25th August, 2009 TO: Greater Toronto Area Linux User Group (GTALug) FROM: ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) SUBJECT: At-Large Structure Certification ICANN's At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) is pleased to inform you that the Greater Toronto Area Linux User Group (GTALug) has been certified as an At-Large Structure (ALS). The ALAC greatly appreciates your group¹s interest in involving individual users in ICANN and looks forward to working with you and your colleagues. The purpose of ALS certification is to recognize that your organization meets the necessary criteria to involve individual Internet users at the local or issue level in ICANN activities, and that your organization will support its individual members' informed participation in ICANN efforts that affect end-users. The ALAC is eager to promote a productive working relationship between your organization, other ALS, and the ALAC (and ICANN in general), and your input on how we can make this a success would be greatly appreciated. We would like to offer some initial tools to help your organization keep its members informed (about significant news from ICANN and information on ICANN policy-development efforts) and engaged in activities of interest: - Point of Contact for your Organisation: Please send an email to staff@atlarge.icann.org identifying the names and email addresses of one or two individuals who will be the point of contact for information and correspondence regarding ICANN At-Large. If this changes, please let us know. - At Large Mailing Lists. There are many At Large email lists, for each region; you can signup for them and manage your subscriptions at: http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo . The points of contact you identify will automatically be added to your region¹s list just for accredited ALSes to discuss regional issues and to the mailing list for Staff announcements; you are invited to join others as you wish. - ALS information. Information about your organization will be shared with the At-Large community to enable individuals interested in your group's activities to contact you, and to encourage cooperation with other groups interested in ICANN activities in your geographic region. Please complete and email the form at the bottom of this note to staff@atlarge.icann.org. - ALAC website. The ALAC website (www.atlarge.icann.org) is a good source for ICANN news and information of interest to individual Internet users. We encourage you to provide your members with a link. The ALAC relies on volunteers to translate information into multiple languages. Translations of documents on the website are welcome and should be sent to staff@atlarge.icann.org. - At-Large Regional Websites. Regional web pages also have been created to distribute information (including in local languages) on activities, events and issues of particular interest to people in each region. These are being very substantially revised in the next couple of weeks but you should keep the URLs handy and check back regularly. They are: African Region: http://www.afralo.org/ Asia/Australia/Pacific Region: http://www.apralo.org/ European Region: http://www.euralo.org/ Latin America/Caribbean Region: http://www.lacralo.org/ North American Region: http://www.naralo.org/ - Regional WiKi: Each At-Large Region has a Wiki that allows the region to collaborate. These are maintained by the community and create the regional websites shown above. This framework is in the final stages of preparation but if you wish to have a user account, send an email to staff@atlarge.icann.org. We look forward to working with you and your organization's members to advance individual Internet users' interests within ICANN. If you have any questions, or need additional information, please contact us at staff@atlarge.icann.org . Sincerely, The At-Large Advisory Committee www.atlarge.icann.org staff@atlarge.icann.org --------------------------- Name: Location (city/country/region; whatever is relevant to your membership): Mission: Member benefits: Contacts (name/s and email address/es -- title/s optional): Website: Other (additional informational you would like included):