All:

I wanted to make sure you were aware that the ICANN public comment periods were changed in January 2015.  The minimum public comment period is no longer 21 days with a 21 day reply period.  Instead, it is a single (minimum) 40 day comment period.  This is apparently a response to certain ATRT2 recommendations.  See:  https://community.icann.org/display/soaceabout/Announcement+Letter+to+ICANN+Executive+Team

There were two community webinars on 22 January announcing "Public Comment Enhancements" (this and the other changes in the above document). See https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2015-01-16-en.  The announcement of the webinar mentions the "suspension" of the reply period and the new 40 day minimum period.

Webinar materials (slide deck, transcripts, etc.) are here: https://community.icann.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=51418375

Aside from the webinar announcement, I don't believe there was a formal announcement to the community of the change in public comment periods.  As a result, there still seems to be some lack of knowledge of this change.

I hope this helps.