps we would support the whole process and make a consideration in adding an option, fourth option, for example. But I don't think that we will be, because you were earlier doing those for me. It's a great job. So if it's no one (inaudible) so interested in making a different proposal, we will be in writing that as a reference. And for me to, it's a wise decision.
Evan Leibovitch: And if the answer is to change the existing proposal instead of making a new one, that's perfectly okay.
Andres Piazza: Okay. But I think you did a great job, Evan, on (inaudible) actually, reached on this procedure.
Evan Leibovitch: You know, we've had some dissent, mainly from the people that used to be involved in the very early days of ICANN when there was direct public elections for the Board, and they want to go into some, there's a couple of people that have defined "community" far broader than we define the At-Large community. The problem is, is how ICANN would actually stage a public election. The logistics would be horrendous. I personally would make the case, though, that since ICANN has already invested so heavily in this At-Large infrastructure, that it ought to trust that At-Large infrastructure to be able to deliver good advice on who the representative should be.
Andres Piazza: Uh-huh. But actually, I'm still not too clear on what's the timeline for this and that, like okay. Are we, is there a deadline for submitting a procedure to the ICANN Board for the appointment of a Director by At-Large?
Evan Leibovitch: It's my understanding that there's no deadline, but the sooner that we do it, the sooner we get a voting Board rep.
Andres Piazza: Okay.
Evan Leibovitch: And that we have to put something forward, then it has to go to a structural committee of the Board, which then has to report back to the Board, and then the Board then acts on it.
Andres Piazza: Okay.
Heidi Ullrich: Yes. I just put the resolution in the Skype Chat, and you can see that it is approved in principle for implementation. So there is a concern that if there's no policy or proposal developed that everyone accepts, et cetera, then could this be revisited? I'm not sure about that. So that's why what Evan was saying is, I think, a really important point about there ought to be, at this juncture, a lot of activity and input from the structure that has been created--the ALSs, the RALOs, on up to ALAC.
Andres Piazza: Uh-huh.
Evan Leibovitch: So the way I gather the reading of that is that the Board has charged the staff to work together with the community in determining something that's acceptable. What that implies is if we don't come up with anything that we can agree on, then one of two things will happen--either staff will impose something, or the Board will just withdraw its offer for the new person.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Uh-huh. Actually, well, there does appear to be a timeline of some sort, because it says here, "After issuing of the Board Working Group final report," so when is that supposed to happen? When is that supposed to be happening? Is that a definite date, and therefore we have to then submit by then? I'm just reading here.
Heidi Ullrich: The RWG, yes, the Board Review Working Group, I believe that's completed, is that not? And that was one of the recommendations that was stemming from that.
Evan Leibovitch: It is. What Dev is asking is what I know I don't have an answer for, is whether or not there are any deadlines for our actions that are imposed by the Board Review Working Group timeline.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Yes.
Heidi Ullrich: I can look into that. I'm not aware of that fact.
Evan Leibovitch: So if there, and from the looks of it, it doesn't even look like ALAC is aware of any deadlines as well. So if there's something sneaking up and saying, "Well, we've got some Board committee that we have to report to, and if we don't report to them in time, then they just ignore it and move on," that's something we need to be aware of. But that's not just us. That's ALAC, too.
Heidi Ullrich: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Dessi Greve: Well, I guess a lot of details needs to be discussed in the forthcoming meeting, so I guess that more feedback will come after the joint meeting between all the RALOs.
Evan Leibovitch: What do you mean, Dessi? Do you mean the meeting between the RALOs in Seoul, or the meeting within--?
Dessi Greve: The teleconference meeting.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay.
Dessi Greve: Because there are a lot of questions which needs to be discussed and processed. I mean, there are a lot of things which need to be processed.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay.
Evan Leibovitch: Is there any more comment or discussion on the process? Okay. Then we, then, Heidi, the next thing is the work plan.
Heidi Ullrich: Yes. Okay. If you click on that, you should be able to see the new and improved, improved document improvements plan. And what we've done-let me just, making sure this is absolutely this version-.
Evan Leibovitch: What I have on the top of my screen says, "ALSECMT311.11."
Heidi Ullrich: Yes--.
Dessi Greve: That's just the (inaudible) name.
Evan Leibovitch: Shorthand I'm not familiar with.
Heidi Ullrich: That is, yes. Actually, we updated it, we finalized it today, but we, I just realized that we did not actually update the revision, so this is the second revision that you're looking at. I'm able to see that from the contents of the status, of the current status and the update of the staff members involved.
