Dear NPOC Members, Please find below a communication from ICANN on FY20 CROP. https://community.icann.org/display/soacabout/FY20+CROP-+Site+Opens+Announce... You may all wish to acquaint yourself of the changes. Kind regards *Caleb* Dear Community Leaders, I am pleased to announce that the FY20 Community Regional Outreach Program (CROP) space is now ready for your use. The CROP team thanks all community leaders and groups for collaboratively working with our regional Global Stakeholder Engagement (GSE) colleagues to develop the various Outreach Strategic Plans for this fiscal year. In response to feedback about the FY19 program, staff has re-drafted and re-formatted the Guidelines and Procedures, and we have also added a “What Has Changed” section at the top of the home page for your easy reference. *What has not changed from FY19*: The submission and concurrence process, templates and forms remain the same as for FY19. The fundamental concept that CROP trips should be closely linked to current ICANN policy or technical work is also unchanged. *What is changing for FY20:* The following aspects of CROP are new for FY20. - Applicable *geographic regions and countries* within regions – ICANN Org believes that it will allow for greater clarity as well as community flexibility in many cases to use the *GSE list of countries and regions <https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/111382480/GSE%20Geographical%20Regions%20-%20ALL%20GSE%20REGIONS.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1563881206000&api=v2>*, rather than the less detailed listing of official ICANN meeting regions. The FY20 CROP space therefore contains a link to the current GSE list for your reference. - Reimbursement for *conference registration fees* – while the general rule remains that conference registration fees are not part of CROP funding, for FY20 ICANN Org has created a*limited exception* for cases where senior staff approval has been sought and obtained. - Using *1 out of 3 trip allocations to an ICANN Public Meeting or ICANN-organized event* – for FY20, community groups will *no longer be required to FIRST use 1 trip allocation for this purpose*. In other words, any 1 out of the 3 trip allocations can be used to an ICANN Public Meeting or ICANN-organized event (if one is taking place in the applicable region). ICANN Org hopes this will provide the community with greater flexibility in planning their FY20 strategic outreach activities. - Clarifying *7-week deadline* for trip requests – we understand that the FY19 requirement of “5 calendar days plus 6 weeks” may have been confusing for some groups. As such, for FY20, we will count the period between the last possible day for submitting a trip request and the commencement date of the trip as seven (7) weeks. This will not substantially alter the actual duration in question (as between FY19 and FY20), but we hope the clarification will provide greater clarity. Please note that this will not alter the requirement that the relevant regional VP’s *concurrence must still be obtained a minimum of 6 weeks* before travel commences. - *CROP staff lead* administrator – for FY20, the staff lead for this program will be Maryam Bakoshi. She will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the applicable deadlines, following up on trip proposals and assessment reports, and to generally assist you with the program. However, please continue to send your queries and reports to the usual email address (crop-staff@icann.org). On behalf of the CROP staff team, our regional GSE colleagues and ICANN’s Constituency Travel department, I hope that your groups will find the FY20 CROP helpful in conducting your regional strategic outreach activities. The FY20 CROP space can be found here: https://community.icann.org/display/soacabout/CROP-FY20. Please note that we are launching this space now in the interests of time, and will be continuing to update and correct any errors that we may find. Thank you for your understanding! Best regards, Mary, Maryam and the CROP staff team -- *Ogundele Olumuyiwa Caleb* *muyiwacaleb@gmail.com <muyiwacaleb@gmail.com>* *234 - 8077377378* *234 - 07030777969*