[Info] Chair's Blog: ICANN61 Meeting & Board Workshop - ICANN

[Rafik Dammak]

hi all,

another blog post and update, this time from ICANN Board Chair regarding
the board activities in Puerto Rico.

Best Regards,

Rafik Dammak

NCSG Policy Committee Chair

---------- Forwarded message ----------



https://www.icann.org/news/blog/chair-s-blog-icann61-meeting-board-workshop



*Chair's Blog: ICANN61 Meeting & Board Workshop*

I would be remiss if I didn't begin this blog by thanking the people of
Puerto Rico for such a wonderful experience during ICANN61. The conference
center was great, the hosts gracious and the island is recovering after
hurricane Maria. I hope to visit Puerto Rico again soon.

I would also like to thank the ICANN org staff for their quick work
navigating the technical challenges that came with suspending Adobe Connect
services
<https://www.icann.org/news/blog/more-information-on-the-adobe-connect-issue>
during the meeting, and the ICANN community for their good spirits and
understanding surrounding the inconveniences.

*Board Workshop*

Ahead of ICANN61, the Board held a three day workshop
<https://www.icann.org/news/blog/chair-s-blog-a-preview-of-the-puerto-rico-board-workshop>
in San Juan on 9,10 & 11 March. The Board Committees met on the first day
to take care of their regular business, and then the full Board met for two
consecutive days. We held in-depth sessions about policy and advice on
priority issues for ICANN61 in preparation for Constituency Day. As you can
imagine, a large part of our workshop was taken up with discussions on the
European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We also held
sessions on Workstream 2 recommendations, the anticipated updates to the
Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Implementation Guidelines, which apply
to the IDNs at the second level, the status of work on the Registration
Data Services PDP, and on the proposed disbursement mechanisms considered
by the Cross Community Working Group on Auction Proceeds. Finally, we
reviewed several resolutions which were approved subsequently during the
Board formal meeting at the end of ICANN61.

*Public Meeting*

Much like at ICANN60, a big focus during the meeting was on data protection
and privacy rules, mainly GDPR. I'd like to thank the community for the
thoughtful contributions, vibrant conversations and challenges raised
during the meeting. I encourage continued participation and engagement as
we address near and longer term GDPR compliance issues. Based upon all of
your inputs, comments, and submissions, we will in the coming weeks be
pursuing a single compliance approach and model. As we work towards this
model, please continue to participate and provide your views. We need the
community, all of you, to work together to iron out differences. It is
important to have a model that has unified community support.

Another major topic of conversation was ICANN's Draft FY19 Operating Plan
and Budget. I appreciate very much the thoughtful ideas shared and the
information exchanges between the community, ICANN org and the Board. It
was a really productive conversation. There seemed to be general agreement
that we can and should do our work more effectively, more timely and with
the efficient utilization of ICANN's resources. The Board is cognizant of
concerns around the proposed budget cuts to various community programs and
request mechanisms, and considers the comment period, that just ended, to
be valuable in ensuring the community has an opportunity to weigh in on
priorities. In finalizing the FY19 Budget, all public comments will be
taken into account. There were also discussions on the consultation paper
on the replenishment of the ICANN Reserve Fund.

As always, the Supporting Organizations (SO) and Advisory Committees (AC)
made great strides in their work, including:

   - The At-Large Community held sessions on its improvement planning and
   reviewed comments on several current policy and budget topics, and Regional
   At-Large Organizations (RALOs) held meetings and events, in particular for
   the North American and Latin American organizations.
   - The ASO Address Council, with new leadership, held its annual meeting
   covering regional policy developments, the ASO organizational review and
   candidates for ICANN Board Seat 9;
   - The Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) made progress
   on the retirement of ccTLDs, and elected Council Chairs and Vice Chairs;
   - The Government Advisory Committee (GAC) completed its Communiqué;
   - The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) spent significant
   working group time advancing PDPs on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures, Right
   Protection Mechanism, and Next Generation Registration Directory Services,
   and reviewed its policy development work with a report expected soon;
   - The Number Resource Organization (NRO) Chair provided an informative
   overview about the activities of the Regional Internet Registries at the
   opening session;
   - The Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) discussed its
   Statement on Entries in DNS Root Sources; and
   - The Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) reviewed the
   Names Collision and Analysis project and hosted a DNSSEC Workshop.

The SO and AC Leaders also started planning for ICANN62
<https://www.icann.org/news/blog/next-stop-icann62-in-panama-city>, the
Policy Forum, in Panama in June 2018.

Finally, the Board held a full Board Meeting as we usually do. For more
details on the workshop, including minutes from the public Board Meeting,
please see the Board Page
<https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/2018-board-meetings>.

The Board will hold its next workshop in May 2018 in Vancouver, Canada,
ahead of the GDD Industry Summit <https://www.icann.org/gddsummit>, but I
expect you will be hearing from me sooner.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncsg.is/pipermail/ncsg-discuss/attachments/20180321/a5e7119c/attachment.htm>