Tijani Ben Jemaa: So we have a good quorum, that’s fine. Very well, so we are going to start right away. Good evening everyone. So let's start today’s teleconference. Fatimata will be leaving us in a half an hour so we will deal with the item in the agenda that has to do with the At-Large Board Director selection process. And that is Item 4. Fatimata are you here?
Fatimata Seye Sylla: Yes I am here.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay you can hear me; okay I am going to let you speak. I will give you the floor so you can talk about this item. Okay so I am going to talk about the subject, as you all know, we will be having a Board Director who is going to be starting their term starting after the end of the Cartagena meeting.
And so how we are going to elect this person? Well we have the BCC, we have two AFRALO members. Within the BCC, has already released the candidate names, Sebastian Bachollet, Pierre Dijounti and Alan Greenberg. Of course the RALOs are allowed to add one or more candidates to a petition.
And this must be approved by at least three RALOs. For the moment we only have three candidates. But if any other candidates want to submit a petition they will be added also on the voting ballot. The elections are on November 7. So all the petitions will have to be concluded by then, after that there will be an open campaign period which will be open until November 15.
The period where the candidates can work on their campaign and within that framework there will be a teleconference held for the At-Large community with the candidates. The candidates who are on the voting ballots, in this case, the three names that I just mentioned or whatever other people that want to participate. For the moment as I said, we only have three people.
The elections then will start on November 22nd. The first round will end November 24th and so that is the general situation. So now we have certain things to decide here in an AFRALO. First of all do we support the petition? Just so you know Fatimata and I, we asked an approval for Ali Doria.
So we can approve a petition from her. So I want to ask then, the African At-Large community, do you want AFRALO to support the petition? Or any petition for that matter and then we’ll talk about the names. So if you want us to support a petition, then you have to let me know. Fatimata, is there anything else that you would like to ask?
Fatimata Seye Sylla: Personally, I don’t necessarily agree with supporting petitions. But I await everybody’s opinion on that matter. I honestly do think that approving certain petitions will decrease the chances of other candidates have been posted.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay that was Fatimata. That was her point of view, from her ALS personally. I am part of the ABSDT, which the committee which in a way carried out the election system. So I was not in great agreement for the petition mainly because this means that in that case we are undermining the trust that we placed in the BCC.
The BCC has served the candidates following a certain criteria. So if they give us a list of candidates, in opinion, it wouldn’t be good to contradict that decision and [inaudible 00:06:13] their names, but that’s my personal point of view. of course, I'm in complete agreement with consensus. And the consensus did agree to approve petitions of they came forward, but that was my personal opinion. So this is in regards to petitions.
But I want everybody to give their opinion in regards to petitions. Do you agree that we support petitions presented after the time or not? Do you want me to call you by name? Aziz do you agree with that?
Dave Kissoondoyal: And Tijani can I say something?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yes, Dave?
Dave Kissoondoyal: I tried to raise my hand but didn’t work.
Translator: Dave go ahead.
Dave Kissoondoyal: I also do not agree with the petition issue. I think that the BCC did an amazing job and second of all, we have three candidates at this time that are really, really to the level. And I don’t know of any other candidates that would come forward would be at the level of these candidates that have been chosen. So I personally don’t think that we should go into that direction.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: And that was Dave’s opinion and Fatimata does not agree with the petition, Aziz.
Aziz Hilali: Yes can you hear me? I wanted to say also that from the beginning we support Pierre’s candidacy. Everybody knows him. He has worked hard not only for AFRALO but also for the creation of AFRALO since 2003. And we've worked on many subjects. If now there is a petition to have another candidate, especially somebody we do not know, and in this case, a lot of people do know Pierre.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay so basically you are against the petition, that’s what you are saying?
Aziz Hilali: Right and that is going to decrease Pierre’s chances.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: And that was Aziz’s opinion. Is there anybody else that would like to say something? Otherwise I will talk to the people one by one. Yaovi did you want to say something?
Yaovi Atohoun: Yes, thank you, can I say something?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Please go ahead.
Yaovi Atohoun: First of all, from AFRALO’s point of view, I think that we want candidates that not only represent AFRALO well but also the At-Large community. In my point of view, we have candidates at this time that are really to the level. These three candidates were chosen by a committee.
