Hi Jeanette Given the cultural differences between regions, the decision on membership etc was left up to the individual regions to determine when they were forming. NARALO very strongly wanted individual membership, some of the other regions equally storngly felt that they wanted only group membership, and hence one must be part of a member group. Of course, this is open to change by the GAs of the regions - but I don't think that any mindset will change soon. However, ther has been some discussion about forming a 6th RALO - a global one for individual users. This idea hasn't gained much traction as far as I remember, though. Jacqueline Jeanette Hofmann wrote:

Hi, thank you for the explanation. What still amazes me though is that the At Large Membership doesn't provide "a home" for individual Internet users. No doubt, they are affected by ICANN's policies but they have no direct means to articulate their interests and concerns, unless they join an ALS, of course. Now doubt also, individual users form a large group out there on the net. Do you all regard this as a blind spot of ICANN structures and processes? Do you think things will stay like this or do you expect them to change some time in the future? Thanks, jeanette

Evan Leibovitch wrote:

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What needs clarification across the RALOs is whether or not board members have to be ALS members in order to qualify for travel support to participate in RALO meetings. This is why forward the subsequent exchange we had with Nick about this issue.

To clarify:,

Within NARALO we solved this by allowing individual members, and enabling a pseudo-ALS for for them. That is, for the purposes of formal representation in the GA, the individual members of NARALO collectively have the status of one ALS and as such may select representatives for voting (or potentially travel). They can also stand for election for the Chair or Secretariat or ALAC rep.

We explicitly rejected the notion that an individual member must have the exact same status as a representative of a membership organization that has gone through the ALAC due diligence process. The intent, if I recall, was that active individual participants should be encouraged to get involved with like-minded larger groups that would then become ALSs. This would in turn increase participation beyond the individuals, which is a prime goal of the RALO/ALS process.

This approach did not please _everyone_, but we believed it struck a reasonable balance between ICANN goals and the awareness that not everyone who was interested in At-Large was part of an ALS. So far I believe this balance has worked well.

- Evan

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