Friends and Colleagues, I trust this finds you all well. This ICANN fiscal year (AKA FY25) will be the last year for the current ICANN Regional Plan for the Middle East (FY21 – FY25 Regional Plan). We would like to thank every one of you for your work and collaboration with us these past 4.5 years. As we embark on developing the next Regional Plan for FY26-FY30 to go in line with ICANN’s Next Strategic Plan, and after a few discussions with some of you and other regional community members, we will be working on the next regional plan slightly differently. Rather than having a strategy working group, we plan on having an open mailing list to get feedback and input on the Middle East Regional Plan as it is being developed. The process will involve some webinars and mailing list communication leading to the finalization of the Regional Plan. As a high-level timeline for our upcoming work: DatesAction 15 December 2024 – 15 April 2025 Organize community calls / webinars several calls with the Advisory Team Compile input and develop the Regional Plan 16 April – 31 May 2025 Issue the draft Regional Plan for public comments Organize a webinar for the regional community 1 June – 30 June 2025 Consider feedback received and develop the final version of the plan Publish the FY26-FY30 Regional Plan We plan to organize a call with those who subscribe to this open mailing list sometime during the next 2 weeks to discuss the ICANN FY26-FY30 Strategic Plan, expand on the above timelines in further details, and discuss next steps. We will share the exact date and time of the call soon. Of course, if you would like to suggest other agenda items, please do share. Call for Action - This is a public call to join the new mailing list. If you are interested, please reach out to me offlist showing your interest. Thank you, Fahd Batayneh ICANN