On Dec 27, 2007 5:30 PM, Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> wrote:
I've been through such processes before. Sometimes the "very good
reason" is nothing more than inertia, fear of change, and/or the
conclusion that "doing nothing" is an expedient solution. If there is
indeed a truly good reason for the status quo of last-minute planning
chaos that trumps the causes of stability and accessibility and that
diminishes the value of my recommendations , I would very much love to
hear it. So, I suspect, would others on this list.

I guess the best way is to contact the current Meetings Committee - they would give you today's reasons. I can give you yesterday's. They have been shared publicly during the public board meetings.
 
I can't give answers to all your questions; I just say that since you are not the first one to raise them, they have been addressed by at least three of the last Meetings Committee chairpersons, and they have not been easy to solve. That includes ideas for example to meet at locations, which are easily accessible, but then we are facing the problem of people from different countries not being able to travel in order to participate, or to cover their expenses. Or the fact that these are conferences, which are not exactly like the IETF, therefore comparing the two is like oranges and apples ( e.g. IETF is mainly in the northern countries, no problems about getting visas for people to travbel to the USA, and if you know how difficult it is to set up an ICANN meeting in North America, thinking about the many people, who will need to go through interviews worldwide to get a visa for Canada/US... and you could continue with such details). The fact that often the meeting will have to take place in a remote location, because the prices in the city are much higher ( e.g. Rome, Mar del Plata, etc.), etc., etc. When ICANN goes to distant countries, it also gives the people from the region the chance to participate - e.g. when they had a meeting in Bucharest, we had Bulgarians going by car,  etc.

Without going further into details - and without involving into a discussion, I repeat again - the best way to approach this problem, is to address the Meetings Committee; or may be even go into the ICANN archives, and see why the meetings take place where they take place, and why it is not easy to have the countries assigned two years in advance.

best,
Veni