I would not agree with that issue either because we have valid candidates at this time. And I do not agree with the petition issue. If we go to the ICANN site we can see already all the other candidates. And we have much information on a lot of these candidates at this time. And if you need any information on the candidates, you can just go to the ICANN.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: And let me remind you that Yaovi is also a member of BECC. He is one of the people that chose the three candidates. [Shaiway] did you want to say something?
Translator: Michelle yes?
Michelle Tchonang: I am agreeing with Tijani.
Yaovi Atohoun: I do believe that we have three great candidates at this time. And I'm very happy that we could quite possibly have people like them representing us within ICANN and within the whole computer community. I think it would be a very good thing. Also I want to say -
Gisella Gruber White: Tijani can you call Fatimata again, she's dropped off?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yes.
Yaovi Atohoun: What I was saying is that I think that the issue of the petition - I mean, it's something that should be allowed if there is a crisis that arises or something of that matter. If there is an issue of supporting some of the other candidates or people are not too sure because otherwise it can be interpreted as a lack of support for the candidates that have already been brought forth.
The BCC met previously - excuse me, the BCC will be meeting at 2100 UTC, so I think that AFRALO should send a statement to ICANN and that will help the BCC meeting this evening. So I think that AFRALO should, in that case, send a statement in regards to their point of view related to the BCC.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: I don’t agree with you Yaovi because we don’t have to inform the BCC. We have a request from Avri Redoria and we have to answer to her. The BCC has nothing to do with that matter.
Yaovi Atohoun: No, no, I agree with what you're saying. I mean the BCC, [inaudible 00:13:20] obviously the support of three RALOs but then she will be added to the list. But since AFRALO does not want to give her support and this stemming from the discussion we just had, there is no point in speaking to the BCC.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, then I agree with what you are saying.
Dave Kissoondoyal: And Tijani, can I say something?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yes.
Dave Kissoondoyal: I think that we have to discuss the email that was sent to everyone because it seems like something against the BCC. Because it is important to say that we do not agree with that issue and we are perfectly in support of the BCC, of course.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Of course, Dave, what I'm worried about, and this is why I did not speak of Danny Younger’s email is because not everybody got it and because Fatimata is going to be leaving us soon. And I wanted us to make a decision with her present since she is the AFRALO Chair.
Dave Kissoondoyal: Right but there was a mention of forwarding to all the RALOs. This is why I mentioned this.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: No I do agree with you with that issue. But it's less urgent than making a decision whether the AFRALO members agree with the petition issue or not. If we agreed with the petition then do we want to support Avil’s decision or not? And these are extremely important decisions that we need to take. And then how are we going to vote?
Is it going to be a guided vote by the ALSs? Or how is that going to work? It's very important for the election process. This is why I wanted to leave the other issue, Danny’s issue to the end of the meeting. Gisella were you able to reach Fatimata again?
Gisella Gruber White: Yes and Fatimata is back with us again.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, so yes Yaovi what else did you want to say? Yaovi did you want to say something else?
Yaovi Atohoun: No.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay very well. So let me ask everybody else present, is there anybody who agrees with the petition issue? If you can please let me know. Okay in English, do you guys agree with the petition issue or do you disagree? [Shaiway] are you still on the line?
[Shaiway]: Yes I am?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay and you said that you agree with Tijani’s point of view right?
[Shaiway]: Yes I agree with Tijani.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, Hawa what is your opinion on this matter? What did you want to say, tell me. Hawa did you want to say something?
Hawa Diakite: Yes, Tijani.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So tell me, do you support the petition issue to add other candidates on the voting ballot? No, no we already we have three chosen candidates by the BCEC.
Hawa Diakite: I think that’s more than enough.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Pastor Peters did you want to say something? Pastor Peters can you hear me? Are you there?
Pastor Peters: These persons aren’t with me, so when I to admit any contributions, I will let you know. But right now I have nothing to say yet.
Mohammed El Bashir: Hello?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yes, Mohammed yes?
Matthias Langenegger: [Inaudible 00:18:08]. What I say -
Translator: What was that?
Pastor Peters: I said I have nothing to say now. If I have any contribution later on, I will list my contributions.
Translator: Yes that’s fine Pastor Peters, I have already relayed your message.
Pastor Peters: Thank you.
Translator: Thank you so much and yes I have already relayed your message, okay?
Pastor Peters: All right, all right.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay who else do we have on the list? [Shaiway] already gave us his opinion as well. Michelle already gave us his opinion, Hawa as well, Fatimata, Dave gave us his opinion as well, and Aziz and Yaovi. Okay then everybody has given their opinion. And everybody besides Pastor Peter, who is abstaining his opinion, everybody else is against the petition?
