ICANN Board of Directors Meeting
 Friday, 2 November 2007
 ICANN Meeting - Los Angeles
 
 
  [ Music ]
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   Welcome to the 30th meeting of ICANN and 30th public board meeting.
 I hope everyone is awake, and I hope you'll make up for the fact that I might not be.
 First of all, I'd like to introduce two people that you didn't get a chance to meet yesterday.  And that's Ted and Margaret Twomey.  I wonder if the two of you could stand up for just a moment.  These are Paul Twomey's parents.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   There's a story going around about how Ted wants to punch me in the nose.  It turns out that he came to California, to Palmdale, actually, to teach mathematics during the -- just the post-Sputnik period on a Fulbright arrangement.  And he and his wife were quite annoyed by the testing of rocket engines in the Simi Valley south of Palmdale.
 It turns out in roughly that same time frame, I was working at Rocketdyne, and I was doing the tests of the F-1 rocket engines for the Apollo.  So that was me making all that noise.  And Ted immediately announced that when he had the opportunity, he was going to punch me in the nose belatedly.  So maybe out in the hall.
 All right.  Onward.
 First order of business is to -- oh, I'm supposed to also remind you that tomorrow -- I'm sorry -- Sunday morning, November 4th, at 3:00 a.m., the clocks go back one hour.  Sunday morning, November 4 at 3:00 a.m., clocks back one hour.
 You get an extra hour of sleep.
 First order of business is to approved the minutes of the 16 October meeting.  Njeri Rionge, would you please introduce that resolution.
 Resolved 07, the minutes of the board meeting of 16th October 2007 are approved.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Njeri.  Is there a second?  I see a second from Demi.  Are there any changes or corrections or amendments to the minutes?
 If not, call for a show of hands.
 All those in favor of approving the minutes, please raise your hand.  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13.
 >>RITA RODIN:   I'm on the line.  I vote in favor.
 >>VINT CERF:   Mr. Secretary, it's unanimous.
 Second item on the agenda is a discussion of the strategic plan.  And I have two discussants to open, Peter Dengate Thrush and Paul Twomey.
 Peter, would you like to begin, or would Paul like to begin?
 >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH:   By arrangement between us, the CEO.
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   As the community knows now well, I think we're in our fifth year of -- fifth -- coming up to our fifth cycle of planning, which involves a process of strategic planning for a six-month cycle, then moving into operational planning.
 The -- this -- the status of the strategic plan for this year is that there is -- there was consultations taken at our last face-to-face board meeting, international board meeting.  There was a fair number of public comments.  All those who have made responses to the public comment forum I have responded to personally saying thank you for their contributions.
 There was a re- -- a summation and a redoing of a draft of the strategic plan posted prior to this -- to this meeting here.  There's been a lot of good feedback in this meeting here, very constructive, including, I think, an important engagement by the board members.  And Peter will perhaps talk to that.
 The feedback we had received prior to -- at our last -- at our last face-to-face meeting was that people might wish to see the strategic plan moved to the next level of detail concerning what were the main emphasis of work priorities.
 So it's come down one level of abstraction.  The feedback we've received during this session is then to go similarly into, then, put in as much as we can milestones and timetables.  And there has been another draft prepared this week putting more of that in, as Peter will talk more to some of the further issues that the board members have raised.
 I will say there's been six consultation sessions with members of the community here in Los Angeles.  And those have been in multiple languages.  So perhaps that's an introduction, Chairman.  And Peter may wish to speak to the follow-up on that board discussions that we had.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much.  Peter.
 >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH:   Yes, thank you, Vint.  I don't want to go into much detail.  We've had some excellent sessions here that we've covered with the public and with the board very thoroughly.  But just some of the highlights.
 First of all, there's agreement by the board, I think, clearly now that we have to have a shared version for where we're going to be in two or three years' time.  And the board is actively participating in that.
 Directors give direction and the directors are doing that.  Including, as I mentioned yesterday, convening an extraordinary session at 7:00 in the morning the other day to help finalize some of those details.  And I think I want to repeat also the thanks I gave to Doug Brent and his team, not only for being there at 7:00 in the morning, but for all the other work that they've put into preparing this and their willingness to redraft, to take into account the materials from the community and from the board.
 Perhaps just two aspects from the content of the plan itself.  I think we have to mention the focus that we have now on IDNs.  We've got the 11 test IDNs in the root, and there are plans coming with different timelines for examining and setting policies for the CC IDNs, gTLD IDNs, and including examining very carefully the prospect of a fast-track solution for some of that.
