All, Please see below for a reminder of the proposal / request from Steve Crocker. Following our discussion in yesterday's council meeting, the suggested response is that we offer 4 volunteers (one per SG) in response to this request and who will be in a position to meet in LA. Assuming we go down this route, I believe we agreed that these volunteers should primarily certainly be knowledgeable about and experienced in the GNSO PDP. Ideally some or all should additionally be knowledgeable about the work and background to the EWG. Please can you review the letter below and the proposed response / approach above and provide any additional comment or input you see fit. Bear in mind that a timely and constructive response to Steve's letter is obviously highly desirable. Therefore if you are not in agreement with the above, an alternative such response will be appreciated. Thanks, Jonathan -----Original Message----- From: Steve Crocker [mailto:steve@shinkuro.com] Sent: 21 September 2014 03:10 To: Jonathan Robinson Cc: Stephen D. Crocker; Denise Michel; Icann-board ICANN Subject: Formation of a GNSO-Board Working Group re the EWG Final Report Jonathan, I'm a bit late getting this out to you, for which I apologize. During the Board's retreat last week in Istanbul, we had a session devoted to next steps related to the Expert Working Group. We've reached that exquisite moment in this process where we have the EWG's report in hand but we're not yet ready to formally ask the GNSO to initiate a policy development process. Instead, this is the time for us all to put our heads together to identify the issues that have to be sorted out before we take that step. We suggest we form a joint GNSO-Board working group with a handful of members from both groups to identify the main issues - technical, organizational, etc., etc. - that have to be addressed before attempting to initiate another policy development process. I don't have any preconception as to how many people or how you might choose them. I'll leave that entirely up to your judgment. Fewer is always better in terms of logistics, but we all know full well there will be many who will want to participate. I hope you and your folks were able to participate in the webinars this past week. If not, it might be worthwhile listening to them. The Expert Working Report is a solid piece of work, and it was intended to provide a much stronger basis for moving forward with a PDP than we've ever had before. That said, I think it would be wise for all of us to understand what failed in earlier PDPs and thus to make sure that we really do have a stronger chance this time. My mantra for this effort is that we're going to take the time to get this right. The problem has been lingering for a very long time. We have given this matter high priority and will continue to do so, so it has the resources and the urgency that comes with high priority issues, but we do not have a specific deadline or timetable. Perhaps that's something that can come from the working group. Please let me know your thinking and we'll move forward. With the LA meeting coming up, if we're organized by then, perhaps we can schedule time for the working group to meet. Thanks! Steve