2012 Reports are closed, see 2013 for newer reports

NARALO Monthly Report - December 2012

1. December Monthly Call Occurred as scheduled 10 December 2012
2. NARALO Operating Principle #3: Participation to NARALO discussions is open to every user and group of users and their participation will be promoted.
3. The Chair continued to follow up on Travel Assistance-related issues from the Toronto meeting, forwarding a list of open issues to staff.
4. NARALO Welcomed our latest ALSes: Connect.NYC and Nova Scotia Community Access Program
5. The Monthly call featured Tom L. from Connect.NYC to present his ALS
6. The Chair is building a sub-report on Language, Interpretation and Translation
7. The Chair participated in the monthly ALAC call
8. The Chair is reviewing Compliance responses to questions issued in November
9. The Chair learned that ICANN's Sydney office was suddenly closed, more information is being requested

NARALO Monthly Report - November 2012

1. November Monthly Call Occurred as scheduled 12 November 2012
2. NARALO Operating Principle #2: "The NARALO will function as long as the Memorandum of Understanding between ICANN and the NARALO remains valid." The MOU can be found here. 
3. The Chair continued to follow up on Travel Assistance-related issues from the Toronto meeting, forwarding a list of open issues to staff.
4. The Chair continued to promote our new ALS applicants
5. The Chair continued to collect working group representation
6. The Chair released the NARALO Communications Strategy for comments
7. The community monitored with great interest developments concerning TM protections in the new gTLD program. NARALO ALAC members Evan L. and Alan G. insisted on full participation in the policy calls since they were not apprised of the meetings previously.
8. NARALO Members offered advice to APRALO members in advance of their organizing of the Beijing meeting
9. The Secretary added new NARALO members to the Skype chat
10. The Chair released a new dedicated report sub-section on Language, Translation and Interpretation. The Chair will soliciting feedback from the community on the various language services.
11. The community noted that The GAC and ALAC endorsed the WHOIS review report, SSAC provided a response in SAC055
    (http://www.icann.org/en/groups/ssac/documents/sac-055-en.pdf), and the GNSO provided a response by constituency (http://gnso.icann.org/en/correspondence/robinson-to-icann-board-07nov12-en.pdf)
12. Glenn M. worked with At-Large staff to locate survey results from the Adobe chats at Toronto.
13. The Chair released a special sub-report on Compliance issues
14. The recruitment sub-committee began working on a letter template

NARALO Monthly Report - October 2012

Most of the reporting for October refers to the Toronto ICANN Meeting

1. October Monthly Call Occurred as scheduled 8 October 2012 
   
   
2. Going forward the Chair will review the NARALO Operating Principles regularly to ensure we are working within these parameters and create a running commentary here so all members are aware of these principles (there are 18). The first principle being: "The North American Regional At-Large Organization (NARALO) promotes and assures the North American user participation in the ICANN policy development process. It is formed by the unaffiliated individuals who meet the requirements under rule 17 and by those North American At-Large Structures (ALSs) accredited by the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC)." 
   
   
3. Toronto ICANN meeting

• Staff Acknowledgement: ICANN At-Large Staff were actively engaged in the process of building the Toronto event and made many of the suggestions which resulted in positive results and engagement. For this we thank them for their time and dedication.
  
  
• Event Committee: This very successful meeting is was coordinated through weekly teleconferences by the NARALO volunteer committee starting in August 2012, the membership being: Darlene Thompson, Glenn McKnight, Gordon Chillcott, Eduardo Diaz, Garth Bruen; Olivier Crepin-Leblond and Evan Leibovitch. See Event Planning Data.
  