Very well, second issue here. You know that the four people that will be voting are the four people from AFRALO, the three ALAC members and the AFRALO Chair, in this case Fatimata. Do AFRALO ALSs want this to be a guided vote? Meaning, do they want to give their consensus on the candidate to be chosen?
So once again, give me your opinion one by one and this is yes or no. I would like Fatimata to tell us what she thinks first. Fatimata what do you think?
Fatimata Seye Sylla: Does he really want me to guide my vote? Well yes, I think that we definitely want this vote to be guided by the committee.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, okay everybody else, what do they think?
Fatimata Seye Sylla: I would want the community to guide the votes of the people that will be voting. I do not want the people that are voting to vote on their own. She wants the community to guide the voters, meaning she wants the community to guide the people that will be voting.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Right but we've chosen someone who is very competent, obviously not only first of all because they are African but because we have our trust in them and I think - yes but we are not talking about who we want to vote for in the three candidates. What I'm talking about is Fatimata just stated, Fatimata, Hawa, Mohammed and Dave when they vote, do they vote on their own? Or do they base their vote on the consensus of the community?
Pastor Peters: Yes.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So you agree with Fatimata, very well then. Okay everybody else; what else do you have to say about this? Michelle what do you have to say? Michelle, do you have something to say? Okay Michelle did you get the question.
Michelle Tchonang: Tijani on the day of the elections, do you want Fatimata, Dave, Hawa, and Mohammed, who will be our voting representatives, do you want them to vote for whom they think is the best candidate? Or do you want them to arise to their decision based on what the AFRALO ALSs decided?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: I think very honestly that the ALSs guide the vote. Very well, so now we have three people that support that point of view. Yaovi are you here?
Yaovi Atohoun: Yes, well I do think that we need the AFRALO consensus as well.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Everybody else? Okay [Shaiway] what do you think? Do you think it should be a guided vote? Do you think that the four ALAC members should vote on their own? What do you think?
[Shaiway]: I think we can.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: What was that [Shaiway]?
[Shaiway]: We need more discussion about this.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Right [Shaiway], we don’t have the time. We have to reach a decision. Because if the vote is going to be guided by the ALSs then we have to stop and organize something on the ballot or if we have the vote that could be guided, then we have to ask the question on the list. So [Shaiway] tell us what you think, do you think that our representatives should vote for whom they think is best? Or do you think it should be a guided vote by the ALSs?
[Shaiway]: Yes, I [inaudible 00:24:51].
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, so Yaovi and then Matthias.
Yaovi Atohoun: Yes.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well and I have relayed your message and [Shaiway]?
[Shaiway]: Okay.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yaovi we cannot create a longer process, we have three names. But the people - the name of the people on the voting ballot are the people that we have to vote for.
Yaovi Atohoun: As the ALSs do we tell our representatives to vote for this one person? Or for the other one person, that’s the way it's going to be working.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: No, I understand what you are saying. I don’t want you to tell me what name you prefer but okay. Very well, okay now Matthias.
Matthias Langenegger: I just wanted to make a little comment. There is a distinction between the candidates chosen by the RALO and those by the Non-Comm, for the ALAC representative that could be a guided vote, but not for the Non-Comm representative.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, but I personally wanted to be a voter, a guided vote from the four people in AFRALO. So if there is anybody that wants the decision to be made by the AFRALO President, let me know at this moment. Okay, Pastor Peters, what do you think of this issue? Do you want this to be a guided vote? Or do you think that the AFRALO President herself should make the choice? Okay Hawa what do you think? Okay Yaovi go ahead.
Yaovi Atohoun: Okay because AFRALO can guide the ALAC vote? No the person that will be running for the Non-Comm is not to follow the decision of AFRALO, that’s a different issue. Dave, for example, he's been elected by the Non-Comm and so that’s the way it works.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay Pastor Peters is no longer here. Okay Gisella.
Translator: Hello?
Pastor Peters: I'm sorry I thought you were - no go ahead please.
Translator: Oh no, no is this [Shaiway] or is this Pastor Peters?
Pastor Peters: No, no I thought you wanted to make a comment. But no go ahead, I'm listening.
Translator: No, did you have a comment?
Pastor Peters: No because of [inaudible 00:29:18] is - can we vote here tonight for the three candidates?
