Dear all, I’d like to summarize where we are with respect to ICG side meetings with specific communities, at ICANN 51 and beyond. First, we have extended our open session with the community by 30 minutes, to 120 minutes. Patrik is working on the agenda for that session. The intent with the extra time is to provide more time for Q&A with the community, and perhaps to address specific questions that may have come up earlier in the ICANN 51 meeting week. Second, there is strong support for the development of an FAQ so that we can have a shared resource when answering questions that may arise in various sessions and venues. I have asked Manal and Martin to develop a first draft of the FAQ and my hope is that we can book time on our October 1 call to discuss and refine it. There is limited time between now and ICANN 51, so I think the goal here should not be perfection, but to have talking points that we find useful as a group. To that point, whether we formally “publish” the FAQ on our web site or just use the draft for our own purposes at the meeting can be decided at some future time — the goal for now should be to have an internal resource. Also, there has been some discussion about the inclusion of questions/answers concerning the process to be followed after we receive proposals. I will send a separate email about that. Third, we have received two explicit requests for side meetings at ICANN 51 — one from ALAC, and one from the GAC. As our discussion on this topic has evolved, I believe we have rough consensus to proceed with scheduling these meetings, provided that certain conditions are met (most of the discussion has focused on the GAC request, but I think some of the arguments that have been given from a variety of people posting to the list and on the call extend to ALAC and other groups as well). These conditions have been mentioned (to some extent I’m paraphrasing Patrik) and I think we should make use of them: (a) Side meetings are public, minuted, and, to the extent possible, translated. (These conditions will be met by the ALAC and GAC arrangements.) (b) We announce that we are accepting meeting invitations from interested parties (at ICANN 51 and beyond) and that we will respond if requests seem justified and resources permit. (c) For the round of meetings at ICANN 51 focused on how to participate in operational community processes, we ensure that at least one ICG member each from protocol parameters, numbers, gTLDs, and ccTLDs are available to join the meetings, and we welcome participation from as many other ICG members whose schedules can accommodate the meetings. In general, we assume for side meetings that having a small group of us represent the ICG is fine, while having a larger subset of us participate is preferred. My plan is to proceed with the tasks necessary to fulfill the conditions above — responding to ALAC and GAC about scheduling, getting an announcement posted, and figuring out who will be available to attend the meetings. There have also been some suggestions that we should try to get meetings scheduled with the CCWG and the ccNSO. If you are participating in those groups, believe that a meeting would be beneficial, and can help with scheduling, please make that known on the list and I will follow up with you. Thanks, Alissa