Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay we will start the call. Okay, so Veronica please just let them know I'm going to begin the conference call right now. I'll be chairing it.
Veronica: Okay, that's fine Dev.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Thank you and let me know when you're finished saying that.
Veronica: We are ready Dev.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, thank you. This is Dev Anand Teelucksingh [00:25] secretariat. It is 14 minutes passed the hour. Good afternoon and good evening to everyone. I'll just like to go through the role call for today, Thursday the 19th of January 2012. On the English Channel I have myself Dev Anand Teelucksingh, Olivier Crepin-Leblond and from staff we have Gisella Gruber, Heidi Ullrich, Matt Ashtiani and Silvia Vivanco. Can I have a role call on the Spanish Channel please?
Antonio Madina: Good afternoon this is Antonio Madina.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay.
Fatima Cambronero: Hi I'm Fatima Cambronero.
Natalia Enciso: Hi I'm Natalia Enciso and I have problems in listening to the interpreter.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Oh dear. Well perhaps the volume, go on.
Javier Pallero: I am Javier Pallero.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, that's it?
Veronica: That's it.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay this is Dev Anand. Well now let's quickly go through the action items. There weren't really the actions items other then the regional advice for ALAC application is now due. That's the regional advice for The Association of Notary Public Professionals of Uruguay and that is still outstanding. I should mention that we have now received the second ALS application from the Ecuadorian Association for Free Software. So, if anyone has any comments on that possible ALS I'll be happy to hear that either during this call or of course on the mailing list. We have a data action I think we need to, whether to showcase and we'll come to that later on in the agenda.
So, regarding our third agenda item, policies are for public comment. Well there are four policies also for public comment. Two relate to IDNs. One is the IDN vivid issues project, which is the drop integrated issues report and the initial report on the universal acceptance of IDN TLDs. Well those, I'll say, have less impact on the Latin American and Caribbean regions. So the other two comments that I think are important are the framework for the FY 13 budget and WHOIS Policy Review Team draft report. Now we got to the WHOIS Policy Review Team draft report. I note that the report has been published in Spanish.
Okay, well I'm seeing in the comment section that people are having difficulty I understand in hearing the audio. Can something be done to resolve the audio on the Spanish Channel? It looks like I'm just talking to myself.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: I'll be listening to you Dev, don't worry. You're not just talking to yourself.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay this is Dev Anand Teelucksingh, is everyone hearing me now? I'm about to go to agenda item three, what policies are open for public comment. How's that?
Heidi Ullrich: Hi Dev this is Heidi. We're still sorting things out on the Spanish side sorry. Well, we're listening to you but we're sorting things out at the same time.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, well alright. I don't know whether to continue or not, that's my concern.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Dev it's Olivier.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Hi, yes Olivier please go ahead.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you Dev. May I just recommend that you keep on talking so that the interpreter has something to interpret and then she can speak and somehow hopefully the problems will be fixed? Thank you.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Very well, thank you Olivier, I'll just continue then. So, the WHOIS Policy Review Team draft report has been published. I think this is a critical policy that should be reviewed. Just to give a brief background, the WHOIS Policy Review Team was constituted under the ICANN's Affirmation of Commitment and they have now published its draft report on recommendations and it's available in, I believe, all the six UN languages. Well for a relatively simple protocol which started out as simple protocol to get information about a registrant information regarding to many.
There's been a lot of debate over the years about various issues, you know, what information should be stored, verifying the accuracy of that information, who should have access to that information and so forth. So, the recommendations that the WHOIS Policy Review Team, what they recommended going forward for ICANN I think is of importance to all of us as it impacts all the end-users and registrants. So I think definitely that is something that we need to review and the deadline for the comments is on the 18th of March 2012.
I believe the WHOIS Review Team will be meeting in Costa Rica. And based on the comments we see will issue its final report very soon after the Costa Rica meeting in March 2012. The framework for the financial year to a team budget, that has also have been opened for public comment. The framework kicks off the operational planning process for ICANN, so in that framework, which is mostly a set of slides actually. It's not really a long report. It's a series of slides describing the current and planned work, along with estimates of financial estimates required for the financial year to a team.
