Dear ATRT2 Members, Attached PDF has been updated to include links to relevant documents. Larisa From: atrt2-bounces@icann.org [mailto:atrt2-bounces@icann.org] On Behalf Of Denise Michel Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2013 6:21 PM To: atrt2@icann.org Subject: [atrt2] Preliminary Staff Assessment/Response to ATRT2 Draft Recommendations Dear ATRT2 Members, Staff appreciates the opportunity to engage with the Review Team in our ongoing information sharing and discussions focused on our mutual goal - a Final Report that makes a significant and valuable contribution to ICANN's accountability and transparency by offering recommendations that are necessary, feasible and implementable. Having reviewed and considered the Draft ATRT2 Report and Recommendations, staff from numerous departments have prepared the attached document as initial feedback and to support further interactions with ATRT2. Staff welcomes the opportunity for follow-up discussions within the next few days, recognizing the compressed timeline under which the ATRT2 is working. Larisa and Charla have already arranged conference calls on some topics and look forward to supporting additional calls and email inquiries. Staff is pleased to observe that there is a significant alignment between ATRT2 findings and draft recommendations, and work that is underway at ICANN. This alignment represents a positive development in the evolution of the AoC Reviews and staff suggests that it be noted in the ATRT2's observations, and that ongoing work be factored into future reviews. For recommendations where work is already underway, staff proposes, for the ATRT2's consideration, that such recommendations be replaced with observations acknowledging the work currently being performed. ICANN commits to providing public status reports, milestones and deliverables to keep the community informed about this work. Such reporting is well aligned with the concept of an annual Accountability Report, requested by the ATRT2. Annual Accountability Reporting also is anticipated to be an important vehicle for communicating ICANN's continuous improvement efforts in accountability and the implementation of the Accountability Framework for measuring ICANN's progress through benchmarks and metrics, which will be informed by the work of One World Trust. In addition, at the beginning of the ATRT2 process, Fadi had expressed his enthusiasm for the work of the ATRT2 along with his overarching request that the work of the Review Team would result in a small number of focused, high impact recommendations that staff, Board and the community could implement. Based on experience to date, we know that the large number of ATRT2 potential recommendations and sub-recommendations would require a significant amount of resources from staff, Board and community - public consultations, tracking, reporting, and ultimately assessment by the subsequent Review Team (for recommendations that address work underway; for new recommendations resources also will be required to develop and execute implementation plans). In considering staff proposals to replace certain recommendations with observations, the Review Team may wish to consider several factors, such as the concern about "review fatigue," challenges faced by the Review Team in getting substantive feedback from a diverse cross-section of the ICANN community, as well as requests for simplification of information to make it more accessible to a wider audience, not just those with deep knowledge and experience at ICANN. We hope you find staff's initial input on each of the draft recommendations and sub-recommendations useful and staff welcomes the opportunity to elaborate. Again, we would like to acknowledge the value of ATRT2's work and its importance to the legitimacy of ICANN. We also wish to thank all the members of the ATRT2 for their dedication and hard work. Staff is committed to supporting and assisting the work of the Review Team during these final few weeks of your work. Regards, Denise Denise Michel VP Strategic Initiatives ICANN denise.michel@icann.org<mailto:denise.michel@icann.org>