There will be a face-to-face (F2F) meeting of the IANA Stewardship CWG in Frankfurt on November 19-20. The meeting is open to all current Members and Participants of the CWG (https://community.icann.org/x/1QrxAg). ICANN is funding the participation of Members. The only exception is that if a Member cannot attend, they will fund a current Participant if they are approved by the SO/AC (an "Alternate"). The ALAC also requires that anyone participating must be a current member of the IANA-issues group and mailing list. Additionally, it is crucial that any Alternate selected have participated in the At-Large and CWG meetings/calls. And obviously, the person must be able to travel to Germany which excludes some people who cannot obtain a visa in such a short time, We must notify ICANN of the selection of any Alternate by next Tuesday, October 28. That does not leave very much time. At this stage, it is likely that two of our five representatives on the CWG may not be able to attend. We have two questions that must be addressed immediately (and I am conscious that it is already Friday evening or Saturday in much of the world). 1. Do we select an Alternate only from the same region as the regular Member who cannot attend? The argument against is that it puts into question our rationale for having 5 members to represent all ICANN regions. The arguments for it is that may allow us to find the best person to sit at the table on our behalf, it is only a temporary replacement, and so far there have not been a lot of regional differences raised. 2. Who makes the decision of who, if anyone, to send. I would suggest that the ALT is the only practical answer given the timing. CONSENSUS CALL 1: Should the ALAC be able to choose any qualified person, regardless of region? YES or NO CONSENSUS CALL 2: Should the ALT be empowered to select Alternates for this F2F meeting on behalf of the ALAC? YES or NO ALAC Members: If you are silent, you are deemed to have answered YES to both questions, but it would be *FAR* better if we get actual answers from everyone, and preferably we should have quorum. Alan