The deadline for comments is due actually on the 23rd of February 2012 and I know that the Finance and Budget Subcommittee will probably be looking at this policy issue after it has dealt with the financial requests, FY 13 budget request, which is currently being looked at. And again that's further on in the agenda. Any questions? I'm now looking at the chart to see whether the audio has been sorted out. Okay and I also see Vladimir Davalos has joined the Spanish Channel and Sergio Salinas. Welcome to the call.
Okay, the next item on the agenda is agenda item four, an update on the possible LACRALO events in Costa Rica. Well as you know we have submitted a budget proposal for having several LACRALO events in Costa Rica, namely capacity building sessions, a General Assembly, and of course for all the ALS's and LACRALO to attend the Costa Rica meeting to undertake those capacity building sessions and a General Assembly.
To date we have not had any response from ICANN Finance on this. And Olivier I don't know if you can give an update whether there was any response regarding this matter when you talked to Xavier. Oliver?
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you very much Dev, it's Olivier Crepin-Leblond here. The response that I have emailed to you and to Jose and also to Sergio yesterday or two days ago is the last news that I know so far. We have not got a response yet from ICANN Finance. I'm told that we will soon. I don't know whether it suppose to be good news or bad news. I guess that if there was an outright no answer we might have had it earlier. At the same time you cannot speculate if it's going to be a yes answer.
It could be that they are trying to find a way and they might not be able to find a way or it could be that they are trying to find a way and that they're finalizing it before coming back to us. So, I'm afraid I cannot tell you anymore then that because I don't know anymore then that and we'll just have to wait for the answer which hopefully might come this week. And I'm well aware that time is passing by and I have asked Heidi to put pressure on the people who are suppose to provide us with the answer and they are aware of our time limits, so hopefully we'll have an answer very soon. Thank you.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Thank you Olivier. I see Fatima has a question. Fatima, please go ahead.
Fatima Cambronero: Sorry, my phone was muted. I have two questions for Olivier. The first one was already answered because you said you were waiting for the answer this week from the Finance Committee and the other question is what do you think about the General Assembly? Do you think it is necessary for LACRALO to have the General Assembly or do you think it is useful at this time?
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Thank you Fatima, this is Dev. I would say yes it would be useful, but I think the question was just directed at Olivier. Olivier, do you wish to respond?
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you Dev, it's Olivier. I note that the interpreter was speaking Spanish on our channel. I hope that she has repeated what she has said on the English Channel onto the Spanish Channel.
Veronica: Yes, I did Olivier. I'm sorry. I did, so you can answer now.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay thank you. So, the question is what do I think about a General Assembly? Well, we had a discussion earlier today in the ALAC Finance Subcommittee looking at the different requests from the regions, EURALO, LACRALO, AFRALO, etcetera, and all of the regions asked for General Assemblies to take place, face-to-face General Assemblies to take place in their region. So, looking at the answers and the discussions that we had it looks as though General Assemblies are among the most important things for a region in order to be able to have both Outreach and Inreach and make sense on their work and their policy input into ICANN processes.
That's something which I recognize and as a result we have seen that the priority when looking at various budget request, the priority would always be with General Assemblies. So, my personal feeling goes along that way as well. I think General Assemblies are very important for people to meet and to speak face-to-face and this is something which the At-Large Advisory Committee has said for a long time. It's part of the At-Large improvements.
There's no denying it, that General Assemblies are important. I hope I've answered your question or has it been lost in translation, but it should be okay.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Thank you Olivier. Okay alright, so --
Fatima Cambronero: This is Fatima speaking.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, go ahead Fatima.
Fatima Cambronero: You answered my question, but I wanted to know your personal opinion. This is my personal opinion, my feeling was that from the At-Large we weren't having the real support that we needed in Cartagena we're not able to have our General Assembly. So, my question was due to that because I felt it was a kind of lack of support from you in that aspect, that is my personal feeling.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: May I?
