Hi Council colleagues. Forwarding the below as an fyi. For the GNSO, the selections are being handled at an SG/C level and your leadership will be handling. This looks to be a good new initiative, and very timely, given our Board Readiness work. One of the findings coming out of Board Readiness was the need for better support/training for PDP Chairs, since they are expected to have a range of skills, and to ensure working group recommendations take into consideration matters such as the impact on human rights and the global public interest. Hopefully this new training will help to ready some future PDP leaders. Susan Payne Head of Legal Policy Com Laude T +44 (0) 20 7421 8250 D +44 (0) 20 74218 255 [cid:image001.png@01DCAD61.329DAF20] <https://comlaude.com/> Follow us on LinkedIn<https://t-uk.xink.io/Tracking/Index/pRkAABB8AADw_RQA0> and Youtube<https://t-uk.xink.io/Tracking/Index/ZxkAABB8AADw_RQA0> From: Russ Weinstein via soac-chairs <soac-chairs@icann.org> Sent: 21 February 2026 05:08 To: ICANN SOAC Chairs <soac-chairs@icann.org> Cc: Policy Team Leaders <policy-team-leaders@icann.org>; Ergys Ramaj <ergys.ramaj@icann.org> Subject: [soac-chairs] Chairing Skills Training Opportunity @ICANN86 Dear SOAC leaders, I hope this message finds you well. My team and I are looking forward to seeing you all shortly in Mumbai for ICANN85. I am excited to share that we will be able to provide a one-day training activity on-site in Seville (ICANN86) for around 20 community participants that will focus on chairing skills. I'd like your help to select participants from your community and to influence the design of the course. Investing in chairing skills for our community seemed like a natural place to focus efforts for a number of reasons. Our Five-Year Strategic and Operating Plans contain a number of goals and strategies aimed at developing leadership pathways and skills for our community members as well as enhancing the effectiveness of our policy development efforts. My discussions with staff and community members have also impressed upon me the importance of skilled leaders. These all indicate an obvious need for more targeted leadership and facilitation training for the chairs of our working groups and other community initiatives. As such, we are in the process of engaging a professional firm to conduct a one-day workshop on Chairing Skills Training just prior to the ICANN86 meeting in Seville. The training will be based on the Consensus Playbook <https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/pdp-3-4-co...> that ICANN commissioned a few years ago. Our thinking is that this training pilot will focus on skills that contribute directly to effective chairing of a group and of meetings, including organizational, communication, decision making, and facilitation skills. This workshop - which we are targeting for Day -1 (i.e., Saturday) in Seville - will serve as a pilot to test out ideas and gather information on possible formats and content for future training activities. Given the tight timeframe to make travel decisions between now and ICANN86, I would like to ask for your help in selecting participants for the workshop as soon as possible. I would also very much welcome your input on the skills a chair needs to have, or experiences they need to be able to leverage, to be successful. I hope we can have that discussion. post ICANN85, either via 1:1 discussions, or an intersessional group discussion, or both. For this pilot, I suggest that each SO and AC, except the GNSO, select up to 2 participants. For the GNSO, we will work directly with the GNSO's Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies for their participant selection. In making your selections, please bear the following points in mind: * Participants should be current or potential chairs, co-chairs, or vice-chairs of a working group or committee. * Participants should already be planning to attend ICANN86 in person, either self funded or as an ICANN funded traveler. * ICANN will cover the additional hotel room nights and requisite per diems for the participants (in this case, Day -1 is the Saturday before the Policy Forum commences). However, we will not be able to provide airfare or travel support (beyond the funded travel already provided to each community group). If you and your group are interested, please provide the names of your participants to Susie Johnson (susie.johnson@icann.org<mailto:susie.johnson@icann.org>) by Friday 13 March. You are of course free to choose not to participate in this pilot; if so, please inform us as soon as possible. Thank you for your continued support. Safe travels, and see you soon. Best regards, Russ ________________________________ The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential to the intended recipient. They may not be disclosed, used by or copied in any way by anyone other than the intended recipient. If you have received this message in error, please return it to the sender (deleting the body of the email and attachments in your reply) and immediately and permanently delete it. Please note that Com Laude Group Limited (the "Com Laude Group") does not accept any responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan or otherwise check this email and any attachments. 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