Translator: No, the question was do you guide the group for the three candidates, when it comes to voting, do you want the representatives to chose who they're going to vote for based on their own opinion or knowledge? Or do you think it should be a guided vote? That’s the decision that they're trying to reach today.
Pastor Peters: Can you read the last question again, I didn’t get the last comment.
Translator: Okay, so the question was, of the three candidates that have been brought forth, do you think that the vote should be guided by the ALSs or do you think it should be the representatives that should vote?
Pastor Peters: Yes the representative should vote.
Translator: Without, okay so you think the representatives should vote without being guided by the ALSs? See that’s the distinction, either do the representatives vote based on their own decision or do they let the ALSs guide their vote? Everybody wants this to be a guided vote, so what is your opinion?
Pastor Peters: I think the representative should vote for the candidate without being guided.
Translator: Without being guided? Okay and this is Pastor Peters speaking? Hello? Pastor Peters that is your opinion?
Pastor Peters: It is our opinion.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay and Fatimata what did you want to say? So you think that in this case, to get the opinion of the ALSs? That it should be asked privately on the list, is that what you are saying?
Fatimata Seye Sylla: Yes.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, and so a second proposal will use the tool, in this case, on the list, in order to have the ALSs to give the name of the person that they want to be elected.
Fatimata Seye Sylla: I agree with that proposal.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So have a private consultation period on the list so the ALSs can give us their opinion. So let's continue. Okay Aziz, Yaovi, Hawa what did you want to say?
Hawa Diakite: Yes and I agree with that proposal as well.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay so Hawa agrees and Fatimata as well, Aziz what do you think?
Aziz Hilali: I didn’t hear very well. It's a private list, so we do - how does this work?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Right, basically each ALS on the private list sends the name of the person that they want to support. Yes and this consignment will be sent to the people in AFRALO that will be voting. Okay Dave do you agree with that proposal as well?
Translator: Can you hear me?
Pastor Peters: Yes, can I say something.
Translator: Yes, let me go ahead and tell that you want to say something. And I'm sorry is this Pastor Peters or [Shaiway]?
Pastor Peters: It's Pastor Peters.
Translator: Pastor Peters, always give me your name before because [Shaiway] is also on the line, just so I know who is giving their opinion. Just give me one second, okay. And so Pastor Peters, the proposal for Tijani is for this to be a private vote by on the list by each ALS and then they send this order to the actual representatives for them to do their vote. Okay and Pastor Peters give me one second and they’ll allow you to speak. Okay so, Pastor Peters what is your opinion?
Pastor Peters: Yes, what I wanted to say that I don’t get to hear others when they talk except you. You are the only one I hear her voice. But I don’t hear the contributions of the other members of this conference.
Translator: Okay let me tell you what everybody’s opinion is Pastor Peters. So Tijani, Fatimata, Dave and Hawa support, in this case, using a private list for the ALSs for the ALSs express their will in this to sent off in order to the representative. And Pastor Peters, just so you know, because you're on the English channel, everything that you hear me saying, I'm interpreting to you everything that is being said in the French channel. Do you see what I mean? This is why you can't hear them.
Pastor Peters: Okay.
Translator: That’s why I am here, because I'm interpreting for you. So everything that you hear is what they're saying.
Pastor Peter: Okay I don’t - no problem.
Translator: Okay, so just to clarify that for you. I know it can be a bit confusing sometimes. That’s why I always tell you “Tijani says or Aziz says” that way you know what they're saying, okay? But if you have any questions or doubts always let me know, all right?
Pastor Peters: All right thank you very much.
Translator: No problem. So just recapping for you Pastor Peters, at this point, the proposal, the consensus they have reached to be basically use a private list by the ALSs, for each ALS to send the candidate that they want to vote for. And this will be sent to the representatives, who will be voting as an order. Okay, that’s what's going on so far.
Pastor Peters: Okay then, thank you very much.
Translator: No problem.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay so now we have two proposals. One proposal is to use - in that case, the private a list with the ALSs. And the second one basically to have a poll where the ALSs can vote and this is prepared by the staff. So these are the two proposals, very well. What does everybody else think? Hawa did you want to say something.
Yaovi Atohoun: Can you hear me?
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay.
Yaovi Atohoun: What I was saying the issue with the private lists, I'm not too sure. With the second proposal it would depend on the staff and long they can have that ready. In that case we can ask each ALS to send us their opinion. I think that option Number 2 is good, but it would depend on how fast the staff can prepares this. And then we can just ask each ALS to send us what candidate they want to vote for.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, but my proposal was more in support of transparency. So you want this to focus this and make it more private, that’s what you're saying? Very well, so we have two proposals. Yaovi what did you want to say?