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Yes, please Olivier go ahead. You can respond.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you Dev. Can I ask in what way did you feel that there was not enough support for the LACRALO General Assembly that took place in Cartagena --
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: That did not take place Olivier.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: -- that did not take place? Did you feel that there was not enough support from the ALAC, from me, from --
Fatima Cambronero: This is Fatima speaking. I feel that we didn't have support from ALAC at anytime. We were requesting the General Assembly but we didn't have the support from the ALAC and I'm having the same feeling right now. I don't know how you would manage a certain thing, so that's why I asked you that. But this is a general feeling from my part.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay can I answer?
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Olivier by all means please go ahead.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you Dev, it's Olivier for the record. I assure you that the ALAC has pushed as much as it can with Finance both by email, but also through having direct conference calls with ICANN Finance and even a face-to-face meeting that took place in Cartagena to push the fact that General Assemblies are extremely important for us.
And the subject with the LACRALO current position wishing to have a General Assembly taking place in Costa Rica has been pushed very much by not only the Finance and Budget Subcommittee but by myself personally and also by our staff. And I think that the ICANN Finance people have a very clear view of the requirement of the region to have a General Assembly very soon and Costa Rica would be the target date that we have submitted to them. Thank you.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Thank you Olivier. Okay, so hopefully we will get a favorable response from ICANN Finance regarding the LACRALO events in Costa Rica. I just want to go through and noted agenda item number five which was the discussion of the LACRALO Showcase in Costa Rica. Now the item behind the LACRALO Showcase, well quite a few persons have suggested that unless there's confirmation of the events in Costa Rica that we should not do the showcase. I happen to personally disagree with that, but I just wanted to hear from persons on the call what are your thoughts regarding the showcase?
I say that because it's becoming harder and harder to plan for the showcase in Costa Rica here because it’s the 19th of January. Yeah, it's going to be less then seven weeks until Costa Rica roughly, so I just want to hear what people have to say regarding our planning for the showcase. Actually I see from Natalia there's a question, "Is there a deadline for the Finance answer?" I don't think there is a deadline. To answer your question Natalia, there hasn't been any formal deadline for the Finance answer. But, I think as Olivier mentioned, the time is coming short where as you must give an answer soon, so hopefully the response from ICANN Finance will be very soon.
So again, what are your thoughts regarding the possible showcase? I would like to continue planning for it and would possibly suggest having a conference call next week and possibly having an action item to plan a doodle for it or is it that persons still want to wait until response from ICANN Finance? Fatima, please go ahead.
Fatima Cambronero: Thanks Dev, this is Fatima speaking. When it comes to the showcase I personally believe that when we're talking about creating a group or a team for the showcase that was a topic for discussion that all ALSs should be present. Many people agreed on that. I agree with the fact that having a showcase we don't have a General Assembly, however according to the email sent by Jose, before this conference call, he also said that many people expressed their opinions and they said that they didn't agree with the showcase because some of us believe that it is not necessary because we will have only a few delegates from the ALS's.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay thank you Fatima. I see Natalia has also mentioned, on the chat, that she thinks that there should be one unless you run out of time and won't be able to organize anything. Any other comments? Sergio, Vladimir, Antonio, Javier? Natalia please go ahead.
Sergio Salinas Porto: This is Sergio Speaking.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Oh, Sergio. Sorry, this is Dev I seen that Natalia raised her hand first. So, Natalia?
Sergio Salinas Porto: It's not Natalia. It's Sergio speaking right now.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Sergio, okay.
Sergio Salinas Porto: This is Sergio and I would like to apologize for not participating before, but I had a personal problem. I had participated as a representative and as an ALAC member, so when it comes to the showcase I'm not going to say anything or give my opinion but I would like to see what the ALSs from LACRALO think about this. But, I do understand and I think Jose said that before he mentioned the fact of being able to make a kind of draft report or account to see what we are going to do.
