Hello all, As many of you may have read, this morning Robert Guerra sent a message to the global At-Large mailing list announcing his resignation from the position of NARALO representative to ALAC. As a result, we have a vacancy that requires filling. At the NARALO conference call this past Monday, I indicated to the group that Robert had emailed me with his intent to step down; in anticipation of that action we agreed upon a replacement procedure that would be both expedient and reasonably transparent. This is because Robert's 2-year term expires this June and the position will be up for election in May anyway. The person appointed now will be expected to participate in ALAC activities starting immediately upon appointment, attend the ICANN meeting in Mexico as part of ALAC rather than the Summit (the two schedules are not identical) as well as the ICANN meeting to be held June in Sydney. (Travel expenses will be covered.) According to the process decided on Monday, I will be accepting nominations for the vacancy up until the end of Sunday (January 18). Self-nominations are acceptable; you do not need a seconder and should submit your nomination to me directly by email. I will obviously not be standing for nomination myself. If I receive no nominations by Sunday I will start actively soliciting people until I get one willing to serve. If I receive one nomination by Sunday I will immediately appoint that person to serve the vacancy. If I receive more than one nomination by Sunday I will request the nominees to produce a brief (500 words or less) summary of why they they should be selected. Those summaries should be circulated on this mailing list. By Friday Jan 23 I will start polling NARALO members to determine a consensus selection, and appoint that person to the position. If there is no clear consensus I will appoint the person I believe to have attracted the most support. I myself will only participate in the selection process in order to resolve a lack of consensus. - Evan