So basically, I wanted to discuss today the next steps for this document. This document is now in Google Documents, so you can, if you have Google Gmail, you can actually go into this. I can send, if you send me your Gmail account, you can actually edit this. And what we're requesting is that you review this, whether the current items are issues or activities that you would still like to see. If not, then indicate that, and also indicate whether there are other activities that you would like to see in these four subgroups.
And, very importantly, if you would like to volunteer to be a focal point on one of these issues, you can see that that whole column-except for one item where Darlene has indicated herself, and that was some time ago-there is not much indication of which person, which Secretary, is going to be using that. Excellent. Thank you, Evan, for your Gmail account.
So what we've done is we've updated this to reflect new staff people. We've updated the current status as well so you can see where things are ongoing, where more work needs to be done. But I think, given the time since this has really been looked at, At-Large has changed, and it might be very useful to indicate what are some of the newer activities that you think that Secretariats could work with staff to forward on this.
Now, during the last Secretariats' call, it was agreed that we would do this, maybe one part each week. But I'm just wondering whether this is something that you would like to take from now through Seoul and come to Seoul with a more complete version that we can then go through and adopt.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay. Between now and then we can start thinking of what, where we'd want to fill in our own names.
Andres Piazza: Uh-huh.
Heidi Ullrich: Exactly. That, too.
Dessi Greve: Would it mean that we can really modify the current document?
Heidi Ullrich: If you--my understanding is if you have a Gmail, I can share that with you, yes. Then I can share that with you and then, yes, you will have the ability to do that.
Evan Leibovitch: And so I guess the first--.
Dessi Greve: What are exactly the focal point meaning? This is the first--we're in charge of the activity somehow, or what does this mean?
Heidi Ullrich: My understanding is that it would be the person who is going to be working to forward that issue, with staff, with the appropriate staff.
Dessi Greve: Uh-huh, okay.
Heidi Ullrich: Evan, is that correct? Or how, what was that?
Evan Leibovitch: That's been my reading of it, that you already have staff people assigned, and so here's the sort of window into the staff. And it also means, you know, rather than all of us tackle every issue, that we have, you know, we split it up so that different people are following different issues and liaising with different staff.
Andres Piazza: Uh-huh.
Dessi Greve: Yes, but for staff, I mean, if I add a new item and put my name as a focal point, someone from the staff needs to recognize it as, you know--.
Heidi Ullrich: What you could do, perhaps a way around that-it's a very good question, Dessi-is if you add, if any of you add an item, that you could add your name under "Contributor." And then, during the Secretariats' Meeting, we can go through who would be the focal point. Because by that time I will have had a chance to show this to Nick and to the ALAC, perhaps, on whether these are items that would, you know, the newer items would be something that would we want to be added.
Evan Leibovitch: I think what Dessi's asking for is simply that if she adds a new line item to this, that at the same time as we're deciding, "Well, this might be something that's useful for the Secretariats," and we have somebody willing to step forward from our side, that it's going to be necessary to, within a reasonable period of time, also know who the staff point person would be for that particular line item.
Dessi Greve: Exactly. I mean, because the focal point needs to relate with someone from the staff.
Heidi Ullrich: Absolutely, okay. Oh, I see.
Dessi Greve: Otherwise, just--.
Heidi Ullrich: Well, my point was just basically to ensure that what is being asked is actually possible. You know, is it in the arena of ICANN, et cetera?
Evan Leibovitch: Oh, we would never ask for something impossible, would we?
Dessi Greve: Whole bunch of people.
Heidi Ullrich: It depends on how long your timeline is.
Evan Leibovitch: It may be highly improbable, but not impossible.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, okay. Fair enough.
Evan Leibovitch: I think we've got the good judgment within our group to basically have an idea of what our limits of possibility are, at least given the current circumstances.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. So what we could do, then, is maybe at the Secretariats' meeting and maybe a bit before on the list is go through any of the new items that are incorporated into this document and sort of adding the staff people, et cetera, and the departments.
Evan Leibovitch: That could even be done by sort of an email like a week or two before Seoul.
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, yes.
Evan Leibovitch: One week before Seoul, let's have another look at the document, what have people added?
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Yes.
Heidi Ullrich: Maybe two weeks prior to Seoul, because one week, people are actually going to start departing.
Evan Leibovitch: Understood.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, so two weeks.
Evan Leibovitch: Yes. One week before is when people start going crazy.