  
• The Slideshow Sub-committee (Garth, Glenn, Eduardo, Gordon) Slideshow http://www.slideshare.net/gmcknight/naralo-slideshow
  
  
• Meeting  Reports: NARALO Members have been recording meeting briefs from Toronto: At-Large Toronto Meeting Reports
  
  
• Leadership Sessions: Our leadership participated in day-long ALAC sessions on Sunday with the new CEO, ccSNO, CFO, Communications, SSAC, Compliance, and DSSA WG. Transcripts
  
  
• The Outreach (Monday): http://toronto45.icann.org/node/34281

The NARALO Showcase/Anniversary Event was smashing success. NARALO had the privilege of hosting as speakers new ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade, ICANN Board Chair Steve Crocker, Google- Patrick Ryan, Afilias -Phillipp Grabensee, and Board Chair Paul Anderson. Additionally, Google, Afilias and CIRA sponsored this event. The Chair is drafting an official letter of gratitude. The main focus of the event was honoring our original RALOS with awards and congradulations by our ALAC Chair Olivier Crepin-Leblond. See details on our "NARALO Heroes."

Video of Event:

We also had a wonderful fiddle and dance Metis Performance:http://youtu.be/OYy1LM7hDpM, http://youtu.be/o3aElDz5Q8o, http://youtu.be/5ErekjhFNZE

Audio recordings and interpretation: English, French, Spanish; Transcripts: English, Spanish, French

• New gTLD working group, WHOIS Working Group, Future Challenges, Rules of Procedure, Registrant Rights and Responsibilities

• NARALO Member Glenn McKnight participated in Nominating Committee sessions
• NARALO Chair ran the Secretariats Meeting
• General Assembly:

• Recruitment Activities: Part of the week's activity centered around developing recruitment opportunities. We have enlarged our rolls with several new At-Large Structures and unaffiliated members.

  -NARALO was pleased have two candidate ALSes attend our sessions: Nova Scotia Community Access Program and Connect.NYC. These two groups submitted applications immediately.

  -As for Unaffiliated Members, the Chair sent personal invitations to potential unaffiliated members: Murray M., Peter K., Roy B., Alain B., Andrew M. who attended various sessions.

• Capacity Building Sessions - Monday through Thursday NARALO meet early in the morning to develop a Communication Strategy. This NARALO Communication Strategy Document is the result of our collaborative efforts while in the ICANN 45 Toronto At-Large Capacity Building Sessions.The document follows the four-part discussion agenda which occurred over the four meeting days. Comments may be submitted to the NARALO Chair at any time.

i. Community Communications (Monday)
ii. Recruitment (Tuesday)
iii. Communication Strategy I - Internal (Wednesday)
iv. Communication Strategy II - External (Thursday)

• The following brief report comes from NARALO Member Annalisa Roger on the Women in the DNS session: 
  
  "The Women in the DNS met alongside ICANN North American meetings in Toronto. A breakfast room filled by 7 a.m. Monday morning, October 15, just prior to ICANN's opening meeting with  enthusiasm to support each other, to network, and to reach out to local business women. Founder Karla Valente and the original advisory group met later in the week to further develop the mission and ability to serve its growing membership, which will include a website. The group was founded at the March 2009 meeting in Mexico and has met every ICANN meeting since then, growing in number. The Toronto breakfast was sponsored by Uninett, DotGreen, and Neustar. Local Canadian Joan Kerr, Director of FBSC.org in Canada, gave an inspiring address about her own experience developing programs that unite women to support their achievements and others. The event provides an opportunity to meet and connect early in the week, promoting further dialogue in other Law and Policy Forums during the ICANN assembly. The meeting is an integral and popular way for women, typically outnumbered in the industry, to make connections and deepen their interaction with the ICANN community. The next meeting of the DNS will be Monday morning of ICANN in Beijing, China. For more information, visit LinkedIn and Facebook.com/DNSWomen."
  
  

• The following brief was submitted by Glenn McKnight on the ICANN Village NARALO Table

  

   "The table was effective. We organized the time slots  in DOODLE and staff supplied a eye  catching pull up banner and the brochures for the table top. The  NARALO Outreach table was staffed by volunteers from 10 to 3 o clock from Monday to Thursday outside the ICANN reception zone permitting it to be a "go to place" to talk to NARALO members and gather information and application forms. Each of the sponsored Naralo  ALS's who attended the capacity sessions  did a supreme job in signing up on was a great demonstration at low cost ( banner and printing) to reach out and inform the ICANN community our role and presence. Those volunteers who were volunteer their time away from busy sessions include: Garth Bruen,  Monique Chartrand, Gordon Chillicott,  Edwardo Diaz,   Randy Glass, Louis Houle,,  Joan Kerr,  Glenn McKnight, Dana,Perry, Annalisa Roger,  Gareth Shearman and  Alan Skuce. Special  acknowledgement needs to be made  to  four special individuals.  Monique Chartrand, Gordon Chillicott, Gareth Shearman and Alan Skuce who really shouldered alot of the load at the booth and they the extra mile picking up the slack for other members who were obligated at various meetings." Photos

