Hi Everyone First, just a final confirmation of the various elections we have had: My new Vice chair is Siranush Vardanyan, Satish Babu is our NNomCom representative. And our new representative on ALAC is Maureen Hillyard. Congratulations again to all - and a reminder to everyone - that we need all of your support. On APRALO membership: Two ALSs have been officially decertified: Internet Users Network - Tokyo (at their request) Internet Society of Pakistan (which had ceased to exist and has been replaced) We have had three applications for membership - which are in the process of being reviewed and will be voted on including - the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network - South Pacific Computer Society - Internet Society - Nepal Chapter For those who were not able to attend the APRALO meeting last Wednesday, it began with Kuek Yu-Chuang, the newly appointed Vice President for Global Stakeholder Engagement for the Asian Region. He assumes office on 1 August - when he will be based in Singapore. Others in the Singapore office will include staff for compliance and registrars/registries. (He would like to be involved in all of our meetings) He talked a bit on his background (he is a Senior Director with Yahoo) and then on what he sees as a fundamental tension in his job. On the one hand, it is his job to listen to and understand the needs on the ground of his various constituents but that must fit into ICANN plans and commitments that have already been decided and are in train. The cornerstone of his job will be an APEC strategy which will be launched at the regional IGF in Korea. Rinalia talked on the planned IGF workshop - an APRALO-ICANN collaboration on IDNs and IDN variants, looking at the many issues involved, including security and stability, and language scripts. Cheryl also provided an update on the regional IGF in Korea. From now on, we will be devoting at least 5 minutes or more to one or our ALSs giving us all a presentation on that ALS - a bit about its members and its activities. Satish will be the presenter for the August meeting. We went through the the outcomes from the survey Pavan did after Beijing. The main conclusions included the overuse of ICANN terminology (explain the acronyms if you use them), how the ICANN schedule can be overwhelming - so each meeting needs a bit of explanation, more ALS participation, the praise for the Fellowship program and its orientation to ICANN. In the issues sessions, the main issues were covered and have largely been dealt with. The one big outstanding issue is a proposal from an Expert Working Group (which Carlton was on) that is proposing a new structure for the collection, handling, verification and dissemination of registrant data. Comment is due mid-August I"ll get back to you on that one (if you are really interested, go to the ICANN website and type in Expert Working Group in the search area) And some action items on all of you (including staff) - please be sure all of you are signed up to the APRALO and other mailing lists - staff can help - go to the ICANN webpage - through to the list of APRALO ALSs- - and check that the entry for your ALS is correct - and let staff know so we can correct anything that needs correcting - let me - and everyone else - know what issues we as APRALO should be focussing on - - put your hand up for talking about your ALS to an APRALO meeting Staff - please send out a soft copy of the guide to ALAC - which has some nice background on issues we have been involved in And we will begin a dialogue with APNIC - based on the relationship that other RALOs are developing with their RIRs - so any and all suggestions welcome there Thanks Holly