Yaovi Atohoun: No, no that’s fine.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay so bring your hand down on the chat. Okay Aziz did you want to say something?
Aziz Hilali: Right let's not get confused with so many proposals either. I thought that in this teleconference we were going to find a way to do this in the most transparent manner possible because the goal is to elect the most adequate candidate. Let's not really get into detail about how we’re going to get into this because I think we agree on the principles.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So okay let me tell you why we’re trying to do this, because here we only have seven or eight ALSs, in total 22 African ALSs.
Aziz Hilali: So then Tijani I agree with what you proposed to have this private list where people send their choice and everybody just gets a copy of this. Transparency is extremely important. Now we’re going to centralize this in another way. It’s just going to be too confusing.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So if we do this on the private list and we sent a copy, a CC to everyone, everybody will know who voted for whom. But only and me now addressed to the ALSs. So what this means then is that each AFRALO member will see the vote of each ALS and it will be very transparent and nothing will be hidden.
So that’s the proposal. Okay who has not spoken? So Hawa agrees with me and Hawa agrees with you as well Yaovi. Yaovi gave us his opinion. Pastor Peters gave us him opinion as well - no he did not give us his opinion. Okay Pastor Peters, what is your opinion in this matter?
Pastor Peters: I said we should allow the representatives to vote. But [inaudible 00:42:34] off if [inaudible 00:42:36] and then have no choice but to go along with the popular opinion.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, [Shaiway] do you have an opinion? [Shaiway] are you there?
[Shaiway]: What?
Translator: Okay do you agree with the proposal to have then each ALS to give their vote on the private list and to have this transparent for each ALS to see what the other ALSs voted for?
[Shaiway]: [Inaudible 00:43:32].
Translator: What was that?
[Shaiway]: Yep.
Translator: Okay who else is on the bridge because we've lost many people? And [Shaiway] do me a favor, I can't hear you, so can you try to repeat again what you said?
[Shaiway]: [Inaudible 00:44:13].
Translator: You what? Okay so then the consensus according to Tijani is to have a MLS change on the private ALS list where each ALS will vote for the person that they want the AFRALO representatives to vote during the election.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, so we've dealt with the logistics of this issue. Now I want all of you to think about who you want to elect. And I will send you an email on the private list, which will only be addressed to the ALSs only. So recapping -
Pastor Peters: Sorry, hello?
Translator: Yes? Yes?
Pastor Peters: Can I or is it too late or is there any way we could have somebody of [inaudible 00:45:17] better of this [inaudible 00:45:19]?
Translator: Okay, let me ask Tijani at this moment.
Pastor Peters: Okay.
Translator: Okay so at the moment Pastor Peters, we have three candidates, Sebastian Bachollet, Pierre Dandjinou and Alan Greenberg. These are the three candidates. Now Sebastian Bachollet is French. He is an ALAC member. Pierre Dandjinou is from Benin. He was the first President ever of AFRALO. And Alan Greenberg is American and he is a member of ALAC. So these are the three candidates.
Pastor Peters: Well when you send the emails to us, can you give us a brief summary of the AFRALO [inaudible 00:46:30] in the email? [Inaudible 00:46:47] so tomorrow by 11:30.
Translator: Okay so what is going to happen Pastor Peters is he is going to include a link so you can see more information on each of the candidates. Okay Pastor Peters? Is that where you are able to have access to their statement of interest and that way you'll be able to have access to all of the information of the candidates.
Matthias Langenegger: There is already an ALS list. So we will confirm that all the ALSs on this list. And what I propose is that we use that list. Well no I propose we use this list then for the broadcast.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So then Matthias send me an email on that lis you are talking about and I will confirm that all the ALSs are on that list and those that are missing otherwise can be added. Thank you so much and if you could do this by tomorrow if possible? That way we can start our order, starting to tomorrow?
Matthias Langenegger: Yes, very well.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yaovi can you hear me?
Yaovi Atohoun: Yes I just wanted to add that I think that it would be important on that page to have a link that has the statement of interest. So then Pastor Peters, this is just to you, on the ICANN website you will see the information on all the candidates.
