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