Dear fellow RALO WT5 liaisons, An action item from the ALAC call 24 April asks me to take the initiative to develop a common ALAC position on geographic names in the subsequent gTLD procedures. During that call, Alan suggested that this effort could involve the five RALO liaisons to the WT5 and other interested people, and mentioned also CPWG. I have not acted so far on this AI, because in my view, our only meaningful contribution to the WT5 process would be to suggest compromises to its most difficult issues, including names of non-capital cities, which WT5 has spent most of its time on, mostly engaged in a fruitless dispute between the extremes. The atmosphere so far might not have been conducive for discussing compromise proposals... However, at ICANN62, there finally was a push by co-chairs for “meeting in the middle”, especially concerning non-capital cities, and for "seeking convergence on principles." See slides of the 28 June session: https://static.ptbl.co/static/attachments/179943/1530207670.pdf?1530207670 <https://static.ptbl.co/static/attachments/179943/1530207670.pdf?1530207670> Now might be the time for an ALAC contribution along the lines that Alan has often repeated: there should be no big winners and big losers in the WT 5. In others words, a compromise, something in the middle. That’s why I’m asking for your thoughts, ideas and suggestions on how we could facilitate finding compromises in the WT5, especially on the issue of non-capital cities. This is late in the day in the life of WT5, so please react soon. After an email exchange, we could ask the staff to arrange a call, if necessary. I’m also asking CPWG to take note of this effort, the results of which I hope could be presented to CPWG soon. Yrjö