I think it is important to have the opinion of all ALSs about this. But the ALSs have already said in a very robust way about their willingness of not participating and this is something important to our region when it comes to anticipation. We have had many demonstrations of ALSs not being interested in this marvelous system which is the [28:08] model. So, I'm going to agree with what the majority of you believe, but I think that we have to pay attention to what the ALSs say and see if we can have an approach to them and see what they think about this and take into account their opinion.
We might be able to go on with the showcase or not and if we decide not to do the showcase, well that's it, but first of all I think it is important to end up knowing what the ALSs want and if they do all agree to have a showcase we have to stop working.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: This is Dev, thank you Sergio. Natalia, please go ahead.
Natalia Enciso: Okay, this is Natalia. When it comes to the showcase I agree with what Fatima said. I would like to go back to the issue of the budget We didn't have an answer, so I would like to suggest to have a deadline to have an answer because otherwise we want be able to celebrate or to have the General Assembly or the showcase.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, thank you Natalia. This is Dev Anand. Okay I see Olivier, please go ahead.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you Dev, it's Olivier here. Good Idea, but when do you suggest the deadline to be? Do you have an idea? How much time would you require to be able to put together a showcase and a set of events? So, when is the last time that you can get an answer?
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: This is Dev, thanks Olivier. Frankly I think a deadline is perhaps the way to go. I would say and perhaps can also advise on this, if we were to give like a deadline, I'd say, by next week Friday. That's a first thought which would be Friday the 27th of January at the very latest otherwise I think the week after that will be in February.
And then I think it would be very hard, I think for staff as well to try to plan. Well, even if we got approval in February I think it would be very hard for staff to then try to work with Jose and myself to achieve a set of events for Costa Rica. I don't know if Heidi will have an opinion on that.
Heidi Ullrich: This is Heidi for the transcript record. I do understand the concern of still needing to wait and we share that concern, but I'm hearing that we really do expect an answer early this next week from ICANN Finance.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay.
Heidi Ullrich: And Also, as I put into the Adobe Connects in terms of timing, you can definitely draw on the experience of At-Large staff and who planned with AFRALO the very successful AFRALO Dakar events and I believe that Tijani has also said that he would be able to assist you in your planning upon your request at anytime as well.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, thanks Heidi. Fatima, please go ahead.
Fatima Cambronero: Okay, this is Fatima. I also think that we should a survey or report to see and know how many --
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Hello?
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: We might have lost the interpreter.
Heidi Ullrich: No, they're just on mute. We're taking care of it, sorry.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay sorry, one of our lines dropped.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Well I'm seeing both Fatima and Natalia called dropped which is unfortunate. Okay, but the interpreters can still hear me right, correct?
Heidi Ullrich: Let me just confirm that.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay.
Heidi Ullrich: Apologies bear with us.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay.
Heidi Ullrich: Okay the interpreter is --
Fatima Cambronero: Okay, this is Fatima speaking and I was saying that apart from everything that you said before the most important thing would be to have a survey in order to know how many people we have to collaborate because according to the opinions that we have from the list is that nobody wants to collaborate. So, the staff will be the one working with all this, but we need volunteers to work. So, I think in order to have a real or complete idea we should send a poll or survey to see how many people are interested.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, thank you Fatima. This is Dev Anand here. Okay, well just let me propose the following course of action. I think that definitely if budget is approved for LACRALO events in Costa Rica, you know the capacity training sessions, the General Assembly Showcase were to be approved I think all the ALSs would want to have the showcase. Okay, now since we haven't had a response from ICANN Finance as of yet and according to Heidi hopefully by the beginning of next week we'll get a response from ICANN Finance.
Hopefully it will be yes, but regardless we'll get a response and then midweek we'll then issue a poll. If, and I'm emphasizing if, the response from ICANN Finance is no then we'll issue the poll asking the ALSs whether they wish to then have the showcase, to plan for the showcase or not. Okay, is that acceptable for everyone and then I'll mark that as an action item?
Sergio Salinas Porto: Sergio Salinas Porto Speaking. I would like to make a comment.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: This is Dev Sergio, please go ahead.