 So that work is something that's significantly progressed through the work of all of the participants at this meeting.
 The other aspect, I think, is the -- having that been perhaps an external object, we also have a clear focus on the internal workings of the corporation itself, and perhaps the area to look at there would be finance.  There are going to be clear statements of financial objectives, clarity about the reserves and those sorts of details.  So there's some really constructive work that's gone into sharpening up the strategic plan so we can say we now have a shared vision of where we're going.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Peter.  Any other comments from board members?
 Raimundo.
 >>RAIMUNDO BECA:   Thank you, Vint.
 I would like to elaborate some more on the shared vision.
 The idea to have a shared vision in the strategic plan, it's mainly -- it's mainly to say that in a corporation, you don't read the future in a crystal ball.  You have to build the future.  And if you don't know where you want to go, you are going to build a random answer.
 In our near future to the four or five years now, we have a very, very big challenge.  And the very, very big challenge is that we will not have more IPv4 addresses.  And that we should -- we should write exactly what do we want to do and what we're -- what is going to happen is we have built another style of a black market or whatever.
 And to this extent, I would like to highlight the fact that yesterday, we had two important communiques, one from the GAC, and the other from ALAC.  And both were exactly in the same direction, were in the direction that we have to treat the deployment of the IPv6 in parallel with the exhaustion of the IPv4, and that we have to be aware, there's no way today to deploy IPv6 if you don't have IPv4.
 So the underdeveloped countries were -- the number of addresses which are not so large in developed countries have to be treated in a very -- with some help.
 I would have liked if the board could have today taken a proper statement.  But we didn't have time yesterday to have a good discussion on this issue.  So I leave it to the strategic plan.  I think that the strategic plan is perhaps the best place to have that.
 But I would like to say this, because we are going to have next week, in two weeks more, the IGF.  And I'm going to the IGF.  And I want to have the support of the board and the community to this kind of message.
 Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Raimundo.  I think you remind us of an important role that ICANN can choose to take.  Although we have a limited mandate for the allocation of I.P. addresses, we also have a responsibility to the Internet public to understand what some of the implications are of the challenges that are before us.  That means we have to articulate what other parties may need to do in order to assure that IPv6 is available.
 For the same reason, we have to make sure they understand what the implications are for Internationalized Domain Names and for the domain name system security steps that we would like to take, because the effect of all of these is not accomplished only by ICANN.
 Many, many others who are part of the Internet's scope have to also take steps, or these will not be effective.  A small example, the deployment of IPv6 addresses does not guarantee that the IPv6 Internet will be connected in the same sense that the IPv4 network is connected.
 If we don't do it right, you may have an IPv6 address but you may not be able to reach other parties on the network unless you can get all the way through using the IPv6 routing.
 Well, that's not ICANN's responsibility to establish the routing, or, for that matter, to establish agreements between ISPs that achieve the connectivity.
 So we really have a role to articulate, or a responsibility to articulate what all the parties of the Internet need to do in order to achieve some of these objectives.
 Sorry to go on and on.
 Are there other comments on the strategic plan?  Susan.
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   Thanks, Vint.  Just briefly, as one of my fellow directors reminded me, over the next five years at ICANN's current budget levels, we'll be spending a quarter of a billion dollars, and it's an important question for the ICANN community what we're getting for the Internet community, what we're getting for that money.
 >>VINT CERF:   I'm sorry.  Susan, could you clarify?  It says a quarter of a billion.
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   That's right.
 >>VINT CERF:   That's $250 million.  So -- okay, you're right.  It's -- that is a big number.  Yeah, you're right.  That is a big number.
 [ Laughter ]
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   See, doesn't that change your perspective once you think of it this way?  That's an awful a lot of money.
 >>VINT CERF:   You're right.
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   It's very important in the strategic plan process to dig in and say, all right, what outcomes do we want over the next three to five years.  And the board has been having many discussions about this to be as clear as we can about the nature of the outcomes we think we should be focused on.  And, Vint, you've already -- and Raimundo have already talked about an important one, which is making clear ICANN's role in the IPv4/V6 transition.  
 Another strategic plan output has got to be making clear ICANN's role in security in relation to the other communities who deal with security-related issues on the Internet.
 My concern, as you know, is that there appears to be no upper bound to the budget of ICANN at this point.  And I want to make sure that in our mandate, we don't wander beyond ICANN's mission in order to spend this money, but always try to keep focused on what ICANN's job is.
