Dear Councilors, Please see the email below regarding Board sessions at ICANN 79. The first three topics are for the Board's listening sessions during prep week (and don’t require Council action). The fourth topic, regarding NIS2, is suggested as a topic for the Board/Council meeting. We suspect different SGs may have diverging views on this topic. We’ve added this as a discussion item on February’s Council meeting along with the following other potential topics: 1. Ensuring policy recommendations are “Board ready” (following on from our discussions at the SPS) 2. Follow up on our letter<https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/policy/2024/correspondence/dibias...> re: : Board Resolutions 2023.10.26.11 and 2023.10.26.12 3. Outstanding items related to pending subpro recommendations And any other topics Councilors would like to propose. Thanks, Greg From: Vinciane Koenigsfeld <vinciane.koenigsfeld@icann.org> Sent: Monday, February 5, 2024 11:25 AM To: gnso-chairs@icann.org; DiBiase, Gregory <dibiase@amazon.com>; nacho@amadoz.cat; mesumbeslin@gmail.com Cc: Board Ops Team <board-ops-team@icann.org>; Steve Chan <steve.chan@icann.org> Subject: [EXTERNAL] ICANN79 Stakeholders/Board sessions CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you can confirm the sender and know the content is safe. Sent on behalf of Tripti Sinha, Chair, ICANN Board of Directors Dear Generic Names Supporting Organization Council Leaders, *Please reply no later than Wednesday 21 February 2024* The Board and I are very much looking forward to meeting with you All, in Puerto Rico, for ICANN79 (02-07 March). It will be our first meeting of 2024, another important and exciting year for ICANN as we continue to work together on multiple fronts: the first phase of applications to the ICANN Grant Program to be opened in the forthcoming weeks, the new five-year Strategic Plan currently being drafted and of course the Next Round of new gTLDs, to name a few. As announced last year, we have also continued working on enhancing our partnership with the community. For the upcoming ICANN Public Meeting (ICANN79), the Board is planning to hold an open engagement session, which we hope will be another opportunity for interested community members to engage directly with the Board on specific topics. This session will be part of ICANN79 Prep week and will be held on Wednesday 21 February at 16:30 UTC. This 60-minute engagement session will include three breakout rooms hosted by different Board members, each covering a different topic. Following a brief welcome plenary, community members will be asked to join one of the three breakout rooms for a 40-minute discussion with the Board hosts for that topic. Attendees will be able to move freely between the three breakout rooms. The session will conclude with all attendees coming together to hear each Board host’s summary of the discussions in their respective breakout rooms. Topic 1: FY26-30 Strategic Planning • Led by Maarten Botterman and Chris Buckridge • Format of the engagement: discussion and soliciting input • Description: In this breakout room, the Board hosts will seek input from attendees on how the input from the community – including through the various environmental scans, strategic trend outlook sessions and other consultations – can form the basis of the strategic objectives and goals for the next Five-Year Strategic Plan, and what metrics should be included as part of the Plan. Topic 2: The Board’s Role & Responsibilities when Board-Adopted Policies Do Not Address the Problems They Were Developed to Solve • Led by Becky Burr and Alan Barrett • Format of the engagement: discussion and input • Description: In this breakout room, the Board hosts will invite community feedback on how to handle situations where it becomes clear that community-developed gTLD policies adopted by the Board are superseded by subsequent events or are otherwise not able to, or can no longer, resolve the problems they were designed to address. There is currently no Bylaw or process for such a circumstance, other than the Board requesting that the community initiate another full policy development process. As the Board continues to engage with the GNSO on this topic, the community is invited to brainstorm possible solutions. Topic 3: Environmental Sustainability at ICANN • Led by Sally Costerton and León Sanchez • Format of the engagement: discussion and soliciting input • Description: In this breakout room, the Board hosts will solicit community input on how to best advance ICANN’s environmental sustainability efforts, in line with FY24 CEO Goal 8. Drawing on the expertise of the community will help shape the dialogue for more sustainable planning for ICANN meetings and operations. The Board is very much looking forward to this new engagement opportunity and hopes that you will participate actively. It is to be noted that there will be technical limitations to the use of breakout rooms such as: no translation or transcription services available. Yet the ICANN Staff will support this engagement session and take notes. If this experiment is successful, we could replicate it moving forward. Meanwhile though, it is important that we continue listening to your specific needs during our bilateral sessions and we are also therefore keeping to the practice of asking a question to your Group ahead of our joint session in Puerto Rico: NIS2: We understand that some parts of the GNSO believe that the recent adoption of NIS2 in the European Union requires ICANN to modify or develop new policies. The Board has not identified any current ICANN policy that is inconsistent with NIS2 compliance. The Board does understand that the ICANN community could decide to develop NIS2-adjacent policies consistent with ICANN's mission and remit, for example regarding accuracy or publication of legal entity registration information. We recognize, however, that there is no assurance that either the European Commission or EU member states enforcing NIS2 would conclude that adherence to ICANN-developed consensus policy constitutes compliance with NIS2 itself. We would be interested in having a thoughtful discussion - reflecting views on both sides of this issue - on one or both of these points. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this soon. We would be grateful if you could send to Board Operations (board-ops-team@icann.org<mailto:board-ops-team@icann.org>) the questions you would like the Board to address during our face-to-face meetings. Given the finite time available for these meetings, please list your questions in order of priority. We would also appreciate getting your questions no later than Wednesday 21 February, 2024. Looking forward to engaging discussions during Prep Week and ICANN79! Best regards, Tripti Sinha Chair, ICANN Board of Directors