Dear Carole: At the Request of the Chair of the ALAC, Cheryl Langdon-Orr, we have the pleasure to provide by attachment the Statement of the ALAC on the Draft Applicant Guidebook and Related Materials for the Introduction of New gTLDs. By copy, this Statement is also being transmitted to the Board of Directors of ICANN as an Advisory Committee statement to the Board, to the ALAC Liaison to the Board, and Denise Michel. This statement is the result of a process begun when representatives of eighty-eight (88) At-Large Structures (³ALSes²) from five Regional At-Large Organizations (³RALOs²) representing ICANN's global At-Large community met in the At-Large Summit (ATLAS) as a part of the the 34th International ICANN meeting in Mexico City. Amongst the various activities of the Summit were five working groups on issues of concern to the At-Large community. One of the five was devoted to New gTLDs including IDN gTLDs. The final statements of all five working groups was compiled into the Declaration of the At-Large Summit, presented to the Board of ICANN at the Public Board Meeting in Mexico City. The text that follows is the compilation of all statements presented to the Board of ICANN at its public session in Mexico City. In order to ensure that the entire At-Large community had the opportunity to review the five statements, and for their perspectives to be taken into account, the ALAC resolved upon a process of consultation and amendment for the statements by resolution at its 24th March 2009 teleconference. As a result, the Summit Working Group statement was opened for public comments by the At-Large community on 1st April, closing on 11th April. The New GTLD Working Group then amended the statement to incorporate comments received. The Chair of the ALAC then requested the Staff to open a vote on the document, said vote opening on14th April and closing on 17th April. The results were announced on 19th April by the Staff, said result being that the Statement was endorsed by a vote of 13-0-0. -- Regards, Nick Ashton-Hart, Heidi Ullrich, Matthias Langenegger, Gisella Gruber-White, Marie-Helene Bouchoms ICANN At-Large Staff email: staff@atlarge.icann.org