Dear Councillors, The GNSO Update (agenda point 9.2): There are two nominees for the gNSO Council Chair to be seated in Cartagena in Dec 2010, namely Stéphane Van Gelder and Olga Cavalli. The voting will take place from 19 Nov - 29 Nov 2010. Result shall be released on 30 Nov 2010. The Vertical Integration Working Group has published its Interim Report on Vertical Integration between Registrars and Registries (Phase I). This Interim Report describes the absence of a consensus within the VI Working Group for any recommendations for the first round of new gTLDs. The WG is pending further instructions from the GNSO Council for conducting Phase II of the PDP on developing a long term solution for both new gTLD and existing gTLDs.