I was a member of the Geographic Regions WG chaired by ccNSO member David Archbold of the neighbouring Cayman Islands which by virtue of political allegiance, is counted as EURALO in the At-Large. Members listened, read, analysed and digested reams of data and information on the issue. And from all of this work and active participation, we eventually prepared a consensus report. The WG took a great deal of effort to validate the uses of geographic region concept in ICANN. We found and reported the principal use was diversity in representation. The WG also found that the concept of a defined land mass in the geographic region was not consistent across ICANN. The recommendation was to make this consistent and harmonize the meaning and substance by settling on that used by the RIRs for all of ICANN. Even with harmonized land mass, the principal issue of representation - effective representation - remains. And the WG strongly believed that for better or worse, countries should be afforded the possibility to ally themselves to regions they feel would be more representative of their own views. This is especially true for countries in near proximity to a regional line. This is the purpose of the self-selection advice. Note well, this means representation in name and numbers policy development, the ICANN enterprise. We are unanimous that the Caribbean - all members of CARICOM - is and remain indivisible. Our principal objective, as per the geographic region rationale, is effective representation. Caribbean experiences in international institutions when lumped with Latin America has always been a challenge. And we in the Caribbean are acutely aware of this history. At the origination of LACRALO, there were very strong submissions for this to be recognized in our bye-laws. I personally opposed those views because I thought the new and exciting paradigm that was the Internet and ideas of its governance would make the difference. Time has proved me wrong. I am now willing to acknowledge that what began as a noble utopian objective has caught up with us. Because contrary to my own idealistic objective, the language and cultural differences between Latin America and the Caribbean have proven intractable and too much of a time-consuming exercise which, without exception, does not add value to ICANN matters. We are unanimous that in the matter of self selection of regional association, it is a 'all or none' decision for the Caribbean. Any decision to change region by one will and should trigger all to make the same change. And, we shall insist that continued participation requires our effective representation. - Carlton ============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 *Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* =============================