Pastor Peters: No problem, I will do just that.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay there are 22 candidates and so in this case you will see the statement of interest of the three candidates that have been brought forth. Okay are we done with this issue then? Very well, one final thing - do not, now Pastor Peters this is important, do not send the vote from our ALS until you get the private email from Tijani.
Pastor Peters: Okay.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Where you see that all the ALSs in Africa are shown, okay? So until you get that from Tijani do not send your order.
Pastor Peters: Okay then, I will just - all right.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So then our agenda, we have option item - so the option items from the last meeting - so now we’re going back to the agenda. So, the first one is the staff needs to ensure that everybody going to Cartagena has already received their invitation from Constituency Travel. And that was already done except for Aziz. Aziz has not yet received anything Matthias, so it is important to send something to him as soon as possible. So we need a fast solution for that.
Matthias Langenegger: Yes unfortunately I still not have gotten a response from the responsible department and I've tried to reach them over the phone.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: So either tomorrow or Friday, hopefully we’ll get more information on this issue. Very well, a second item we said that the staff needed to ensure that Constituency Travel has already informed all of the airlines of the names of the participants traveling for Columbia. That if not the visa will be given at the airport. So far we don’t have any information on that issue. Yes Yaovi did you want to say something?
Yaovi Atohoun: No, no I had nothing to say.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Okay very well, these are the two issues that were dealt with in the last meeting. So Item 3, we are too late, the open public consultations period. You have all the links right there. the more you participate, the better for everybody. Not only for you, for the als, but for ICANN as well. Item 5, is the update on the Joint SOAC Working Group on the new [inaudible 00:52:50] applicant support.
So we are almost done with our work. We have prepared a report that is almost ready. We will be doing the last reading next Friday. And I think that it will be published at the beginning of next week. Keep in mind that we really want an understanding from the Board and from the staff so that our recommendations are implemented after the month of November.
Item 6, how to improve ALS participation, that’s an issue that Fatimata and [inaudible 00:53:49] were going to talk about, but they're not here. I think the more participant participation - and this is a way to encourage the RALOs to participate. And so, I know that they were going to give us a bit of an update, Fatimata and [inaudible 00:54:23] in the work that they are to be doing on that issue but they're not here.
Item 7, whoever has any noise, Item 7, AFRALO at the 39th ICANN meeting in Cartagena. As you know AFRALO had decided to carry out two events -- the first one, the monthly AFRALO meeting, so we decided then to continue it at week so we can have it face to face in Cartagena.
It's not going to be on Wednesday, it will be on Tuesday at 1800 UTC. So we have a lot of participation. And then the second event will be an ICANN/AFRALO event just the way we did it in Brussels and there was great success. And so the subject will be AFRALO up on the [inaudible 00:55:43] statement release in Brussels related to support for gTLDs.
So that is something that we will be dealing with, not only related to the Board decisions. I know that the Board reached a decision previously to help gTLD applicants that need assistance either through outreach or through education. Another issue that will also be dealt with in that meeting will be of course, participation of Africans within ICANN and ICANN development policies.
So we are able - now if we do not participate in these policy developments then it means we are not participating. So participation is a very, very important issue and I want us to discuss this at the AFRALO and At-Large meeting face to face because it's a general issue. And I have discussed this with many other people and it's a concern also for the other constituencies because participation is not very strong. And so if Africa has something to say on the development of policies then they have to participate. So that’s going to be another issue that will be brought forth in that meeting.
There will also be a teleconference in order to prepare for that meeting in Cartagena and unfortunately I will be traveling so I will not be in that call. But Fatimata will hopefully be there and other people that will be able to participate in that for the prep for that meeting.
I know that Heidi and Cheryl will be present and many other people. And this is for the logistics, very well. So that’s what we have to do as AFRALO, of course. And of course AFRALO has the intention to actively participate in all the At-Large activities in Cartagena, all of them because as you know, Work Team C in which I work and I am the President of that team will be having a meeting in Cartagena.
And all of the Work Teams will also have joint meetings as well. And that will also be an AFRALO activity as a Working Group on the gTLD assistance will also carry out a marrying as well. And also, we will need AFRALO’s participation in all these Cartagena activities. So each of us will be participating hopefully in all of these activities taking place in Cartagena. Very well, Item 8, Matthias will now give us a little update on recent ALS applications. Matthias?
Matthias Langenegger: Yes, thank you Tijani. We still have three applications from Africa. Unfortunately, two of them have not really moved forward in a while. We are still waiting for information on one of these applications because we did not get the confirmation from them. In this case that we’re speaking about ISOC and then the other application E&R Egypt, once again we have not been able to get into contact with them.
