**Final reminder: Several have not completed the doodle below. This is the final call to do that before a date/time is selected. Dear all and Happy New Year! Please complete the doodle to schedule the next GNSO Standing Selection Committee to take place either on 23 or 24 January 2024. Doodle: https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/bk6RpnKa [doodle.com]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/bk6RpnK...> Thank you. Kind regards, Terri Policy Team Supporting the GNSO [signature_1547473524] From: Gnso-ssc <gnso-ssc-bounces@icann.org> on behalf of Julie Hedlund via Gnso-ssc <gnso-ssc@icann.org> Reply-To: Julie Hedlund <julie.hedlund@icann.org> Date: Wednesday, January 3, 2024 at 9:21 AM To: "gnso-ssc@icann.org" <gnso-ssc@icann.org> Subject: [Gnso-ssc] URGENT ASSIGNMENT: GNSO Nominated Mentor to the ICANN Fellowship Program Dear all, Happy New Year! With apologies, the new year finds us overdue to refresh our SSC membership – which must happen each year following the ICANN Annual General Meeting. At the same time, we have an urgent need to conduct our yearly process to select the GNSO nominated Mentor to the ICANN Fellowship Program. The deadline to submit the candidate name is 31 January 2024, which does not allow time for both the selection process and the membership refresh. Unless there are any objections, we’ll kick off this selection process with the current composition of the SSC and in the meantime we’ll contact the Stakeholder Groups and Constituencies to ask them to appoint new members as applicable. The first step in the process to select the GNSO nominated Mentor to the ICANN Fellowship Program will be for all SSC members to complete a brief poll (the same as was used last year) to help them organize their thoughts about the candidates. This will help support the discussion when the SSC meets to discuss the candidates. The poll will open on Monday, 15 January, once the EOI deadline of 12 January has passed, and will close a week later on Monday, 22 January. The next step in the process is for the SSC to meet and discuss the candidates. We will shortly send a Doodle poll to help us schedule a meeting on 23/24 January. Following that meeting we will open a 48-hour consensus call on the mentor candidate. Upon the close of the call and assuming full consensus, we will submit the candidate’s name not later than the 31 January deadline, which will be subject to confirmation by the GNSO Council at its meeting on 16 February. The details of the assignment and candidate materials when available will be posted here<https://community.icann.org/display/GSSC/GNSO+Appointed+Mentor+-+ICANN+Fello...>. Thank you very much for your assistance! Kind regards, Julie