Sergio Salinas Porto: Thanks Dev. I would like to say that I believe that we have to send the survey before because this has to deal with the will of the RALO regardless of the showcase. At least we have to know and the have the willingness from the RALO, but if there is no will or willingness to do these then we want be able to do anything. So, I think we have to send a poll to the ALSs. I'm taking this into account we can keep on working, that's all.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Thanks Sergio, this is Dev. I'm not sure that I understand the logic there behind it because from what I understand if the travel is approved to go to Costa Rica isn't it a given that we will then do a showcase? Before you answer let me just expand on this because the difficulty is that the reason there's not enough support for a showcase right now is because there's so much uncertainty regarding whether the budget for the events in Costa Rica, you know travel to the ICANN meeting in Costa Rica etcetera, will be approved or not.
That has been the reason that I have seen for not doing the showcase. But, if we are approved and we are going to get a response in either yes or no by early next week, then will that make sense to then wait until we get the response from ICANN Finance early next week and then they see the poll because persons opinions will change. It's contingent on whether we get financing for the events in Costa Rica or not. That's it, so any thoughts on that Sergio?
Sergio Salinas Porto: Thanks Dev. I think that we must know what the ALSs think. Once we know their opinion or point of view we can keep on working because I believe most of the ALSs that want to carry out the showcase regardless of the support for Costa Rica, the financial support for Costa Rica. I would like to know the ALSs opinion and I would like them to say what they want to do regardless of the financial support from the ICANN Committee. We have five, six, or seven ALSs, so I would like to know how many ALSs? Perhaps we might have a surprise. We might get a surprise because there might be ALSs which would like to have the showcase and some others won't, so that is what I wanted to say.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, thank you Sergio. Go ahead Natalia.
Natalia Enciso: Because I'm listening to several opinions I would like to know what is your position when it comes to the showcase and when it comes to financing? If we don't have the financial support are we going to have the showcase?
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, this is Dev. Again, let me try to restate the answer to this. So far if the budget is approved for our events in Costa Rica to undergo capacity training, have the General Assembly, and do a showcase is approved by ICANN Finance I think that we should definitely do the showcase. Absolutely because it just seems to be very strange to accept financing and then not do a showcase when everybody is there. So I think if it's approved then yes, I think it’s a must to do a showcase.
My personal opinion is that even if it was not approved that we should still do the showcase because, I mean, even if not all the ALS representatives are there a lost will be at least 9 to 10 ALS representatives. I think it will be 10 ALS representatives will be there and that's a good third of all the ALSs physically present. I mean Blackwell is doing quite a lot of work and participating in the working groups and so forth and the showcase is a way of highlighting that to all of ICANN there you know. So, I think it's still very important. So that's my opinion even if the events are not approved, that we should still do the showcase.
And also the showcase will likely be recorded so that even if somebody was not there they can still see it and hear it and share it with their ALS members. And also because of the material we are going to be asking ALSs to provide which is the short video if you remember from the last showcase call, you know all those videos and so forth and photos will be shared with everybody there, so I think from that perspective it's important.
I will say mid next week I'll issue the poll for this if the response from ICANN Finance is no and I'm using the word poll rather then vote. I don't think I really want to go to a vote at this point on this matter. I'll poll the members and see what the ALSs have to say on that. Is that understood? I'm seeing hands still raised. I don't know if Natalia or Fatima wishes to respond.
Sergio Salinas Porto: This is Sergio Salinas Porto speaking. I don't feel like discussing this issue because I'm not feeling well. But regardless the week, a week more or a week less, I think that this will not change the scenario. This will imply a week less of work, so according to what Dev said with the financing, if all the ALSs go to Costa Rica to participate for the General Assembly nobody will be against a showcase according to what we have heard up to now, this is so because we run the risk of not having ALSs, the same thing that happened in Colombia.