• Various Media of ICANN 45 Provided by Glenn McKnight: ICANN Pictures, NCUC Pictures, NCUC Video, Pictures of  RALO  Event, Video Format, Outreach Table
  
  
  4. Working Group Analysis. The Chair is undertaking an effort to review NARALO's working group participation to ensure we have the most balanced participation possible. The chart below shows the current status of our working group participation. Over the coming months we will attempt to increase participation where it is light, archive dormant working groups, and engage our new members on their interests so they can join working groups. (All At-Large Working Groups)

  Engagement in ICANN	Monique C.
  Naming Issues Taskforce	Alan G. (?)	Evan L. (?)	Seth R. (?)
  Registrants Rights and Responsibilities	Gordon C.	Evan L.	Garth B.	Avri D.
  Future Structure, Accountability and Transparency of ICANN	Darlene T.	Garth B.	Alan G.	Gareth S.	Glen M.	Seth R.
  Capacity Building Working Group	Darlene T.
  WG on Future Challenges	Evan L.(Chair)	Garth B.	Avri D.	Eduardo D.	Darlene T.
  IDN Policy	Randy G.*
  New gTLDs	Avri D.(Chair)	Andrew M.	Alan G.	Evan L.
  Technical Issues	Gareth S.
  WHOIS Policy	Gordon C.	Randy G.*	Garth B.	Wendy S.	Evan L.
  ALAC Subcommittee on Finance and Budget	Gareth S.	Darlene T.
  ALAC Subcommittee on Outreach	Eduardo D.
  Technology Taskforce Working Group	Gordon C.	Avri D.	Bill T.
  Metrics Working Group	Alan G.	Darlene T.
  New gTLDs Review Group	Seth R.	Garth B.	Randy G.*	Eduardo D.
  Rules of Procedure Working Group	Avri D.*	Brett F.	Alan G.	Darlene T.	Eduardo D.
  IRT Process	?	?	?	?	?	?
  ccNSO / At-Large Coordination	?	?	?	?	?	?
  At-Large Improvements Project Taskforce	Darlene T.
  ICANN Academy Ad-Hoc Working Group	Glenn M.	Allan S.
  ccNSO Study Group	Eduardo D.
  Joint DNS Security and Stability	Eduardo D.
  Thick WHOIS PDP (GNSO - pending)	Evan L.
  Red Cross/IOC PDP (GNSO - pending)	Evan L.
  Consumer Choice, Competition and Innovation WG (GNSO)	Evan L.
  Joint Applicant Support WG (ALAC-GNSO)	Evan L.

5. ICANN Functions - Documenting NARALO perspectives on ICANN's functional areas will be a standard part of this report. Suggestions and questions should be sent to the Chair.

• Compliance: The Chair will solicit and forward to staff lists of concerns about Compliance in a supplemental report.
• Language, Translation, and Interpretation: The Chair will solicit and forward to staff lists of concerns about Compliance.
• Travel Support: The Chair will continue to be proactive in monitoring the effectiveness and response of ICANN Travel Constituency. ICANN TC has been helpful in resolving some issues. At-Large understands that coordinating travel for an ICANN meeting is a complex endeavor. In order address problems quickly and provide useful feedback, the Chair has been accepting and forwarding all travel related complaints. Most individual issues have been resolved. However, one item is of continuing concern, namely shuttles to and from overflow hotels. The Chair was not aware there were no shuttles from non-venue hotels and assumed their would because shuttles were provided at other ICANN meetings. This was of specific concern for At-Large members who were required to appear at 7AM meetings Monday - Thursday. At-Large members had to take taxi cabs which could have cost up to $156CAN for the whole week, a not insignificant portion of the Per Diem. We are also concerned about compliance with disability standards whereas members with mobility issues may be better served by shuttle buses as opposed to expectations that they seek public transportation. Questions concerning the lack of shuttle buses have been forwarded to At-Large Staff and noted in the October Monthly Call Action Items. Another issue being examined is wire transfer fees for directly deposited Per Diems. The policy concerning wire transfer fees is not clear, some believe ICANN should bee paying the transfer feed on these deposits. This is also an action item from October's call.
  
