Dear Colleagues,

Thanks to you, this has been a great year!

To make sure that we do not forget all the good things we have accomplished in 2018, here is our Year in Review:

ccNSO in numbers (2018):

• We welcomed 7 new members this year,
• Bringing the total to 171 members: AP region – 54, AF region – 39, EU region – 46,  LAC region – 27, and NA region – 5
• There are 6 active ccNSO working groups/committees
• 1 active Study Group
• 1 active Working Party
• 2 active cross community working groups
• 1 active specific review, and 1 pending
• 2 special CSC related reviews and participation in the IFRT
• 1 active ccNSO organisational review
• 6 days of face-to-face meetings, 3 Tech Days, and 6 days of WG meetings

ccNSO Council in numbers (2018):

• 18 Councillors in total: 3 per each of the 5 regions, 3 appointed by NomCom; 11  males, 7 females
• 3 new Councillors joined (one vacancy filled in)
• 2 Councillors left
• 10 meetings: 7 conference calls and 3 face-to-face meetings
• 3 prep meetings
• 1 workshop
• 51 decisions
• 50 action items
• 3 statements

As Council we submitted the following comments:

• ccNSO Council statement on draft Operational Standards
• ccNSO Council statement on Long-term adjustment of the schedule of reviews
• ccNSO Council statement on the Interim Report of the GNSO PDP Subsequent Procedures WT1-5

All together we have developed, discussed, and/or adopted:

• Guideline: ccNSO Procedure for the Exercise of the Empowered Community’s Rights to Reject Specified Actions
• Guideline: ccNSO Council Election Procedure
• Guideline: ccNSO Selection and Appointment Liaisons
• Updated membership application form
• Terms of Reference for the ccNSO Study Group on Use of Emoji as Second Level Domains
• Final Report of the ccNSO Meeting Strategy Review Working Group
• Final Report of the CSC Charter Review Team
• Template to determine the CSC Effectiveness Review
• Final WS2 Recommendations

We welcomed volunteers to the following groups:

• Customer Standing Committee
• Strategic and Operational Planning Committee
• PDP Retirement Working Group
• Community Onboarding Pilot Program
• Nominating Committee
• ccNSO Review Working Party
• Study Group on Use of Emoji as Second Level Domains
• ICANN Fellowship Programme
• IANA Function Review Team
• ATRT3 Review Team
• Joint ccNSO-SSAC Working Party Risk Mitigation Procedure.

As the chair of the ccNSO Council I would like to thank the chairs and all the members of our working groups/committees for their time, knowledge, and contribution to the work of the ccNSO and ICANN community in general:

• PDP Retirement Working Group (Chair: Stephen Deerhake): 24 members, 7 participants, 4 experts and observers. The goal of this WG is to report on and recommend a policy for the retirement of the delegated Top Level Domains associated with the country codes assigned to countries and territories listed in the ISO 3166-1 within the framework of the ccNSO Policy Development Process.
• Strategic and Operational Planning Committee (Chair: Giovanni Seppia): 18 members, 1 observer. The Committee coordinates, facilitates, and increases the participation of ccTLD managers in ICANN and PTI's strategic and operational planning processes and related budgetary processes.
• Meeting Programme Standing Committee (Chair: Alejandra Reynoso): 20 members, 2 observers. The objective of the Committee is to coordinate and manage the high-level schedule of the ccNSO-related sessions, including the ccNSO Members Meeting agenda at ICANN public meetings, and related matters.
• Technical Working Group (Chair: Eberhard Lisse): 18 members, 3 observers. The purpose of the WG is to provide the ccTLD community with advice and to share information on the technical and operational aspects of running a ccTLD.
• Guidelines Review Committee (Chair: Katrina Sataki): 13 members. This Committee reviews the current guidelines and ascertains whether they reflect current practices and working methods, identify potential gaps, and based on this analysis propose changes to the current guidelines to the Council.
• TLD-OPS Standing Committee (Chair: Jacques Latour): 7 members, 2 liaisons. This Standing Committee governs the daily operation of the TLD-OPS email list; and, when deemed necessary, develops and implements progress plans for future improvements and developments of the TLD-OPS email list, including its ecosystem.
• Study Group on Use of Emoji as Second Level Domains (Chair: Peter Koch): 13 members, 2 observers. The study group is established to provide to ccTLD community, the ccNSO Council a comprehensive overview of the issues associated with the use of Emoji as second level domains, and the need for and current practice by ccTLD managers to allow Emoji as second level domains

Also, I would like to thank all the contributors to cross-community working groups: PDP New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Work Track 5 working group (co-chair Annebeth Lange) and CCWG Auction Proceeds (co-chair: Ching Chiao); our members on the Security, Stability and Resiliency of the DNS Review (Alain Aina, Boban Krsic, Žarko Kecić) and member of ATRT 3 (Demi Getschko); and our members on the CSC Effectiveness Review (Debbie Monahan, Martin Boyle), CSC (Byron Holland, chair, and Brett Carr, as well as and Jay Daley whose term ended this year).

Thanks a lot to our Secretariat – Bart, Joke, Kim, Maria – for all the support and help. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to achieve all of the above.  

Next year we will concentrate on ICANN’s new Strategic Plan. We will select and appoint to the ICANN Board a new member who will replace Chris Disspain in 2020. We will analyse the results from our PDP WG on retirement and from the work of the IANA Function Review team.

We will continue to discuss guidelines relating to the role of the ccNSO as a Decisional Participant, and, in addition, the implementation of the relevant parts of the WS 2 Accountability CCWG and recommendations of the ccNSO review. New on our agenda will be the review and update of the overall policy relating to the IDN ccTLDs and second part of the third PDP to introduce a review mechanism for decisions on the delegation, transfer, revocation, and retirement of ccTLDs.

Thank you all for a great 2018! Happy and Productive 2019!

Best wishes,

]{atrina