We have to plan this based on that. It doesn't matter if we are going to have the financial support because what we have to discuss is if there are ALSs that would like to participate regardless the financial support. So, based on those questions we will decide if we have to keep on working or not because if the ALSs decide that they want to perform the showcase without the financial support we have to start working immediately to have the consensus with that RALO and have all the ALSs present for the showcase, so that is something very different okay, that is all I wanted to mention. I don't know if answers Dev's question. Thank you very much.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Thank you Sergio, this is Dev. Yes, I think it does, so I think we are close to the same page here. Any other comments because I want to move on. It's passed the hour now, so I think like I said we will do a poll mid next week and hopefully by then we'll get a firm answer from ICANN Finance on whether the budget is available to do it or not. If it's affirmative then we don't need to do a poll, we just need to have a doodle for next time for a conference call.
But if it's not, if there's no financing available then we'll issue a poll to ask whether to do the showcase or not. Okay, very well. Fatima, you have your hand raised? You want to respond to this? Fatima, go ahead.
Fatima Cambronero: Yes, this is Fatima speaking. I want to say two things. If we have the General Assembly all the ALSs will be present and therefore the showcase will be carried out because with this showcase it's a kind of exhibition for all the regions, so we won't have problems here. But if we don't have financial support, if we don't have a General Assembly, I think we should ask the ALSs in order to know if they want to have a showcase or not. So, I suggest the forming or doing a kind of poll to see who is going to collaborate with the planning of this showcase because this issue is not clear.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, very well. Thank you Fatima. Okay, I think we discussed this and we have a way forward regarding the showcase and so we will probably have to poll mid next week based on the information received from ICANN Finance hopefully by the beginning of next week. Natalia, okay go ahead. I want to move ahead after this, so Natalia you have the last word on this, go ahead.
Natalia Enciso: This is Natalia speaking. I agree with Fatima opinion. We need to know as quickly as possible if we're going to participate or not and we need to know which ALSs are going to participate. We need to know if we are going to work or not and who is going to collaborate. I think this should be clear.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, thank you Natalia. Okay lets move ahead now to the next agenda item number six which was the LACRALO proposal for the FY 13. Myself and Fatima due to the deadline for January 10th to submit our budget request and I submitted a budget request which you could view the PDF at the Budget Development Workspace. And the item for that was to have a multiday workshop at the LAC IGF meeting in August and then on the fourth we will have a meeting.
And the reason why I called it a meeting and didn't say the word General Assembly is precisely because we don't have a firm answer from ICANN Finance whether we are going to have a General Assembly in Costa Rica. If this request was submitted we will be in fact requesting two General Assemblies in the same year and I think ICANN Finance will have issue with that. So I phrased it in such a way that the fourth day after the LAC IGF meeting which is two days, the fourth day we will have a meeting afterwards and if the Costa Rica events are not approved then we can have the General Assembly then, at that time in August. So, that was the attempt behind this.
There's going to be a Finance and Budget Committee call tomorrow where all of the budget requests from all the RALOs will be looked at. So does anybody have any, yes and it is a Plan B Fatima. Yes, exactly. I see Natalia your hand is raised or is that from last time? If your hand is raised Natalia please go ahead.
Natalia Enciso: Natalia speaking. This is a Plan B?
Veronica: Hey Dev, this is Veronica the interpreter speaking. Natalia's voice is very faint, so I asked her to speak louder.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, thank you Veronica.
Veronica: Dev, Natalia's going to write her question on the chat because she cannot hear us as well.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, thank you Veronica. This is Dev. So, yes this was essentially a Plan B in case the extraordinary funding for the events in Costa Rica are not approved. So while Natalia is typing her response does anybody else have a quick comment? Okay nobody else, well Natalia I'll move ahead then with the next agenda item, but I'll return to Natalia to answer any questions Natalia may raise. Which is agenda item number seven, an update on ALAC an At-Large activities. I do want to mention a few things, but Sergio do you think you wish to speak to anything regarding the ALAC activities?
