Danny, I would have to agree with you on everything that you said except for your last paragraph. Since the Vancouver meeting in February of this year, ICANN has been promising that they will be cranking out briefs that will explain the various policy issues happening right now "in a nutshell". That way, people that aren't as "up" on these issues as you are might be able to participate. In San Juan they were asked, again, if this was forthcoming and we were assured that, yes, it was. We still haven't seen anything as, I believe, that ICANN has been having trouble retaining someone to actually take this on. So, although I agree with your sentiments, this is not just a "lets blame the RALO structure" experience. There are other underlying causes to the issues that you, rightly, brought forward being delayed, such as: 1. Its only September. People are just coming off of summer holidays and really haven't had much time to come up to speed on volunteer commitments. I mean, some people have families and lives, unlike you and I (I didn't get holidays this summer and am feeling a little left out). 2. Lack of outreach by ICANN in bringing people up to speed on issues and letting them know what the needs are in this respect. So, all I'm saying is that I am still sitting back and waiting to see what will happen but am not willing to throw the baby out with the bath water yet. Darlene Darlene A. Thompson Community Access Program Administrator Nunavut Department of Education/N-CAP c/o P.O. Box 1000, Station 910 Iqaluit, NU X0A 0H0 Phone: (867) 975-6531 Fax: (867) 979-8870 dthompson@gov.nu.ca -----Original Message----- From: Danny Younger [mailto:dannyyounger@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, September 07, 2007 11:55 AM To: Thompson, Darlene; NA Discuss Subject: RE: [NA-Discuss] Next Meeting of the NA RALO Perhaps instead we should have a discussion on why this body and all other ICANN RALOs are abject failures. Collectively they have neither raised user issues in a timely fashion, nor have they participated in the development of policy to cure untenable situations. Their only skill set appears to be petitioning for even more funding to attend WSIS/IGF, ICANN Studenkreis, or other such events. When Vittorio put out the call for comments on revisions to the RAA, how many out of the 100+ ALSs responded? If you guessed almost none, you would be correct. ICANN is spending almost $800,000 yearly on ALAC and RALOs. So far, I see absolutely no return on investment to justify this expenditure. As you might guess, I'm looking forward to the ALAC review. It's time for this organization to receive a proper burial. ________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Shape Yahoo! in your own image. Join our Network Research Panel today! http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7