[NCUC-DISCUSS] Intersessional meeting

[Ayden Férdeline]

Hi Farzaneh,
Thank you for inviting our feedback on the value of the intersessional.
I had the good fortune of participating in this year's intersessional in Reykjavík and found it to be an effective forum for fostering inter-NCPH understanding. Remote participation is not yet a substitute for face-to-face meetings like this one where the focus is less about the formal agenda and more about understanding the perspectives of others who we do not ordinarily have significant interaction with. I thought that the intersessional's format, complete with breakout sessions and frequent interventions during the plenaries, really worked. For this reason, I strongly support our continued participation in this forum. (In the event that we decided not to participate, would the meeting simply go ahead with the CSG participating and meeting with ICANN staff without us? It just makes sense to me that we be at the table too.)
That said, for a number of reasons I thought Iceland was not the most sensible pick for the meeting this year. Rotating the meeting between ICANN’s three hubs – Los Angeles, Singapore, and Istanbul – makes a lot more sense to me than wasting resources scouting out a new location year upon year. And of course there are no objections on my part to your condition that our participating representatives attend well-prepared and ready to contribute.
Best wishes,

Ayden Férdeline
[linkedin.com/in/ferdeline](http://www.linkedin.com/in/ferdeline)

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [NCUC-DISCUSS] Intersessional meeting
> Local Time: July 22, 2017 11:39 PM
> UTC Time: July 22, 2017 9:39 PM
> From: farzaneh.badii at gmail.com
> To: NCUC-discuss <ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org>
>
> Dear All,
> For a couple of years, the noncontracted party house (NCPH, that means Commercial stakeholder group and noncommercial stakeholder group, for some information about NCPH refer to this page:https://community.icann.org/display/ncph/About+Us) have been having annual meetings separate from the main ICANN meeting. These meetings are called: "intersessional meetings".
> ICANN is asking NCPH whether they want to hold another meeting in 2018. The last meeting which was held in 2017 in Iceland was well received by the attendees and 100% of the attendees found the meeting useful.
> The attendees of the meeting are usually the leaders and active members of the group. This means both NCUC and NPOC Executive Committees and NCSG Executive Committee as well as NCSG representatives on GNSO Council. Sometimes we receive one or two travel slots to allocate to active participants of NCUC.
> There is support for the meeting from other groups.
> I would like to know if you have any opinion about holding an intersessional meeting in 2018, if you are either for or against it. In any case please provide reasons. I will communicate your ideas and positions on this to the organizers.
> My personal opinion is that intersessional is an additional burden on the volunteers, especially noncommercial groups, and I am not convinced that the meeting is that beneficial for getting to know the other groups, we can interact with the other groups in other settings. But it is not up to me to make a decision, there has been support for the meeting from the other groups and NCUC leaders as well. I have however informed ICANN that if intersessiona take place it should consider the following conditions:
> 1. it is held in a visa friendly country, preferably where ICANN has an office so that it will not cost too much to hold the meeting. I think holding the meeting last year in Iceland was too burdensome and costly.
> 2. I have said this before and reiterate, those who want to attend the meeting should actively participate in its preparation, setting the agenda and be prepared for the meeting. This means they should attend at least some of the preparatory meetings leading up to the annual meeting. If they are allocated the travel slot late in the process, then they should read up on materials and contribute fully.
> Please discuss until Wednesday 26 July. I will send a note to the organizers with your comments.
> Best
>
> Farzaneh
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncuc.org/pipermail/ncuc-discuss/attachments/20170723/5ea86c46/attachment-0002.html>