Dear colleagues,

With thanks to the small team (Keith, Arsene, Carlos, Susan, me) that has been working on this since our December Council meeting, attached please find a draft letter to the SO/AC chairs on our current thinking on the SSR2-RT pause. This will be on our January agenda as a discussion item (ie, no motion/vote).

Please note I suggested in last week's SO/AC leaders' call the idea of bringing in an external facilitator. I think it is important that the RT be empowered to work through any issues (the SO/AC leaders conducted an anonymous survey of RT members soon after ICANN60, which raised a number of possible improvements, but little consistency across responses). I do not believe that the RT is best served by being asked/forced to implement some plan developed by the SO/ACs on their behalf, or - worse in my view - a plan developed by the SO/AC leaders or the Board Organisational Effectiveness Committee.

I will provide an update on developments within the SO/AC leadership during our meeting and will be very happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability. I am hopeful that we can agree on this communication to the SO/AC leaders, as it's timely and also reassures SSR2-RT of the GNSO Council's commitment to their efforts (ie, they have not been forgotten!).

Best wishes,

Heather Forrest