[EURO-Discuss] European ALS Community Invitation to ICANN Lisbon Meeting

[Nick Ashton-Hart]

Below please find all the information related to the attendance by  
the European ALS community at the Lisbon ICANN International Meeting.  
We look forward to welcoming you to Lisbon! Please read carefully.




Dear European At-Large representative:

A European Regional At-Large Organization (EURALO) formation meeting  
will be held in Lisbon, Portugal between [sat before mtg to end date  
of meeting]. All accredited and candidate At-Large Structures (ALSes)  
in the ICANN European Region are invited to send delegates to the  
meeting.

The 28th International ICANN meeting will feature tutorials,  
workshops, and stakeholder meetings on a variety of issues of  
interest to end-users (such as internationalized domain names and the  
introduction of new top level domain names), as well as public forums  
and a public meeting of ICANN's Board of Directors.  More information  
is posted at www.icann.org/meetings/lisbon.

There are expected to be a total of two to three sessions of the  
European ALS Community. The First Session is tentatively scheduled  
for all day on Saturday, 24th March, with the additional sessions  
during the ICANN Meeting that will be scheduled in order to allow  
maximum participation for European ALS delegates in the other ICANN  
meetings, and any of the sessions of the At-Large Advisory Committee  
as desired.

ICANN is pleased to offer travel support to enable one representative  
from each accredited or candidate ALS to attend. In addition, remote  
attendance will be facilitated for those unable to attend the meeting  
in person.

The objective of the European ALS Meeting is to:

1)     Finalise a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will be  
submitted to the ICANN Board of Directors to officially establish the  
EURALO.

2)     Attend and participate in a public MoU Signing Ceremony, with  
ICANN Officers and stakeholders present, and present the MoU to the  
ICANN Board;

3)     Finalise the Bylaws for the EURALO.

4)     Elect the two Regional Representatives of the EURALO to the At- 
Large Advisory Committee;

5)     Elect other EURALO Officers and/or Secretariat as those  
positions may be defined within the Bylaws;

6)     Discuss and agree the policy areas of concern for the upcoming  
year in relation to ICANN’s remit and a programme of work on the issues.

Conference documents, draft proposals, a draft agenda, and details of  
how to attend remotely will be kept up-to-date on the EURALO Wiki’s  
Meetings and Events section at Http://st.icann.org/euralo, which may  
also be reached from www.euralo.org. You may choose an RSS feed from  
that page which will keep you up-to-date on the meetings – or simply  
check back often.

MEETING VENUE:  ICANN is arranging for the meeting room and all  
technical requirements for those attending in person and remotely.

MAIN ICANN MEETING ACCESS: You may register for the main ICANN  
meeting from the Lisbon meeting page as above, or you may choose to  
register upon arrival. There is no fee for registration in either case.

TRAVEL SUPPORT: ICANN is able to provide travel support and hotel  
accommodation for one representative of each At Large Structure, and  
most candidates for ALS status, who have identified themselves as  
requiring travel assistance, as follows:

Airfare, to and from Lisbon;
Hotel accommodation at a hotel TBD – for the nights of 23rd to 28th  
March inclusive;
Airport transfers to and from the hotel;
Meals from 23rd March dinner to 29th March lunch inclusive (except  
where a hosted dinner or lunch is provided by ICANN directly)


THE FINE PRINT REGARDING TRAVEL SUPPORT:

ICANN is committed to helping the community attend events and  
meetings and greatly values the time and energy that volunteers  
invest in ICANN, but please remember that we have many ALSes in many  
regions and we want to ‘stretch’ our travel budget as far as we can –  
so we rely upon all of you to try to travel affordably. Here are a  
few guidelines with respect to this meeting:

You are free to arrive earlier and depart later if you wish, however,  
all costs associated with doing so would be your responsibility,  
including any extra cost of airfare which might result from flying  
earlier or later.
ICANN will pay for the room charges and tax for the hotel on the  
nights above-referenced, however, you will likely be asked to deposit  
a credit card for incidentals and meals. Meals charged to your hotel  
room for the nights covered by ICANN may be reimbursed after  
attending the meeting by requesting reimbursement (see below for  
further details).
If you incur any costs in advance of approval of your Travel  
Authorisation Request Form being approved, ICANN will not reimburse  
these costs.
Any reimbursements you request after the meeting for allowable  
expenses as outlined above will require receipts accompanying an  
Expense Reimbursement form submitted after you return     home, so  
make sure to save all receipts.
ICANN will provide travel support for only one delegate per ALS/ 
candidate ALS, so additional representatives wishing to attend the  
meeting would not be able to request reimbursement or travel support  
– however, those who wish to attend remotely may do so and we  
encourage remote participation.
Air travel will be in economy class unless a special exception is  
requested and the request approved. If you feel that the length of  
your trip or some other factor justifies traveling by other classes,  
make your request to travel-staff at atlarge-lists.icann.org.
HOW TO REQUEST TRAVEL ASSISTANCE:

If you will request travel assistance to attend the meeting, please  
complete the attached Travel Approval form as soon as possible and  
email it to travel-staff at atlarge-lists.icann.org Please ensure that  
you fill in estimated costs for all sections of the form, except for  
the hotel, which costs will be paid directly by ICANN.

  **Please complete and email this form no later than 26 February  
2007 **

After ICANN approves your travel request, you will receive  
information on how to get your airline and/or train tickets purchased  
for you from ICANN’s travel agents. Due to the number of At-Large  
constituency meetings, you will need to allow ICANN travel to  
purchase your tickets for you rather than purchase them yourselves,  
unless the best fare/flight combination is unavailable via the ICANN  
agent – however, your airfare cost if self-purchased will still need  
to be approved in advance; we advise that those who plan to seek  
reimbursment for airfare after the fact provide a costed itinerary to  
the travel-staff at atlarge-lists.icann.org address along with the  
completed Travel Approval Form.

** Please schedule your travel so that you will arrive not later than  
early morning on Saturday 24th March. The first Session of the  
meetings is expected to begin that morning **

EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT:

The Travel Expense Reimbursement Form is available on the EURALO Wiki  
at http://st.icann.org/euralo should you require reimbursement.   
Please include all receipts in order for the reimbursement to be  
processed.  Completed Expense Reimbursement Forms and related  
documentation should be sent to accountspayable at icann.org with copies  
to travel-staff at atlarge-lists.icann.org.

VISA INFORMATION:

Please note that the nationals of a number of countries require a  
visa. Please refer to http://www.icann.org/meetings/lisbon for  
further information. Note further that ICANN staff cannot facilitate  
applications for visas and that it can take some time to get one, so  
if you are one of those who will require a visa you should apply for  
one without delay. If you will require a letter of invitation in  
order to get a visa, please write to travel-staff at atlarge- 
lists.icann.org

If we can provide any further information, please feel free to  
contact us by email at travel-staff at atlarge-lists.icann.org.



Kind regards



ICANN Staff


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