Today the vote closed regarding ALAC endorsement of the STI report on how to deal with cybersquatters and trademark abusers, in a manner acceptable to (nearly) all stakeholders. ALAC has endorsed the report unanimously and so has GNSO Council. It's nice to see the process work. Congratulations to Alan and Olivier for ensuring the the At-Large voice was heard within a group that, at the beginning, didn't seem to want us there. Now... the business community has said that some measures in the STI report don't go far enough and have indicated that they will be filing a minority report. At-Large has also endorsed a minority report on three issues, but those are comparatively minor. We certainly have come a long way from the disaster that was the original IRT group. While I agree that the IRT didn't get *everything* wrong, so much about it was the absolute antithesis of how ICANN policy is supposed to be made. It actually offers some hope that all the constituencies within GNSO -- along with ALAC -- were able to reach such an important consensus. So let's just gift-wrap the report when it shows up at the next ICANN Board meeting and call it the community's present. And to all of you, wherever you are, I wish you a happy holiday season and a great new year! - Evan