Dear SSC members,

Welcome to our new SSC members and to those returning.  We have now completed our refresh of our membership. See: https://community.icann.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=64077781. Our first order of business is to select our Chair and Vice Chair per the Charter:

The SSC is expected to select its Chair from its membership. The SSC may also select one or two Vice Chairs from its membership to assist the Chair.  The Chair serves as a neutral facilitator who calls meetings, presides over SSC deliberations, and manages the process so that all participants have the opportunity to contribute. The Chair and Vice Chair(s) are also contributing members to the SSC deliberations and participate in consensus calls. Because members of the leadership team are serving in two roles, they are expected to make clear when they are providing input as a member as opposed to speaking in a leadership capacity.

This is the Call for Volunteers for Chair and Vice Chair(s). Please respond to this email on the SSC list if you would like to volunteer, or if you would like to nominate someone by tomorrow, Wednesday, 14 February at 1700 UTC.  We will then put the volunteers to the list to be confirmed by non-objection.  The names of the Chair and Vice Chair(s) will need to put before the GNSO Council for confirmation at its meeting on Thursday, 15 February at 2100 UTC (a placeholder motion has been submitted for the Consent Agenda).  If the SSC should need more time to choose its Chair/Vice Chair(s) this motion can be deferred to the March GNSO Council meeting, but ideally we would like to complete the process in February.

There are no assignments before the SSC at the moment.  In the meantime staff will circulate a Doodle to schedule an orientation meeting 19-21 March – timed to avoid conflicts with ICANN79 Prep Week (20-22 February), the weeks before and after ICANN79 when people might be traveling (26 February-01 March and 11-15 March), and during ICANN79 (02-07 March).

Welcome again and staff looks forward to supporting all of you in this important work.

Kind regards,

Berry, Caitlin, Saewon, and Julie