Below please find all the information related to the attendance by the African ALS community at the Lisbon ICANN International Meeting. We look forward to welcoming you to Lisbon! Please read carefully. Dear African At-Large representative: A African Regional At-Large Organization (AFRALO) formation meeting will be held in Lisbon, Portugal between [sat before mtg to end date of meeting]. All accredited and candidate At-Large Structures (ALSes) in the ICANN African Region are invited to send delegates to the meeting. The 28th International ICANN meeting 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. More information is posted at www.icann.org/meetings/lisbon. There are expected to be a total of two to three sessions of the African ALS Community. The First Session is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, 24th March, with the additional sessions during the ICANN Meeting which will be scheduled in order to allow maximum participation for African ALS delegates in the other ICANN meetings. ICANN is pleased to offer travel support to enable one representative from each accredited or candidate ALS to attend. In addition, remote attendance will be facilitated for those unable to attend the meeting in person. The objective of the African ALS Meeting is to: 1) Sign the finalised Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with senior Officers of ICANN in a signing ceremony and attend the public meeting when the ICANN Board of Directors resolves to officially establish the AFRALO. 2) Elect the two Regional Representatives of the AFRALO to the At- Large Advisory Committee; 3) Elect other AFRALO Officers and/or Secretariat as those positions may be defined by the Community or in the MoU; 4) Discuss and agree the policy areas of concern for the upcoming year in relation to ICANN’s remit and a programme of work regarding the same. Conference documents, draft proposals, a draft agenda, and details of how to attend remotely will be kept up-to-date on the AFRALO Wiki’s Meetings and Events section at Http://st.icann.org/AFRALO, which may also be reached at www.afralo.org. You may choose an RSS feed from that page which will keep you up-to-date on the meetings – or simply check back often. MEETING VENUE: ICANN is arranging for the meeting room and all technical requirements for those attending in person and remotely. 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 most candidates for ALS status, who have identified themselves as requiring travel assistance, as follows: Airfare, to and from Lisbon; Hotel accommodation at a hotel TBD – for the nights of 23rd to 28th March inclusive; Airport transfers to and from the hotel; Meals from 23rd March dinner to 29th March lunch inclusive (except where a hosted dinner or lunch is provided by ICANN directly) THE FINE PRINT REGARDING TRAVEL SUPPORT: ICANN is committed to helping the community attend events and meetings and greatly values the time and energy that volunteers invest in ICANN, but please remember that we have many ALSes in many regions and we want to ‘stretch’ our travel budget as far as we can – so we rely upon all of you to try to travel affordably. Here are a few guidelines with respect to this meeting: You are free to arrive earlier and depart later if you wish, however, all costs associated with doing so would be your responsibility, including any extra cost of airfare which might result from flying earlier or later. ICANN will pay for the room charges and tax for the hotel on the nights above-referenced, however, you will likely be asked to deposit a credit card for incidentals and meals. Meals charged to your hotel room for the nights covered by ICANN may be reimbursed after attending the meeting by requesting reimbursement (see below for further details). If you incur any costs in advance of approval of your Travel Authorisation Request Form being approved, ICANN will not reimburse these costs. Any reimbursements you request after the meeting for allowable expenses as outlined above will require receipts accompanying an Expense Reimbursement form submitted after you return home, so make sure to save all receipts. ICANN will provide travel support for only one delegate per ALS/ candidate ALS, so additional representatives wishing to attend the meeting would not be able to request reimbursement or travel support – however, those who wish to attend remotely may do so and we encourage remote participation. Air travel will be in economy class unless a special exception is requested and the request approved. If you feel that the length of your trip or some other factor justifies traveling by other classes, make your request to travel-staff@atlarge-lists.icann.org. HOW TO REQUEST TRAVEL ASSISTANCE: If you will request travel assistance to attend the meeting, please complete the attached Travel Approval form as soon as possible and email it to travel-staff@atlarge-lists.icann.org Please ensure that you fill in estimated costs for all sections of the form, except for the hotel, which costs will be paid directly by ICANN. **Please complete and email this form no later than 26th February 2007 ** After ICANN approves your travel request, you will receive information on how to get your airline and/or train tickets purchased for you from ICANN’s travel agents. Due to the number of At-Large constituency meetings, you will need to allow ICANN travel to purchase your tickets for you rather than purchase them yourselves, unless the best fare/flight combination is unavailable via the ICANN agent – however, your airfare cost if self-purchased will still need to be approved in advance; we advise that those who plan to seek reimbursment for airfare after the fact provide a costed itinerary to the travel-staff@atlarge-lists.icann.org address along with the completed Travel Approval Form. ** Please schedule your travel so that you will arrive not later than early morning on Saturday 24th March. The first Session of the regional meetings is expected to begin that morning.** EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT: The Travel Expense Reimbursement Form is available on the AFRALO Wiki at http://st.icann.org/AFRALO should you require reimbursement. Please include all receipts in order for the reimbursement to be processed. Completed Expense Reimbursement Forms and related documentation should be sent to accountspayable@icann.org with copies to travel-staff@atlarge-lists.icann.org. VISA INFORMATION: Please note that the nationals of a number of countries require a visa. Please refer to http://www.icann.org/meetings/lisbon for further information. Note further that ICANN staff cannot facilitate applications for visas and that it can take some time to get one, so if you are one of those who will require a visa you should apply for one without delay. If you will require a letter of invitation in order to get a visa, please write to travel-staff@atlarge- lists.icann.org. If we can provide any further information, please feel free to contact us by email at travel-staff@atlarge-lists.icann.org. Kind regards, ICANN Staff