Dear Colleagues, Due to a death and now a serious illness in my immediate family I am unable to devote the time and attention to NARALO matters that the region deserves. For this reason I am requesting a temporary leave of absence from my duties as NARALO Chair. My proposed schedule would be to suspend my role as chair beginning after the 8 December 2014 monthly NARALO teleconference and then resuming upon the 13 April 2015 monthly NARALO call. Due to this request, arrangements for substitute leadership will be needed. Based on consensus among NARALO leadership, my recommendation is for NARALO Secretariat Evan Leibovitch to assume the temporary role of Acting NARALO chair and for Judith Hellerstein to serve in the temporary role of Acting Secretariat. In previous discussions, Judith was to serve in the exploratory role of "Vice Chair," an unofficial position. As part of the role of Vice Chair, the assignment would require assuming leadership duties including conducting NARALO activity coordination, managing monthly teleconferences, and representing the region at the next ICANN meeting. To enable Judith to perform these duties I request that staff ensure that travel sponsorship allocated to the NARALO be transferred to the Judith Hellerstein for this meeting. All of the above requests are subject to regional consensus. Sincerely, Garth Bruen