Dear Councilors, In light of some concerns that some SG/C leaders have raised about conflicting sessions at ICANN58, GNSO Policy Staff thought it might be helpful if we provide some background on the scheduling. Please feel free to share the information with your respective community groups, and please let us know if you have any questions or comments. In general, we believe you know that it is getting more and more difficult to avoid conflicts, given the number of sessions and the increasing number of community group requests. We continue to get a great deal of these requests, many of which are for specific times and/or duration. In trying to accommodate as many requests as possible, and trying to keep to the times, duration and open/closed rooms requested, the result is some of the conflicts you are seeing on the draft overall ICANN block schedule. Here are some notes about a few of the meeting days: Saturday (Day 1, 11 March): · As you know, the suggestion had been made early on to use this first day for the three newest PDP Working Groups to do face-to-face meetings. Initially, we had hoped to schedule them all consecutively with no overlap, but the following two constraints made that impossible – having an early session that morning for the GAC-GNSO facilitated discussion on Red Cross/IGOs, and needing to accommodate (as much as possible) the official schedule, including timing of breaks. We scheduled the GAC-GNSO session in the GNSO room due to the early start and Bruce Tonkin’s request to use the GNSO set up. As a result, the three PDPs cannot now be consecutive due to lack of time, and New gTLD Subsequent Procedures was moved to another room. · RPMs was given a morning slot as it is the first time this group will be doing a F2F meeting. Similarly, New gTLD Subsequent Procedures got a morning slot (and RDS the afternoon) to reverse the order from Hyderabad, for fairness to the participants. This of course means that RPMs is now scheduled across from New gTLD Subsequent Procedures – note, however, that in reviewing the membership overlaps there are overlaps across all three PDPs, and there seemed a larger overlap between RPMs and the Privacy/Proxy IRT (which is meeting in the afternoon on Day 1 – this is the only time that GDD and the IRT can have more than the usual 90-minute or so slot to meet, which the IRT requested). · While it might look as though one or two WGs have much more time, that’s not the case once you factor in breaks and lunch. Basically, New gTLDs is likely to have 3.5 hours (not counting the coffee break), RPMs 3 hours (not including a break to grab lunch, which will be served for all 3 WGs in the RPMs (GNSO) room), and RDS a 3-hour afternoon block. SUGGESTION for Saturday – Perhaps the WG leadership of the three PDPs can get together to see if they wish to swop any of their sessions, taking into account their planned agenda topics and likely membership attendance? Monday (Day 3, 13 March): · No all-GNSO session has been scheduled across from the Cross Community Discussion Topics. As noted above, however, some SG/C requests were for this day and placed there either accordingly, or due to there not being a better (for fewer conflicts) slot. Wednesday (Day 5, 15 March): · The various GNSO WG and IRT sessions were planned around the Council meeting, which, at 2 hours, needed a specific slot. The WG and IRT sessions also took into account factors such as the availability of chairs and staff, and likely room size needed. For example, for IGO-INGO Curative Rights, it was scheduled so as not to conflict with the Board-GAC meeting or the IGO-INGO Protections IRT. · As far as possible, GNSO, Compliance, GDD and other staff tried to coordinate to avoid conflicts, at least for those sessions where traditionally we knew the GNSO community would be keen to attend, and within the constraints of the meeting framework for times, room and staff resource availability. We realize this doesn’t always work, and there may be other topics that are now on the meeting schedule that will also attract GNSO community interest. SUGGESTION for Wednesday – Perhaps the Council, or the SG/C leaders, can identify those meetings that GNSO community members are unlikely to be able to attend given the current schedule, and request that the session organizers see if they can be moved? We hope the above is useful. Thanks and cheers Mary From: Mary Wong <mary.wong@icann.org> Date: Monday, February 13, 2017 at 19:41 To: "council@gnso.icann.org" <council@gnso.icann.org> Subject: UPDATED: Draft GNSO Block Schedule for ICANN58 Dear Councilors, Please find attached an updated draft GNSO Block Schedule for ICANN58. While we anticipate that there may be more tweaks here and there as the Meetings Team works toward a final schedule for publication, those updates are more likely than not to relate only to start/end times, room allocations and the like. Please use this version 3.5 (dated 12 February 2017) for your and your groups’ planning purposes, including for the Council meeting later this week, as this version shows the latest changes. Here are a few additional notes for your information: · Day 1 (Saturday 11 March) will see three PDP Working Group face-to-face meetings. Due to the tight scheduling, some overlap and conflict was unavoidable (as is the case with the overall schedule). · The two sessions for the GAC-GNSO facilitated discussion on Red Cross and IGOs are currently scheduled for Saturday 11 March morning (07.30 – 09.30) and Sunday 12 March evening (18.30 – 20.30). As these are additional sessions on top of the “normal” GAC and GNSO meetings, and given the scheduling for the two groups and the Board, these were the only times which were available. · Day 2 (Sunday 12 March) is the only full-day GNSO Working Session – at the Council chairs’ direction, staff will be requesting all groups who are scheduled for that day to focus on their top issues for discussion (and not give status updates). · On Day 3, a session for a discussion with Data Protection Commissioners has now been scheduled, for the afternoon. · Day 5 (Wednesday 15 March) will see the “usual” Working Group open sessions, IRT meetings and the GNSO Council Public Meeting – please note that this is currently scheduled to run for 2 hours from 11.00-13.00. · Day 6 (Thursday 16 March) has the GNSO Wrap Up scheduled for 11.00 – 12.30. Thanks and cheers Mary