Dear Jonathan, all, hi,
Due the fact the recruitment of the ICANN85 planning committee has been announced recently, I would share my POV and ideas to improve our collective, very important work on scheduling the public meeting:

1. Meetings with newcomers (NextGen and Fellows) - our intro session with newcomers can be much better (and we will get positive feedback instead of the ones we received) - I suggest we consider an interactive format (we really can inside of this IT roll-), an interesting dialogue for participants (not a monologue about how each of us joined the community), an infographic or a video to present our capabilities. We must take into account the factor of knowledge already gained in the newcomers` sessions and from mentors. And it might be better for At-Large speakers to know in advance they have slot for speaking. We had an issues.

2. At-Large plenary sessions. I suggest to get a broader view/feedback on the choice of topics (community voting for the discussion areas/exact topics?).  And it is necessary to set up a clean voting system for selected topics (our last attempt to select topics was a fiasco, but the results were accepted).

3. We are end users` advocates (our main task and opportunities in preparing sessions are to gain knowledge from the fields and put on the table).  During the EURALO readout Olivier raised a whole range of issues that deserve a cross-institutional session by At-Large - the new round of gTLD and the interests of users https://icann.zoom.us/rec/play/giXe4rJu_MEL7EWestu-6kZ4aVFzQBPgp00bjKr6Uyw-AWUrxeF9v8blL-vWZLdrBgX8U7RPp_MGIRJT.UJZxgWoBUQkK21al?eagerLoadZvaPages=sidemenu.billing.plan_management&accessLevel=meeting&canPlayFromShare=true&from=share_recording_detail&startTime=1763494221000&componentName=rec-play&originRequestUrl=https%3A%2F%2Ficann.zoom.us%2Frec%2Fshare%2FheOHfP7pM0rg34QCMYxGvchTM2qN-GXD8nJqrg3rKiY3h7jbRkEFXOJlGy6i1XrV.mZYGlfufB3UixJi9%3FstartTime%3D1763494221000
I suggested this topic for Dublin`s meeting, but it was rejected. I respectfully disagree with the approach – "It was to late to discuss it". Is this really not our focus? But this is both a promo for the new round and a focus on important things – access, security, pricing, equality, developing local markets etc and undesrtanding how and what we can improve.

4. Again the idea – to set up a dialogue with the business community, not for promotional purposes of course, but to understand what is happening, how the interests of business and end users meet and where they contradict each other. A set of questions – from prices, accessibility, data protection, and so on.

5. It`s important for any public event to have a proactive approach to choosing topics. A year ago, when the Afrinic crisis was in full swing, the proposal to hold a session on RIR`s and issues of numbers, capacity, and deployment, issues was rejected. We had a chance to give an impulse to new approaches, to give expertise and probably to help find a solution to the crisis together – we are the voice of the regions with such a capacity! Instead, we pick up this extremely important topic a year later.

Why the building a public meeting`s agenda on the best way is so important?
No matter what region we are in - for us it's a show, outreach, capacity building and the formation of a pioneering, visionary and practical approach to work, engagement, mobilization, and further work and reputation. Throughout the year we spend a tremendous amount of time and effort as volunteers. We cannot afford to be ineffective at public meetings, we have great potential. I am in favor of using it and showing the best sides of our work - support of the ICANN strategic plans, policy input, discussions, broad end-user issues, outreach and engagement, cross-community collaboration.

Please consider my opinion as an expression of both personal expertise, excitement for our best representation, and as conveying the views of many community members who`ve lost hope of being heard here.
With big respect to all efforts of our community members in all streams of work.