We’ve tried to reach them and we've not been able to. It will be a problem then to reach a decision when we've not gotten all this information. And then finally the application from Fork Alas, from Congo and we just received come new information from them. We had gotten that incomplete application, it's now being completed.
Now we are waiting for the due diligence so we’re able to make that happen. And then we will be sending an email to the region to get regional output.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, thank you so much Matthias. All right, I promise you that - I can let you know that during the ALAC meeting last week, I had brought forth this issue of the ALSs especially for those ALSs that we had questions of and we don’t get any responses. So what I told them is that how long are we going to keep those applications open?
And what Cheryl told me is that in the rules, in the At-Large rules, there isn’t a provision to put a limit. And so it needs to just continue on until it finally carries out. Very well, done with that section, now Dave and Hawa do you have any information on the recent ALAC activities and upcoming activities? Okay Dave did you want to say something?
Dave Kissoondoyal: Yes, thank you. as you know, we are at this time working very hard in the working groups. I'm part of working group C and D. And so we’re trying to see what the attributes are, what the weaknesses are, what opportunities we have and what are the [inaudible 01:03:43] that ALAC is facing.
On the website, you have a lot of the information on a lot of the work we have. And this is what we are doing at this time. And so it's a matter of going to the website and reading for yourself all that information. And that was the update.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, thank you Dave. Hawa did you want to add something. Is she still here?
Hawa Diakite: No I have nothing to add thank you.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Very well, so finally Item 10 and this is about recent and upcoming activities of AFRALO members. Who would like to speak first? And these are activities on the ALSs of course. Yaovi did you want to say something? Yes go ahead.
Yaovi Atohoun: It's a very important item unfortunately I don’t have much to say about that. But it is important to always include that item for each of [inaudible 01:05:45] conferences. And so I will speak to my ALS so we can have more information.
I know that this month my ALS will be participating in an activity in Tunisia. So we are then working on many activities. And so for the next meeting I am hoping to have a lot more information on our ALSs, thank you.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Well Yaovi same with me. I do support the importance of that item and I think that maybe that should no longer be one of the final items. It should be maybe one of the first items so each ALS talks to us about their activities. But it's very good because this has to do with the activities that our ALSs work on within the ICANN framework. But of course now when we talk about these activities remember it's Internet related activities.
Now do we have an ALS or a present member that has any upcoming or recent activities, something that has been done or something that will be taking place within their ALS? Okay then with that silence then I'm going to assume we don’t have much to say. I'm hoping that for next time we have more preparation for that item so we can really speak in detail of our activities. I know that with my ALS we went to (Enet) in Tunisia.
And we had [inaudible 01:08:09] and I saw all of those people. And besides that we are also preparing, as well, for November 10th a conference on all those cities that are connected and on the system as we would say in English. And this is also to discuss how to reach the goal of having more connected cities within the Internet. I have to say that we started with a small town.
Now we have many, many other cities that are finally connected. And they have access to the Internet. So these are some of the activities that I worked on. Is there anybody that would like to add something else? Yes very quickly. In April we are organizing an activity similar to the one that took place in Tunisia.
Well we will hopefully have a great participation from the ALSs as well. And basically the main subject will be the future of the Internet. And that is a very important subject. So (Enet) Tunisia was in the EPC. So these are very modern activities. Anything else? Any other business does anyone want to say anything else? Yaovi yes what did you want to say?
Yaovi Atohoun: So I just want to make sure that we have more clear information in regards to the visas.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Yes I am very aware of that and sending a lot of emails related to that, of course, and I'm hoping that we get a response. I mean I made everyone aware of the issue. We’re getting very tight with the scheduling, so do we have any other business to add? If there is no other business, I thank everybody for being here today. Thank you for your patience. We were here an hour and 15 minutes. Yes Hawa did you want to say something else?
Translator: Okay Hawa if you could please repeat that? You said that you were no longer in charge of the GAC? Is that what you said?
Hawa Diakite: So Heidi asked us actually who wanted to take charge of that and we did say that that responsibility is going to go to our new secretary, Aziz.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: All right, very well. Alright thank you so much and thank you Hawa. Is there anybody else that would like to say something? Any other comments? Otherwise, thank you everybody for joining us and have a great evening. And thank you Hawa and thank you everyone.
-End of Recorded Material-
