Hi Justine,

From what I can observe within At-Large and beyond, there is no support to abolish the Applicant Support Program altogether.

Fair enough.

So, now, from this day forward you have now indeed observed that there is indeed one stakeholder's view -- an informed view from one of the initiators of the original Applicant Support Program and co-chair of its 2009 cross-community working group (ICANN's first!) -- that the program as currently constituted is not only an utter waste of volunteer time. but of no service to the bylaw mandate of At-Large and a potential threat to safety and stability of the DNS.

What is evident, however, is the dissatisfaction of how the Program was handled in the 2012 round, as admitted by the SubPro PDP WG Co-Chair in his email which was attached to mine.

Good for him; hindsight is always perfect.

In reading the current snapshot I observe that none of the quandaries that plagued the original effort have really been solved. Furthermore, the realities of the ICANN of 2019 are very different to those of a decade ago when the consequences of the TLD round were unknown. Many of the barriers that the original program sought to address no longer exist.

So At-Large may choose, if it wishes, to let other groups in the community drive the Program forward with or without At-Large/ALAC's further intervention.

I am but one voice, long since departed as an ALAC member. I know what it's like to dump heart and soul and hundreds of hours into futule ICANN activity, and the Applicant Support TNG effort shows all the promise of a splendid repeat.

With or without ALAC's participatioon, Applicant Support TNG will likely fail just like its predecessor.

With or without ALAC's participation, the benefit to end users of even a marginally useful Applicant Support TNG are non-existent.

But, hey, it's your time to waste.

- Evan