All, At the suggestion of Bertrand de La Chapelle, the Chairs of the ALAC, gNSO and ccNSO together with GAC representatives Bertrand and Manal Ismail and Bruce Tonkin on behalf of the Board, had a teleconference earlier this week. The purpose was to explore how the ICANN Cairo meeting schedule could expand on the progress already made in Paris in terms of bringing the different SOs and ACs together on the major issues. The goal would be to develop trans-SO/AC communications and also facilitate general awareness within the community about the status of different issues and increase the visibility of them. Trans-SO/AC communications would not necessarily mean stopping the bilateral sessions, but may have the effect of making them shorter, more focused and less repetitive. As a result of the call it is suggested that on the Monday in Cairo the ccNSO, gNSO, ALAC and GAC organise a half day joint session (open to members as well as councillors) to a) discuss progress, issues and future steps regarding new gTLDs (including IDNs) and IDN ccTLDs and b) to be briefed on the President's Strategy Committee consultations on improving institutional confidence. It is also suggested that a further session on the Thursday might be appropriate to follow up and report on the individual SO/AC discussions on the topics following the Monday session. Obviously, the logistics of all of this have yet to be organised but ICANN has agreed the principle and we need to confirm, by 12 September, that we want to do this so that the initial agenda can be published. I'd appreciate comment, questions and input from councillors on the suggestion as soon as possible. Cheers, Chris Disspain CEO - auDA Australia's Domain Name Administrator ceo@auda.org.au www.auda.org.au Important Notice - This email may contain information which is confidential and/or subject to legal privilege, and is intended for the use of the named addressee only. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, disclose or copy any part of this email. If you have received this email by mistake, please notify the sender and delete this message immediately. Please consider the environment before printing this email.