   
  6. Next Call Monday 10 December 2012 at 2000 UTC
  

NARALO Monthly Report - September 27, 2012

1. Preparations for Toronto ICANN meeting

   The NARALO Toronto ICANN planning organizing committee has been meeting via teleconference weekly since 1 August 2012, committee chair: Garth Bruen; committee members: Darlene Thompson, Glenn McKnight, Gordon Chillcott, Eduardo Diaz, Garth Bruen; Olivier Crepin-Leblond and Evan Leibovitch providing assistance. See: Toronto NARALO Events Organising Committee call 2012.09.26 for details. This has included creating the agenda for the NARALO anniversary/outreach/showcase event: NARALO Showcase Event: Toronto (Glenn McKnight has raised $10k from sponsors to provide catering and music), the Mon-Thur capacity building sessions: NARALO Capacity Building Sessions Workspace, organizing an table for the ICANN village geared at recruitment of new ALSes, coordinating with staff on Promotional Items, coordinating with staff on Planning the Logistics especially travel sponsorship for NARALO ALSes.

   The group has recruited at least 20 NARALO members to attend this meeting. Glenn McKnight is organizing volunteers to run the ICANN Village Table at different intervals. In terms of the outreach event, staff has assisted in coordinating 3 sponsor speakers at this event from CIRA, Google and Afilias.Staff has assisted in coordinating the incoming ICANN CEO to present a welcome speech at this event. ALAC Board Member Sebastien Bachollet and ALAC Chair Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond will also be speaking. Invitations for this event will be distributed to new potential ALSes at the Sunday morning http://toronto45.icann.org/node/34111. The Monday event will be 7:00PM - 8:30PM in the Regatta room.

   For the capacity building sessions staff has assisted in coordinating ICANN Ombudsman Chris LaHatte and ICANN VP for Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Sally Costerton to facilitate at these meetings.

2. Secretariats Meeting

   The Secretariats meeting will occur on Wednesday at the ICANN Toronto meeting with Garth Bruen as Chair. The agenda will include cross-ralo dispute resolution and capacity building. Issues discussed below.

3. NARALO Monthly Call: This call occurred as scheduled on 10 September 2012 with a focus on the Toronto agenda: NARALO Monthly call 2012.09.10. Note that NARALO Secretary Darlene Thompson was on scheduled leave during this period.
   
   
4. ALS Recruitment
   Much of our focus at the Toronto meeting will concern strategies for increasing ALS membership and retaining current members. Among our topics and actions will be: 1. Improving communications, 2. A discussion of what type of entities to recruit, 3. refining the application process, 4. Creating a probationary membership for applicants, 5. Mending fences and resolving conflicts, 6. Expanding and streamlining our web presence. 
   
   
5. ALS Tracking updates
   NARALO Chair Garth Bruen reviewed the current ALS list and found that the Emerging Futures Network ALS was not listed and asked staff to update. Other contacts are also being reviewed for details, accuracy and consistency.
   
   
6. Process enhancement
   NARALO is developing an agenda to improve communications with its membership and to simplify the ALS application process. More details during the Toronto meeting.
   
   

7. Compliance Agenda
   NARALO has been engaging in a comprehensive review of the Compliance functions. More details during the Toronto meeting.

8. New gTLD working group: NARALO Chair Garth Bruen has been participating in this working group.

9. NOMCOM: Glenn McKnight is continuing his participation in this group. 
   
   

10. Next NARALO Monthly Call: NARALO Chair Garth Bruen indicated this call will occur as scheduled on October 8.