Dear Councilors, Chris Disspain has asked that the note below be forwarded to you on his behalf. Hello All, I understand that statements are being made that the small discussion group on IGOs was set up by me. That is not correct. The Board through the New gTLD Program Committee asked me and Jamie Hedlund (acting as staff support) to enter into discussions with the IGOs through the GAC, in an attempt to establish what the possible solutions could be to the issue of IGO acronyms given that the NGPC told the GAC that its advice to reserve the IGO acronyms was problematic. The existence of this effort has been discussed with the GNSO Council at a number of GNSO/Board meetings and also at ICANN public meetings. These discussions included the logistics of the Board asking the GNSO to consider revising its policy recommendations along with explanations of the status of the discussions with IGOs. I also understand that it has been suggested that Mary Wong was part of the small discussion group. That is incorrect. Mary became involved recently to provide input on history and to help facilitate the discussions with the GNSO. In fact, to be clear, all staff were involved solely to facilitate the discussions and have played no substantive role. Cheers, Chris Disspain