I will only be on the first hour of of the call today, due to a conflict with an event I need to be at. Apologies. However, I will just note that I worked for a major corporation for many years, and during that time, I engaged many experts for advice for ad hoc activities, NGOs, etc.. Ireviewed the letter and frankly, I would NEVER agree to participate in a call with such weirdly cautionary language. It reads like this: hmmm, you do not now who "we are". We are very special. And, oh by the way, don't bother to learn about us. No need! And, by the way, you should know today whether you might today, or ever in the future have a client interested in applying for the auction funds, although you do not know the mechanism we will choose, or the conditions, etc. And, oh by the way, we hope you will want to donate your time to give us information while we are not clear with you.. and we may sort of blackball you if you answer any question in a way that makes "us" uncomfortable. Surely, we can do better than this in how we explain the issue, the invitation, and the call for a declaration of interest. Just as someone the CCWG do not know today if in the future they might have a client or be part of an organization that might apply for funding, that may be the case for those that are interviewed. I also note that if you want a senior executive to read a letter - make it one page, with attachments. I'll join as long as I can. Marilyn ________________________________ From: Ccwg-auctionproceeds <ccwg-auctionproceeds-bounces@icann.org> on behalf of Marika Konings <marika.konings@icann.org> Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2018 12:51 AM To: ccwg-auctionproceeds@icann.org Subject: [Ccwg-auctionproceeds] Proposed agenda new gTLD Auction Proceeds CCWG Meeting - Thursday 25 January at 14.00 UTC Dear All, Please find below the proposed agenda for the next new gTLD Auction Proceeds CCWG meeting which has been scheduled for Thursday 25 January at 14.00 UTC. Attached for your review you will find the proposed outreach letter for external experts. Best regards, Marika ======================== Proposed agenda – new gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross-Community Working Group – Thursday 25 January 2018 14.00 UTC As a reminder, all conference call details will be circulated on the “ntfy” (short for “notify”) mailing list to which members only are subscribed in a read-only mode. These details must not be circulated on the wider public WG mailing list. To avoid burdening the WG public mailing list, please send your apologies ahead of time (apologies after the call will no longer be taken into account) and your dial-out requests to the GNSO Secretariat: gnso-secs@icann.org<mailto:gnso-secs@icann.org>. 1. Roll call 2. Welcome / DOI & SOI Updates 3. Review of proposed outreach letter to external experts (see attached) 4. Review of proposed questions for external experts (an updated version will be circulated prior to the meeting) 5. Confirm next meeting Marika Konings Vice President, Policy Development Support – GNSO, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Email: marika.konings@icann.org<mailto:marika.konings@icann.org> Follow the GNSO via Twitter @ICANN_GNSO Find out more about the GNSO by taking our interactive courses<https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flearn.icann...> and visiting the GNSO Newcomer pages<https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgnso.icann....>.