Sergio Salinas Porto: This is Sergio speaking and I asked Natalia to speak on my behalf.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay, this is Dev. Okay but we're not able to hear Natalia. That might be difficult Sergio. But I see Natalia has now responded regarding the LACRALO proposal for ICANN FY 13 and her comments are that the budget was cut later by all the officers and representatives. Okay and that is true. And to respond to Natalia, yes that estimate does not include that, but at the same time I know that quite a few persons are going to the LAC IGF. When we had the last LAC IGF meeting in Trinidad, you know, there were quite a few persons from LACRALO, Natalia, Fatima, Jose, Andreas was there as well as Alejandro, so there was at least five or six persons there.
I'm hoping that number and possibly we could find out how many people are going to the IGF. That will kind of balance out the fact that the LACRALO Costa Rica events, the numbers will match up. I’m sorry I was kind of distracted there, so let me try to rephrase that. Hopefully the number of persons that go to the LAC IGF will be equal to the number that is catered for and the officers and persons that are cleared to travel to go to Costa Rica regardless of whether we have events in Costa Rica or not.
Good, I know. I just wanted to make sure that the persons in the Spanish Channel understood that. Great, so I hope that answers your concerns Natalia. You say yes, so that's good. Okay, so it's unfortunate that Natalia is not able to speak. Fatima, please go ahead? Sorry Fatima. Just so I respond to Natalia, yes I understood what you're saying. Thank you. Fatima, please go ahead.
Fatima Cambronero: When it comes to the proposal that we made with Dev we still don't know the site or the venue and this is somehow difficult to calculate a budget. And on the other hand we have a kind of scholarship program, so we don't know if we are going to be able to give scholarships. So perhaps we must take into account all the ALSs delegate. We know that some of them will at least attend as ALS's representatives or ALAC members.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Yes indeed, thank you Fatima and Natalia you have one other question on the matter? Are you able to speak or do you want to type it in? Natalia this is Dev, please go ahead. Are you able to type it in or are you able to speak, if not then I want to move on to the agenda item number seven. Okay, well let me just continue with the agenda. Oh, and are you sure we're going to have time and space and a LAC event for our General Assembly? The answer would be yes because the GA would be on the fourth day, the day immediately after the IGF, the LAC IGF. So, the answer would be yes.
We will be seeking to have the event, the General Assembly on the fourth day, the day immediately after the LAC IGF and I'm not sure what you mean about space. I would think yes, the answer would also be yes to that as well because ideally we'll try to have it at the same venue or in the hotel where all of us will be staying if you were all attending the event. Thank you Heidi for typing that in quickly, faster then I did. So, let me just move ahead now to agenda item seven, an update on At-Large Working Group activities.
Well as many of you already know ICANN has launched the New gTLDs and is now accepting applications for New Generic Top Level Domains. So, the 12th of January ICANN has begun accepting applications and applicants will use what they call the TLD Application System or TAS to submit the application and then answer a series of questions as mentioned in the applicant guidebook. So, as you can see from the announcement your applications have begun on January 12th.
The last day to register in the TAS system, in other words to be an applicant, is March 29th and then April 12th is the final day ICANN will accept applications. There's also been a new applicant guidebook and let me put the link there and there's quite a lot of changes from the previous book and I'll place a link there as well in the chat. The big change, I think, describes how the Government Advisory Committee will give advice and early warnings regarding any gTLD applications.
Now the At-Large New gTLD Working Group which has the mandate for three things, to observe the new gTLD roll out and develop good advice on it going forward, applicant support is used, well I should say that with the new gTLD program there is support for applicants that may not be able to afford the full fee. What happens is that applicants can apply for financial assistance and if granted the $185,000 application fee is reduce to $47,000 an it's taken out of a 2 million dollar fund that ICANN has setup.
It wasn't the recommendation from the JAS Working Group, but it's what ICANN attempted trying to follow the recommendations from the Joint Applicant Support Report. So, the new gTLD Working Group is also looking at issues related to this and it also is looking at developing a process by which ALAC and At-Large can file an objection to a new gTLD and I've come up with a draft for that and I posted that to the list and I've now posted that also to the chat. And as Heidi has mentioned there, our conference calls are on Monday's.
