Hi Everyone: You might remember that during our first meeting I discussed the plan to employ mediation techniques and expertise in order to narrow issues and reach consensus, I have remained committed to the idea during the intervening time and think the meeting results thus far strongly point to the need for such expertise. With our current meeting cadence, there has not been sufficient time to step back, evaluate the current situation, and redesign the structure of our discussion in a way necessary to drive toward conclusions. It is no surprise to me that my skillset in managing our work could be augmented with competent, professional assistance. This is especially true given the timeframe with which we are working. (I also think we might demonstrate for future policy development work that professional mediation skills are a necessary part of consensus building.) With that in mind, we have retained CBI (https://www.cbi.org/facilitation-and-mediation/ <https://www.cbi.org/facilitation-and-mediation/>) to provide mediation and facilitation services. CBI was recommended by both Board and staff members who have had good experience with them as an ICANN partner in the past. While mediation is generally applied to bilateral negotiations, CBI specializes in multi-stakeholder situations. (As you might think, that claim attracted my interest when I learned of it.) Admittedly, significant work is required to sufficiently bring them up to speed and integrate them into the team in time for the LA meeting. That is our plan. (I would have liked that they had joined us sooner but that did not happen.) CBI will also provide much needed resources to enable us to step back for a big picture look and maintain the current meeting cadence. With that in mind, the CBI staff will be immediately available for consultations with EPDP team members as part of their information gathering process. The purpose of these team member - CBI conversations is to develop the most productive meeting in LA possible. These meetings with CBI do not have to do with substantive positions.. The CBI team are impartial with respect to outcome; their success is measured only development of consensus positions. For that reason, I, Rafik or members of the support team plan to not attend the CBI - EPDP member meetings. The CBI team is open as to the format / attendance of these discussions. For time’s sake, we plan to schedule a session open to all on Monday, 17 Sept. If you have a preferred way to communicate with the CBI team, you can let the ICANN support team know or contact the CBI team directly. They have expressed a willingness to have meetings with everyone / anyone. Their bios are below. Their names and email addresses are: David Plumb dplumb@cbi.org <mailto:dplumb@cbi.org> Gina Bartlett gina@cbi.org <mailto:gina@cbi.org> Toby Berkman tberkman@cbi.org <mailto:tberkman@cbi.org> I believe the inclusion of CBI provides a needed skill set and significantly increases our chances for success as they were a part of my vision from the time of my earliest involvement in this project. I know this is a significant piece of information. I am free to discuss this at anytime via email, Skype (kjpritz), or phone (+1-310-400-4184). Please join me in welcoming the CBI team and helping to realize their potential in helping us. Best regards, Kurt David Plumb David Plumb is a mediator, facilitator, trainer, and researcher with experience managing complex development and public policy issues in a variety of environments, including Nigeria’s Niger Delta, northern Chile, and urban United States. David is CBI’s Director for Latin America and also co-leads the organization’s Corporate Community Engagement practice. Prior to CBI, he directed the Sustainable Business Practice at Search for Common Ground. He also spent eight years working as a financial journalist and correspondent, mostly for Bloomberg News. A primary focus of David’s work is assisting communities, companies, and authorities to interact more constructively and engage in productive dialogue. He designs and facilitates multi-stakeholder processes that can provide a credible space for addressing historical grievances and mistrust, as well as exploring creative solutions for the future. David also designs and implements participatory processes that give citizens and key stakeholders an active voice in making smarter policy decisions, assisting governments to develop new public policies with wider public support. Within the ICANN community, David has led a mediation process to assist LACRALO in overcoming challenges that had been limiting its effectiveness as an at-large organization. Gina Bartlett Senior Mediator Gina Bartlett also serves as Director of CBI’s practice in the American West. Based in San Francisco, California, Ms. Bartlett has more than twenty years experience as a facilitator and mediator in consensus building and collaborative planning on public policy issues. She has extensive experience facilitating collaborative governance and mediating high stakes multi-party negotiations with government, nongovernmental, and business leaders and decision makers. Her internet-related work has focused on improving relationships and trust on an international monetary protocol. In recent years, she has worked extensively on developing governance structures to manage water resources in response to new legal requirements in California. She consulted with an international commission to craft a negotiation strategy to address long-standing conflict. She has facilitated the jury selection for the international Resilient by Design competition. And, she is reaching the final stages of an agreement to manage 30 years of conflict and litigation on Lake Tahoe shoreline policy. Gina is a senior mediator on the roster of the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. She holds a Master’s degree in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University, and a B.S. in political science and international relations from the University of Illinois. Toby Berkman Toby is a Senior Associate at CBI. An attorney by training, he has more than ten years of professional experience in project management, including five as a facilitator and mediator. His work focuses on helping organizations and stakeholders collaborate and manage disputes more effectively around difficult public issues, both domestically and internationally. He is also affiliated faculty at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, where he teaches courses on collaborative problem-solving and dispute resolution to law students, executives, and professionals from around the world. At CBI, Toby has conducted significant work in the internet/technology space, including most recently: designing and facilitating a multi-stakeholder dialogue on improving governance of political speech on social media platforms (ongoing); designing a workshop curriculum on collaborative governance and the Internet for the Internet Society (2018); and designing and facilitating the program for Summit.Ahead, a convening of policy entrepreneurs to combine technology and human capital to create meaningful employment and opportunity for those who feel left behind in the new economy (2017-18). Prior to joining CBI in 2014, Toby worked as a civil litigator in the copyright/IP practice group at Jenner and Block LLP, with a focus on online copyright. Toby has a JD from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude; editor, Harvard Law Review) and an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.