[ALAC] Why is ICANN holding secret meetings with registrars/registries?

[Nick Ashton-Hart]

Dear Evan:

We are checking into the background and will get back to all of you once 
we have more information.

Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> On Saturday it came to my attention that ICANN held a secret meeting for
> registrars and registries in Toronto.
>
> Why do I claim it was secret? Because there was no advance notice of the
> meeting on ICANN's website, and the results were published only after
> the meeting was over.
> http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-25aug09-en.htm
>
> Living in Toronto, I was actually consulted back in March about local
> hotels; at the time I explicitly asked to be invited to observe. That's
> how I know there was no advance notice of the meeting, I was routinely
> checking after the hotel inquiry. And I certainly received no notice of
> the meeting, let alone an invitation.
>
> Who knows how many other meetings like this have happened, without
> notice before (or may be even after) they took place?
>
> Now... why is it that what At-Large does is always under the microscope,
> our requests for funding for regional and outreach meetings denied, and
> others are welcome to sit in on our proceedings, but the same rules
> don't apply to  contracted parties? This would have been a perfect
> opportunity to co-host a NARALO meeting, with ICANN already having
> booked favourable room rates etc. At very least, I (and others) should
> have been offered the courtesy to attend as observers. I explicitly
> recall at the Summit, that the registrar people who inserted themselves
> into our working group dicussions were quiet explicit that their
> meetings were as publicly accesible as ours. Apparently that claim was a
> lie.
>
> I am extremely angry over this in a want-to-get-the-Ombudsman-involved
> way; I request a response from ICANN staff and I am asking for ALAC's
> support in this inquiry. As it is unlikely that At-Large staff were
> aware of this meeting either, I am asking for its help in identifying
> the source of this clandestine activity. We are owed an explanation of
> why some ICANN constituencies get to have secret, private regional
> meetings but others do not get to have regional meetings -- private or
> public -- at all.
>
> - Evan
>
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>   

-- 

-- 

Regards,

 

Nick Ashton-Hart

Director for At-Large

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

Tel: +33 (450) 42 81 83

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