Dear Council Members, By way of update, ICANN staff has advised the Sub Pro IRT that ICANN intends to finalize and publish the Applicant Guidebook on December 16. At this time, it's projected that the date for the opening of the next round will be published in the AGB with an April 30, 2026 opening and a a 15 week application period. We would like to advise the Council of a variance from Implementation Guidance 14.4 from the Final Report which recommended beta testing of the application system prior to launch. This was discussed at length in yesterday's IRT meeting. We understand that the risks associated with this approach are being shared with the Board and that ICANN Org plans to do thorough internal Quality Control testing of the system prior to launch. If any "bugs" appear during that internal testing, the April 30 launch date could be affected. I am attaching ICANN's rationale for the variance. During the Sub Pro ODA phase, Council asked to be advised whenever any given Implementation Guidance proved infeasible. Accordingly, it seemed appropriate to make the Council aware of this at the present time since the publication of the AGB is intended for next week. Thank you, Anne Anne Aikman-Scalese GNSO Councilor NomCom Non-Voting 2022-2026 anneicanngnso@gmail.com