Dear Council members, Because of the overlap between the Council call and the Board call, this email is intended to provide additional information from ICANN staff in advance of the discussion on 29 May regarding single-character names at the second-level. * Contractual provisions in ICANN's registry agreements govern how we act. In addition, new Registry Services are governed by the GNSO Policy, which was put into the contractual provisions of the registry agreements. * ICANN cannot unilaterally change the registry agreements and the Schedule of Reserved Names. There is no Policy which states that registries must release single-character names at the second-level. * A registry can be released from its obligations related to its Schedule of Reserved Names on ICANN's approval pursuant to the specific contractual provisions in the registry agreements. We are going through staff work to determine the appropriate mechanism for release - this work includes the development of a paper on allocation methods and uses of funds from allocation of single-character names, and because this affects all registries, the development of a process for release of single-letter names. * The Reserved Names Working Group (RN WG) developed policy recommendations on single-character names at the second-level for new gTLDs, and for existing gTLDs, stating that release should be "contingent upon the use of appropriate allocation frameworks. More work may be needed." * As the Council is aware, these recommendations are not consensus policy because they do not follow the consensus policy process. Therefore, the RN WG recommendations and subsequent staff work does not raise new duties or obligations for registries. * A one-size-fits-all method may not work for all registries. * Based on the direction of the Council, the public comment period and synthesis document, ICANN staff will publish a paper regarding a proposed allocation method and distribution of funds model for community consideration. I will be available on Sunday 21 June during the GNSO Working Session in Paris to answer questions on this topic. Regards, Patrick -- Patrick L. Jones Registry Liaison Manager & Coordinator, ICANN Nominating Committee Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330 Marina del Rey, CA 90292 Tel: +1 310 301 3861 Fax: +1 310 823 8649 patrick.jones@icann.org