The time varies but anybody is welcome to attend such a call while we discuss these and other issues, so that's one key thing. I mentioned activities of the Finance and Budget Subcommittee and they also have various meetings. They have a conference call tomorrow I believe. I can't remember the time right now. Let's see if there are any other issues or topics. Well the other working group that also has regular meetings also on a Monday is the At-Large Improvement Taskforce and I'll post a link here as well. Now the At-Large Improvement Taskforce is looking at the Interim
Report that was posted at Dakar, published at the ICANN meeting in Dakar, looking at the recommendations made in the Interim Report and looking to see how all of those recommendations can be completed or started. And those meetings are also going on, on Monday's as well and again anyone is welcome to attend those conference calls as well. So I see that Sergio you are now leaving the call, thanks and bye-bye. Any questions or comments on this? If not I just want to remind everyone that under LACRALO.org website.
The At-Large Community Calendar also list all of the At-Large conference calls. So in fact, for example, on Tuesday the 24th is the ALAC call and which of course I also encourage everyone to attend that call on Tuesday as well. Okay, 24 minutes passed the hour and I'll go over the last agenda item which was the any other business. Does anyone has any questions or any other topics they wish to raise? Fatima, please go ahead.
Fatima Cambronero: Okay, I give the floor to Silvia and then I will speak.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Okay.
Silvia Vivanco: We a request from Brazil from the National Association for Internet on to be on ALS, so that is what I wanted to mention. Fatima, now you have the floor.
Fatima Cambronero: Okay, I am Fatima. I would like to ask Dev, I don't remember if you were present in the Academy Taskforce where we have several members working there. Could you please tell us something about that?
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Thank you Fatima. Yes indeed that was another call. Yes the ICANN Academy had a conference call in December and they have now completed a budget proposal which is for the ICANN Academy and for an event hopefully by the ICANN Toronto meeting is towards the end of this year. Essentially the ICANN Academy has been expanded in scope to look at training of all the participants coming into ICANN and the various ACs and SOs.
Okay, I should confirm that it's still a draft proposal and has yet to be submitted to ICANN Finance. I don't know Olivier if you wish to say something more about this, do you have anything that you wish to add to this? I'll try to find the actual proposal and post it in the chat.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Yes Dev, thank you. This is Olivier. You very well explained what the plan is because the ICANN Academy is a cross RALO effort that is actually going to be presented also not only as an ALAC effort, but something that can be beneficial to all supporting organizations and advisory committees in ICANN. We are pushing for this to be an exceptional item that will not even fall specifically under At-Large's budget. So this is the aim we're having so that it doesn't stop us from receiving funding for other projects that we have, specifically the General Assemblies, etcetera, all of our usual requests. Thank you.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Thank you Olivier. Sorry, I was just trying to find the actual link for the ICANN Academy which I'll post. I believe this is the link for the ICANN Academy. And so you can review the proposal there and see what comments can be made, but I don't think any comments can be made to this at this time. I think we will just look at this now for the Financial Budget Subcommittee and for ALAC to then submit. So, okay is there any other business?
Again after this, well I know we supposed to have mentioned a few other things there regarding the bylaws. I think we will defer that for another time given the difficulty in coming to a consensus on that. I think that's about it really. So, with that in mind and there being no further questions I think we will call the meeting to a close.
So, thank you all for attending the call and hopefully we will hear a favorable response from ICANN Finance regarding our events in Costa Rica and we'll see send you soon for the next conference call of the At-Large Working Group. Thank you.
Heidi Ullrich: Thank you everyone. Thank you Dev for Chairing.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Sure and thank you to the interpreters.
Veronica: Thank you.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Veronica thank you and Sabrina.
Sabrina: You're welcome Dev.
Fatima Cambronero: This is Fatima, thank you very much and good bye.
Matt Ashtiani: Goodbye everyone, thank you.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thanks everybody. Thanks Dev.
Dev Anand Teelucksingh: Thanks Olivier.
