One new challenge that has risen for visas is that in my country, one has to take an appointment for application submission for Germany through their online visa appointment system and it allocates available dates. However, upon checking the system, it has no appointment slots available till the 3rd of December. This is a pity with the sudden change in the venue. Is it not possible that the venue be set in Dubai so that everyone can possibly make it? The hotel in Dubai would issue visas for its guests and that would directly reduce the visa hassle? The other option would be the US near ICANN offices if all or most of the members have access to US visas already like myself. I don't know how practical this is but I will highly recommend to drop a schengen country for the venue of such a meeting. On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 6:03 AM, Greg Shatan <gregshatanipc@gmail.com> wrote:
There are only 19 Members of the CWG. All are entitled to go to the F2F with travel support. The rest of those participating are Participants (formerly "Observers"), who can go on their own.
If a Member can't go, it is possible that the Member's organization (e.g., SSAC) may be able to designate a Participant as an Alternate to go in that Member's place (with travel support). We are awaiting confirmation that ICANN will allow this.
Greg Shatan
On Oct 22, 2014 8:45 PM, "Fouad Bajwa" <fouadbajwa@gmail.com> wrote:
Since it is appropriate at this very moment in time, what is the consensus on who are the 19 members to attend the Amsterdam F2F?
If I were to make a visa application, I will have to do so within the next 5 days ASAP with ICANN travel support letters/invitations provided. There is a three week visa acquisition period, and trust me, all my schengen visa requests have taken anything between 2-3 weeks not to mention an accurate 3 week visa time period for the ICANN London Meeting.
How are we supposedly setting the selection parameters so far? I may have missed this part during todays call but I am unable to recall if this discussion actually happened? Is it a black box selection?
On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 12:56 AM, Bilal Titi <bilal-titi@hotmail.com> wrote:
Waiting for the applications.
Sent from my iPhone
On 21 Oct 2014, at 11:08 am, Lars-Erik.Forsberg@ec.europa.eu wrote:
Dear all,
I understand your frustration about the visa procedures in the EU. It is sometimes very cumbersome and unfortunately too often varies from EU member state to another. I do believe though that the Netherlands is probably among the quicker EU MS to issue a visa to the Schengen area. I copy the Dutch GAC representative Thomas who I hope will be able to help us out to see that the applications are handled expeditiously. Best regards,
Erik
Lars Erik Forsberg
Deputy Head of Unit
<image001.png>
European Commission
DG CONNECT
Unit D1 - International
BU 25 4/70
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 296 70 65
lars-erik.forsberg@ec.europa.eu
From: cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org [mailto:cwg-stewardship-bounces@icann.org] On Behalf Of Fouad Bajwa Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 5:12 AM To: Grace Abuhamad Cc: cwg-stewardship@icann.org Subject: Re: [CWG-Stewardship] Scheduling: regular teleconference meetings + F2F in November
One thing that is insensitive is the venue of an Amsterdam f2f meeting. There is no indication of diversity and distribution of the 19 members to be allowed. We developing country people cannot just fly into EU countries like our US and EU colleagues. The f2f meetings should have taken place in countries like Dubai, Turkey etc, where visa acquisition is much easier.
On Monday, 20 October 2014, Grace Abuhamad <grace.abuhamad@icann.org> wrote:
Hi all,
A few scheduling updates:
Regular Meetings:
We have a very large and geographically diverse CWG. Going forward, we'll have regular weekly 2h calls on Thursdays. To cover all the timezones, I'd like to suggest alternating 10:00 UTC and 13:00 UTC. This is early for our participants in the Americas, but more reasonable for the majority of our group based in Europe, Africa, and Asia. As always, calls will be recorded and transcribed.
Face-to-face Meeting:
In addition, at the request of the Chairs, ICANN has offered to support a 2-day face-to-face meeting in Amsterdam on 19-20 November 2014. ICANN will offer travel support to the 19 CWG members only, but the meeting will be open to anyone in the CWG who wishes to attend in person (at their own expense).
The meeting will be webcast live through Adobe Connect and include remote participation capabilities consistent with the CWG meetings to date. The meeting will be recorded and transcribed.
In order for ICANN to plan for adequate space, please let me know by next Monday (27 October 2014) whether or not you plan to attend the CWG F2F meeting in Amsterdam.
For members seeking travel support, please note that, the meeting will be consistent with ICANN’s Community Travel Support Guidelines: travel needs to be arranged by ICANN; ICANN will only book and pay for a non-refundable, lowest logical price airfare, and economy airfare; hotel room and tax must be booked directly by ICANN in accordance with the authorized arrival and departure dates for each supported traveler.
Please let me know if you have any questions,
Grace
Grace Abuhamad
Public Policy Manager
ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
801 17th Street NW, Suite 400 | Washington, DC 20006
Direct: +1 202 249 7545 | Mobile: +1 310 200 7638
-- Regards. -------------------------- Fouad Bajwa ICT4D and Internet Governance Advisor My Blog: Internet's Governance: http://internetsgovernance.blogspot.com/ Follow my Tweets: http://twitter.com/fouadbajwa
_______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
-- Regards. -------------------------- Fouad Bajwa ICT4D and Internet Governance Advisor My Blog: Internet's Governance: http://internetsgovernance.blogspot.com/ Follow my Tweets: http://twitter.com/fouadbajwa _______________________________________________ CWG-Stewardship mailing list CWG-Stewardship@icann.org https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/cwg-stewardship
-- Regards. -------------------------- Fouad Bajwa ICT4D and Internet Governance Advisor My Blog: Internet's Governance: http://internetsgovernance.blogspot.com/ Follow my Tweets: http://twitter.com/fouadbajwa