Dear At-Large Community Members: We would like to thank those of you who shared your views with us last week on the conference call on the new community travel procedure, as well as those who have shared their perspectives online. We know that every time you engage with ICANN, you are doing so as a volunteer, which makes the contribution all the more valuable. We understand there is concern that the ICANN Board, community and Staff does not grasp the participation requirements of At-Large, and that At-Large believes similar funding of travel for various communities is not an equitable approach. Specifically, that ICANN travel funding should be based on equalising the opportunity for participation across stakeholder groups in proportion to their need. Our goal is support a travel funding approach that the ICANN community deems appropriate to lower the barrier to participation, broaden the group of ICANN participants and advance the "work" of ICANN. We acknowledge that there are many differences of opinion on the meaning of "appropriate," and are committed to continuing this dialogue and reviewing – and if necessary revising – the travel procedures for FY 2010. We also are striving to ensure that At-Large (and all other stakeholder participants in ICANN's work) has the necessary tools and resources to support your work on ICANN issues. At-Large is a highly valued member of the ICANN community, and we want to make sure your continued productivity is supported. It is for these reasons that ICANN has always dedicated considerable resources to At-Large, including: 1. A tripling of staff resources dedicated to At-Large in the past year; 2. Substantial year-on-year increases in funding dedicated to At-Large; 3. A significant amount of extra resources in this fiscal year and the last for translation and interpretation – driven in large part by At-Large's needs; 4. Continuing development of your online participation mechanisms – for example, the website at http://atlarge.icann.org is the most technically advanced in ICANN, the most multilingual, and will be the first site to support direct contributions of content from the community – and it is being continually enhanced. We could go on about this subject, but we trust you are aware of these and other efforts to increase your ability to participate as you are experiencing the benefits of them directly. We continue to look for more and better ways to ensure that the individual Internet user is represented in decisions affecting them, and we value your ongoing guidance and commitment to this endeavour, which is a fundamental part of the ICANN model. Of course, other communities are essential too. Other communities have said that they need support to attend ICANN meetings for the same reason that you have stated – because the meetings are an important part of the ICANN process and some of their members cannot afford to attend. ICANN cannot provide travel support for all communities at the level of funding all of their members consider ideal. Budgetary realities require compromises to be made. However, we would like to propose the following ideas as a way not just to address the level of travel support for At-Large, but to go beyond that and deal with some of the underlying issues you have raised. What we propose is the following: * 1. We will work with the community throughout this fiscal year to review the provisions of the travel procedure as they affect At-Large, especially participation of the RALOs. It would useful to have an At-Large proposed plan completed at the At-Large Summit in Mexico City to factor the community's needs into the year-end review of the community travel procedure and related FY2009-2010 budget process. *We understand your point that the current travel procedure, if applied to At-Large in the next fiscal year, does not take into sufficient account the needs of the RALOs to be able to participate at face-to-face meetings. In particular, from the time spent with you on an interpreted teleconference where a sizable portion of the participants were speaking Spanish, we understand that At-Large is the community which has the greatest needs for translation and interpretation support at this time, and that until reliable remote participation that facilitates multilingual participation is available for face-to-face meetings, face-to-face attendance is more important than it would otherwise be. We also understand your view that even English-speaking RALO participants benefit from face-to-face interaction. Indeed, the purpose of the travel procedure is to expand participation at face-to-face meetings because we understand how valuable these opportunities are. Of course, the whole ICANN community will get the opportunity to review the travel procedure at the end of this fiscal year, along with ICANN's strategic and operational plans and budget. These consultations offer important opportunities for discussion and input on a range of issues that may relate to RALOs (besides travel) including translation and interpretation, ICANN regional meetings, etc. We encourage you to discuss your needs with the other communities as well. 2. *We will recommend that the eligibility of various communities for participation in the Fellowship Program be reviewed in light of the new community travel procedure. * It may be appropriate to update this program after we evaluate the effect of the shared goals and support provided through both the travel procedures and the Fellowship Program. Up to now, this program has excluded At-Large from participating since At-Large travel has been funded separately, and it has targeted members of the ccNSO and Government Advisory Committee from eligible countries for priority support. The ccNSO now receives some support under the travel procedures and GAC will be considered for inclusion in the travel procedures for the next fiscal year. It seems to us that the changes being made to travel for various communities makes this step a sensible one. 3. *GNSO Improvement initiatives offer opportunities to improve support for At-Large, as well. * As part of the GNSO Improvements work recently approved by the Board, a number of initiatives will be undertaken to: a. Review and improve the tools, processes, procedures, and GNSO constituency support mechanisms; b. Design and implement a global recruitment effort to increase participation in all GNSO constituencies. This work will include a dialogue with constituencies about how to achieve this and should take into account the different consultation and collaboration needs of our global communities to advance policy-development. Given the integral role At-Large plays in policy development, we would like to explore ways to involve At-Large in this dialogue and planning, and extend the results to At-Large, as appropriate. 4. *To ensure that the progress made by the regional Secretariats in creating structures and processes for working together and with the ALAC continues, ICANN will provide travel support for the Secretariats for the ICANN Cairo meeting and the final (June 2009) ICANN meeting for this fiscal year. * The regional Secretariats will be funded on the same basis as they were in the last fiscal year. We understand the value of having a periodic opportunity for regional leaders and ALAC members to meet face-to-face, and recognize that the whole community has benefited from the Secretariats' attendance at ICANN meetings. We hope that you will look at these proposals and see in them a way not just to deal with the issue of face-to-face attendance at ICANN meetings, but as a way to go beyond that to advance At-Large involvement overall. We look forward to hearing from you, and working with you further. Regards, Doug Brent, COO Denise Michel, VP Policy