Dear Working Group members, Welcome to the Working Group (WG) for the Policy Development Process (PDP) relating to Privacy & Proxy Services Accreditation Issues – and thank you all for signing up! We are still collecting your Statements of Interest, so please do send yours on to the GNSO Secretariat at gnso-secs@icann.org if you haven't yet done so. We are also keeping the Call for Volunteers open, through at least the end of the ICANN Public Meeting in Buenos Aires which starts this weekend, so feel free to forward this link with information about the WG and the PDP to others who you think may be interested in joining the group: http://gnso.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-06nov13-en.htm. Until the WG formally meets to elect a WG Chair, the GNSO Council liaison to the WG, Maria Farrell, will be serving as the interim Chair of the group. By way of introduction to our work, I thought I would also give you a brief update on a number of sessions being planned for the Buenos Aires meeting that may be relevant to this PDP and the issues that the WG will be dealing with. First, on Saturday 16 November, the GNSO will have an all-day working session where its numerous ongoing projects will be discussed and updates provided. You may know of the Whois Privacy & Proxy Abuse Study that was commissioned by the GNSO and recently completed by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom – the public comment period for this study closed yesterday (13 November) and the GNSO will be receiving a brief update on this, as well as another study on Whois Misuse, from 16.40-17.00 Buenos Aires time. Although the study was commissioned prior to the initiation of the PDP for which this WG was formed, its findings may be relevant to the WG's discussions and deliverables. Please see this link for details as to remote participation (if you are not going to be in Buenos Aires in person and would like to attend) and other agenda details: http://buenosaires48.icann.org/en/schedule/sat-gnso-working. Secondly, we have reserved a meeting slot on Thursday 21 November, from 0800-0900 Buenos Aires time, if the WG and other interested community members would like to meet informally to discuss the questions flagged for the WG in the WG Charter recently approved by the GNSO Council: http://gnso.icann.org/en/drafts/raa-pp-charter-22oct13-en.pdf. Depending on the discussions during the GNSO's Saturday and Sunday working sessions, it may be that this meeting may not be needed – please look out for a message one way or the other to this list, or please reply all to this list if you have a suggestion or comment regarding the meeting. Thirdly, and also on Thursday 21 November, from 0900-10.30 Buenos Aires time (ie. Immediately following the WG's potential informal session, ICANN will conduct a session on all its various Whois projects: http://buenosaires48.icann.org/en/schedule/thu-improving-whois. As with all other sessions at the Buenos Aires meeting, remote participation facilities will be available for those who are unable to attend the session in person. Finally, this web page contains all the relevant background documents to this PDP, including Issue Reports and Board and GNSO Council resolutions, which you may find helpful: http://gnso.icann.org/en/group-activities/active/ppsa. I will be setting up a wiki page for the WG shortly, and will let everyone know once that is up and running. Thank you all again for volunteering for the WG, and I look forward to seeing you either in person in Buenos Aires or remotely! Maria – please chime in with your thoughts! Cheers Mary Mary Wong Senior Policy Director Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN) Telephone: +1 603 574 4892 Email: mary.wong@icann.org * One World. One Internet. *