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, yes. Okay, so two weeks before. So, okay, so I have many of your Gmail accounts, and I will send them to you, or I'll share this document with you, as well as I'll follow up with the other Secretariats so we can get some good feed, input into this.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay?
Evan Leibovitch: Sounds like a plan.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, very good. Okay.
Evan Leibovitch: And we've got the last agenda item, is do we have any issues related to everybody's RALO monthly teleconference? Does anybody want to bring up any issues about the way your own regions run their calls? Are there any problems, questions, anything like that? Everyone's really happy?
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. Could I speak on a few of these issues?
Evan Leibovitch: Absolutely.
Heidi Ullrich: I'm going to wait--does anybody else have any issues that they are concerned about? Okay. Just because staff have recognized that in the last several weeks that often, or more and more frequently, action items and summary minutes are not being completed by the Secretariats. And so what we're asking is, for those regions that do choose to use the, either the Adobe Connect or the Chat, that the Secretariats during the call, when there is an action item being stated, that either the Chair or the Secretary say, "Okay, this is an action item." And then write that on either the Skype Chat or the Adobe Connect, so it will be much faster for you to prepare those action items. Or, if need be, then for staff to follow up on preparing those action items.
Because what's being done is that, if they're not being prepared in time, then staff will need to actually listen to the audio, which takes a lot of time. And it would just be, I think, more efficient if during the call, the actual call, any specific action item would be so noted.
Evan Leibovitch: Heidi, would it be worthwhile for you to just sort of say what you're, to put down what you're saying and put it down in writing and send it as an email to the Secretariat list?
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, yes.
Evan Leibovitch: For one, there's a number of people in regions that aren't on this call. And secondly, putting it in writing, I think, will make it a little clearer exactly what it is you're looking for.
Heidi Ullrich: Oh, okay.
Evan Leibovitch: I know what you mean, but this way, you're absolutely crystal-clear.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. It might be my jet lag coming in. Thank you for that. I will do that tomorrow when I'm more awake.
Evan Leibovitch: But you understand. Not only that, but--.
Heidi Ullrich: Yes.
Evan Leibovitch: People that aren't in on this call, you want them involved in this action as well.
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, absolutely. So if we can get agreement that the Chairs will say clearly, "This is an action item," that would be very useful as well. And, for example, Wolf is very good at it. Evan, you're very good at that. But then others from some of the other regions, I'm never quite sure what an action item actually is.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay. But I think the best thing to do with that is just to send over an email that goes out to the Secretariat list.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay. And then on the issue of the summary minutes. Again, that is up to the Secretariats to prepare if they so wish. Now, the community calls will have transcripts, but summary minutes will be something that you, as a Secretary or a Secretariat, would need to prepare as well.
Evan Leibovitch: Okay.
Heidi Ullrich: And then the issue of interpretation. You'll see this. This has been said on the list, but there are concerns, and perhaps not for these regions that are on the call tonight, or today, but a lot of times, they will say, "Yes, we are going to be on the call," and we'll get interpretation, and then they do not actually show up. So there needs to be some sort of cancellation requirements in that. But I'll make that in a note, as well, to the Secretariat list.
Evan Leibovitch: That seems to have already come up as an issue even within ALAC.
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, yes. It's due to the same issue being increasingly common on the ALAC calls as well as the community calls, where there are all these interpretations.
Dessi Greve: Oh, by the way, Heidi, this is a topic for the other Secretariats. I was checking today the page of the last EURALO meeting, and I still cannot see downloadable the audio in order the minutes.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, okay.
Dessi Greve: Could you please get when the audio is going to be available?
Heidi Ullrich: Yes, it's usually within the next day, so that has just been delayed for some reason.
Dessi Greve: No, the page for the audio exists, but the audio itself is either broken or something is wrong, because it's just--(inaudible) which not be (inaudible) file of one hour.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay, I'll look into that tomorrow, okay?
Dessi Greve: Yes, sure.
Evan Leibovitch: Well, unless there's other stuff, I think we've covered pretty well all of the agenda, and we're within our hour. Is there any new business that anybody has? Heidi, do you have anything else that you want to get on this?
Heidi Ullrich: No, I've been, no, thank you for your participation. This has been useful.
Andres Piazza: Well, okay.
Evan Leibovitch: Anyone got any last words? Otherwise, we'll adjourn.
Andres Piazza: No.
Heidi Ullrich: And see you in Seoul.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: See you in Seoul. Bye.
Heidi Ullrich: Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Dessi Greve: Thank you very much. Bye.
