<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>George: By your own admission, you no longer represent any organization which is a member of the NCC. Yet you participate on our NCC list, and we welcome you. You will come to LA, join our NCC meeting, and debate the issues with us.
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<BR>Most constituencies are closed groups. The Intellectual Property Constituency takes months to review new applications, and then costs hundreds or more dollars to join. It is easy to create a common position in a homogeneous environment. It is much harder in ours.
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<BR>At one time, the NCC was the largest, most diverse, and most open of all the constituencies. We never, ever promised to represent the views of every organization in the NCC. What we promise in our charter was to be true to the spirit of noncommercial speech and activity on the Internet. It is a commitment that we have taken seriously, and against tremendous odds, we have done well.
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<BR>The load of the NCC is borne by a very few people. The task of following the day-to-day activities of ICANN takes time. The job of being an NCC leader participating fully in the Names Council can take hours and days. Being a Task Force or Committee Chair for the Names Council can take weeks. Bringing information back to the NCC, organizing and leading NCC meetings, working with NCC members is a task that consumes every day, and all free time.
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<BR>For those who do not know me, I was the first North American Names Council representative from the NCC. It was an all-consuming task. Mine is the mantle that Milton took up. It is a difficult job.
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<BR>Let's all step back and take a deep breath. If we look at the NCC, our task still remains making sure that the noncommercial voice and the amazing range of noncommercial speech and activity in our domain name system are represented in the debates of the ICANN community. Please judge people and email, not by their eloquence (for we are not all eloquent), but by their pursuit of our goals for noncommercial domain name use, development, and improvement.
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<BR>Regards,
<BR>Kathy Kleiman
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<BR>George.Sadowsky@attglobal.net wrote:
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<BR>I will be at ICANN in Los Angeles, and I look forward to observing
<BR>how you all interact in face to face discussions, that is, if the
<BR>group will let me join their meeting.
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