Dear Councilors, The IDNs EPDP Team would like to request the ICANN Board to appoint a liaison to the EPDP Team. This message is to seek no-objection from the GNSO Council for the EPDP Team to send ICANN Board such a request. As you are aware, the GNSO received directives stemming from the ICANN Board resolution to develop policy to define all gTLDs and manage the variant labels. The ICANN Board requests that the GNSO conducts this work by taking into account the IDN variant TLD recommendations and the RZ-LGR Technical Utilization recommendations, which were approved by the Board. As the other PDPs, the final recommendations developed by this EPDP Team will come before the Board for review and approval. In addition, the EPDP Team’s former Chair Edmon Chung will transition to the ICANN Board at ICANN72. Due to the Board’s close involvement in the IDN subject and its importance in the new gTLD program, the IDNs EPDP Team believes it would be beneficial to establish a Board liaison position. Same as the Board liaisons who served in the Temporary Specification EPDP and the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP, such Board liaison is expected to share on a regular basis any input the Board may have that will inform the EPDP Team deliberations and ongoing work, as well as keep the Board informed concerning the status of the Team deliberations. The Board Governance Committee recently published Guidelines <https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/board-liaison-guidelines-31may21...> to provide more details of the Board liaison’s roles and responsibilities. While the Guidelines requires that “a liaison(s) is only appointed if the charter of a certain project is deemed to warrant it and foresee such an appointment”, the Guidelines were published after the GNSO Council approval of the IDNs EPDP Charter. As the EPDP Team is still in the early stages of its work, it would be timely for the Board to appoint a liaison, if it agrees to do so. If there is no objection from the GNSO Council by Friday 15 October, the IDNs EPDP Team leadership will send the liaison appointment request to the ICANN Board. Thank you for your review and consideration. Best Regards, @__f_f__ Best regards ____________________________________ Lt-Colonel Farell FOLLY, Ir GNSO Councillor linkedin.com/in/farellf