(French version to follow in due course)
Dear North American ALS Representatives:
ICANN is pleased to invite one representative from each accredited and applicant ALS to attend the San Juan ICANN Meeting in June.
The San Juan ICANN Meeting will be held from 25
th to 29
th June – further details may be found at
http://www.icann.org/meetings/sanjuan - and will feature
tutorials, workshops, and stakeholder meetings on a variety of issues of interest to end-users (such as internationalized domain names and the introduction of new top level domain names), as well as public forums and a public meeting of ICANN's Board of Directors.
There is expected to be a total of one to two sessions of the North American ALS community as part of the San Juan meeting. The first is scheduled for Sunday, 24th June, from approximately 09:00 to 17:00, with a break for lunch and coffee breaks in the morning and afternoon. If another meeting is required, it will be scheduled so that it allows all of you to attend the other ICANN events with as few conflicts as possible.
Should your MoU with ICANN be completed on or at the San Juan meetings, and subject to agreement by the Office of the General Counsel on the willingness of ICANN to sign the text you agree on, a signing ceremony will be arranged in which those ALSes who wish to participate will be able to do so. Like those of all the other regions, this will be done as a part of the main public meeting on Thursday morning and will be witnessed by the Board of Directors, with signing by Paul Twomey, the Chief Executive of ICANN on behalf of ICANN.
We will work with you in the interim to determine a draft agenda for your meetings. Of course, some of the agenda items are dependent upon your pre-conference work on your Operating Principles, Code of Conduct, and draft Memorandum of Understanding to form your Regional At-Large Organisation with ICANN, as this will determine how much of the discussions, if any, will be about these documents and how much will be focused on other matters, including elections for regional officers if those are not concluded in the remaining weeks from now until the June meeting.
Conference documents, draft proposals, and agendas will be published online on the NARALO website and linked to the NARALO pages on ICANNWiki.
MEETING VENUE: ICANN will make all the technical arrangements for the meeting.
REMOTE PARTICIPATION: Remote participation via voice will be available for those who are unable to attend in person. Further details about this will be provided on the wiki pages devoted to the meeting.
MAIN ICANN MEETING ACCESS: You may register for the main ICANN meeting from the Lisbon meeting page as above, or you may choose to register upon arrival. There is no fee for registration in either case.
TRAVEL SUPPORT: ICANN is able to provide travel support and hotel accommodation for one representative of each At Large Structure, and candidates for ALS status, who have identified themselves as requiring travel assistance, as follows:
- Airfare, to and from San Jan, by economy class;
- Hotel accommodation at a hotel TBD – for the the period from the 23rd to 28th June inclusive;
- Airport transfers to and from the hotel;
A new travel policy is in the final stages of being put into place. This will feature one of the following possible methods to handle costs of meals and other incidental costs (ground transportation if necessary to and from your home airport and the like):
1) A reimbursement-based system where you keep your receipts and submit a claim for them after the fact.
2) A lump sum payment made to you in advance of the meeting to cover these costs, in which case you do not need to submit expenses or ask for reclaiming of expenses, or;
3) A per-diem payment made in advance to you to cover these costs.
The attached travel policy details all that you need to know about the travel and subsistence assistance provided by ICANN. Please read it carefully. Once a final determination on the above matters is made, you will be informed of it in detail.
VISAS: Please see the attached policy for more information. Invitation letters, if you require them, are not issued directly by ICANN, but by the host for the meeting. You may find more information about this from http://icannsanjuan.pr/visa.php. If you find your local US embassy requires additional documentation than what is available from the host, send an email to travel-staff@atlarge-lists.icann.org and we’ll work to help you.
IMPORTANT NOTE ON VISAS: The USA can often take 90 days to process visa applications for many countries. If you require a visa and have not applied allowing for a normal processing period as that has been defined by the US government in respect of applications from your country, ensure you contact your nearest embassy from the URL above to ensure that it is possible for you to get a visa in good time to attend the San Juan meeting. Note that in some, but not all, countries US embassies do have an expedited handling process available for events such as conferences like the ICANN meeting. These can, if available, cut the amount of time for an application to be processed.
READY TO RSVP?
As per the attached travel policy document, please provide us with the information immediately below. This should be sent by email as described in the attached travel policy, to travel-staff@atlarge-lists.icann.org.
DEADLINE FOR RSPVs: In order to keep costs of travel down, we need to receive your RSVPs in good time to take advantage of advance ticket purchase windows.
THE DEADLINE FOR RSPVing FOR TRAVEL SUPPORT IS MONDAY, 21st MAY 2007 AT NOON UTC. AFTER THAT TIME, YOU ARE FREE TO ATTEND IN PERSON AT YOUR OWN EXPENSE, BUT TRAVEL SUPPORT FROM ICANN WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE.
1) Full name of the delegate (as shown on the delegate’s passport:
2) Your Nationality (if more than one, the nationality you will travel under):
4) Your departure date (in good time to arrive NLT the evening of 23rd June):
5) Your return date:
6) The city you are returning to:
7) If you require a visa to attend the meeting, when did you apply, and has it been issued?
I acknowledge receipt of the travel policy for At-Large which has been provided to me, and I agree to abide by it and any subsequent amendments which are sent to me.
Name: _______________________________
Date: ________________________________
Signature: ___________________________
We look forward to welcoming you to ICANN San Juan!
All the best,
ICANN At-Large Staff