FYI, message from Tripti Sinha, Chair, ICANN Board of Directors:

Dear Noncommercial Stakeholder Group Leaders,

The Board and I are very much looking forward to meeting with you All, 
in Puerto Rico, for ICANN79 (02-07 March).

It will be our first meeting of 2024, another important and exciting 
year for ICANN as we continue to work together on multiple fronts: the 
first phase of applications to the ICANN Grant Program to be opened in 
the forthcoming weeks, the new five-year Strategic Plan currently being 
drafted and of course the Next Round of new gTLDs, to name a few.

As announced last year, wehave also continued working on enhancing our 
partnership with the community. For the upcoming ICANN Public Meeting 
(ICANN79),the Board is planning to hold an open engagement session, 
which we hope will be another opportunity for interested community 
members to engage directly with the Board on specific topics. *This 
session will be part of ICANN79 Prep week and will be held on Wednesday 
21 February at 16:30 UTC.*

This 60-minute engagement session will include three breakout rooms 
hosted by different Board members, each covering a different topic. 
Following a brief welcome plenary, community members will be asked to 
join one of the three breakout rooms for a 40-minute discussion with the 
Board hosts for that topic. Attendees will be able to move freely 
between the three breakout rooms. The session will conclude with all 
attendees coming together to hear each Board host’s summary of the 
discussions in their respective breakout rooms.

**

*Topic 1: FY26-30 Strategic Planning*

•Led by Maarten Botterman and Chris Buckridge

•Format of the engagement: discussion and soliciting input

•Description: In this breakout room, the Board hosts will seek input 
from attendees on how the input from the community – including through 
the various environmental scans, strategic trend outlook sessions and 
other consultations – can form the basis of the strategic objectives and 
goals for the next Five-Year Strategic Plan, and what metrics should be 
included as part of the Plan.

*Topic 2**:**The Board’s Role & Responsibilities **when Board-Adopted 
Policies Do Not Address the Problems They Were Developed to Solve*

•         Led by Becky Burr and Alan Barrett

•         Format of the engagement: discussion and input

•         Description: In this breakout room, the Board hosts will 
invite community feedback on how to handle situations where it becomes 
clear that community-developed gTLD policies adopted by the Board are 
superseded by subsequent events or are otherwise not able to, or can no 
longer, resolve the problems they were designed to address. There is 
currently no Bylaw or process for such a circumstance, other than the 
Board requesting that the community initiate another full policy 
development process. As the Board continues to engage with the GNSO on 
this topic, the community is invited to brainstorm possible solutions.

*Topic 3: Environmental Sustainability at ICANN*

•         Led by Sally Costerton and León Sanchez

•         Format of the engagement: discussion and soliciting input

•         Description: In this breakout room, the Board hosts will 
solicit community input on how to best advance ICANN’s environmental 
sustainability efforts, in line with FY24 CEO Goal 8. Drawing on the 
expertise of the community will help shape the dialogue for more 
sustainable planning for ICANN meetings and operations.

The Board is very much looking forward to this new engagement 
opportunity and hopes that you will participate actively.

It is to be noted that there will be technical limitations to the use of 
breakout rooms such as: no translation or transcription services 
available. Yet the ICANN Staff will support this engagement session and 
take notes. If this experiment is successful, we could replicate it 
moving forward.

Meanwhile though, it is important that we continue listening to your 
specific needsduring our bilateral sessionsand we are also therefore 
keeping to the practice of asking questionsto _your_Group ahead of our 
joint session in Puerto Rico:

*- There is an ICANN CEO goal to have the organization develop and 
implement a communications and engagement strategy to address the WSIS 
20-year review - what are the NCSG’s views on ICANN engagement 
priorities and strategies in this space?

- Engagement with between groups and bodies in the ICANN space is 
continuing to evolve, including with the introduction of session in the 
Prep Week and breakout rooms on specific issues of current interest - 
does the NCSG have views on these new approaches or how to continue 
improving engagement strategies?*


We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this soon.


Looking forward to engaging discussions during Prep Week and ICANN79!

Best regards,

Tripti Sinha

Chair, ICANN Board of Directors