 So we've had some very constructive discussions this week.  I think we should continue to ask ourselves what exactly we're getting for this money and focus on measurable outputs as much as possible.
 >>VINT CERF:   Okay.  Thank you, Susan.  Any other comments?
 In that case, I think we'll go on to the next item.  But I appreciate very much the reminder, especially from Susan, that we are spending a lot of money to make things work.
 Other people will be spending a lot of money as well, or it may not work.
 The next item on the agenda has to do with the update on Internationalized Domain Names.  And there is an action item associated with it.
 I'd like to ask Demi Getschko to introduce the motions that are associated with this.
 Demi.
 >>DEMI GETSCHKO:   Thank you, Vint.  It's my honor to introduce this.
 Whereas, the ccNSO and the GAC collaborated to develop and submit to the board at San Juan ICANN meeting an issues report relating to the selection of IDN ccTLDs associated with ISO 3166-1 two-letters codes.
 Whereas the ICANN board resolved in its meeting in San Juan on 29 June 2007 that the ICANN community, including the GNSO, the ccNSO, GAC, and ALAC, provide the ICANN board with responses to the published list of issues and questions that need to be addressed in order to move forward with IDN ccTLDs associated with the ISO 3166 two-letter codes, IDNC, in a manner that ensures the continued security and stability of the Internet.  Further, the board resolved that the ICANN community, including these key groups, continue to work collaboratively to explore both the interim and an overall approach to IDNC, taking the technical limitations and requirements into consideration, and recommend a course of action to the ICANN board in a timely manner.
 Whereas, the GNSO, GAC, and ALAC are in the process of, or have concluded, their responses on the issues report.
 Whereas, regarding the overall approach, the ccNSO Council approved a resolution in 2 October, 2007, requesting that an issues report be prepared to address inter alia the questions in the issue paper, which is a first step in considering the launch of a ccNSO policy development process, PDP.
 Whereas, based on the results of a survey conducted by the chair of the ccNSO, the ccNSO Council concluded at its Los Angeles meeting that there is a strong indication for near-term demand for IDNCs --
 >>VINT CERF:   Demi, Demi, --
 >>DEMI GETSCHKO:   Slow down?
 -- in some countries, territories, and areas of geographical interest or their subdivision.  The  ccNSO Council therefore recommended to the ICANN board that an Internationalized Domain Names working group, IDNC working group, be formed under the proposed charter submitted to the board by the ccNSO chair.
 Whereas, the GAC reaffirmed its support in principle to the possibility of an interim or fast-transparency and accountability approach, welcomed the proposal of the  ccNSO Council for an IDNC Working Group, and indicated its intention to actively engage in the process.
 Whereas, the GNSO and ALAC also indicated in public discussions their support for an interim approach as proposed by the ccNSO Council.
 Whereas, the cross-community process as envisioned and proposed by the ccNSO Council, is consistent with ICANN's bottom-up, multistakeholder model for considering issues and recommending to the ICANN board a course of action.
 Resolved, the board expresses its gratitude to the work completed so far by GNSO, ccNSO, GAC, and ALAC.
 Resolved, the board respectfully invites the chairs of ccNSO, GNSO, GAC, ALAC, and SSAC set up the IDNC Working Group and appoint members to this group as soon as possible, and when established, requests the IDNC Working Group to commence its work in accordance with the charter adopted by the ccNSO Council.  The ICANN board directs staff to provide the necessary support to the IDNC Working Group and requests that the IDN working group provides a status report on its progress by the conclusion of the ICANN meeting in New Delhi in February 2008.
 Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Demi.
 Is there a second for this motion?  I see Njeri.
 I think there should be some discussion, and I would like to point out two minor typographical errors, the first one in the second resolution.  It should read:  The board respectfully invites the chairs of the ccNSO, GNSO, GAC, ALAC, and SSAC to set up, T-O, to set up, the IDNC Working Group.
 And second, there's a reminder for the writer of this resolution to put a hyperlink into the ccNSO's working group charter.  And I would ask the secretary to assure that that reference is replaced by a real hyperlink.
 On more substantive grounds, the introduction of the IDNs is absolutely one of the most important changes to the domain name space since its inception.
 It's taken many years to get to the point where there is confidence that we understand how to do this.  And along the lines of the comments that were made by Raimundo and by Susan, we have an obligation to do everything in our power to describe what needs to be done by all parties using IDNs, registering them, and writing software that might interact with them, so that they will in fact perform in the way that we all hope.
 So, once again, we have an obligation and an opportunity to describe how this can be done, because not all of the steps can be taken solely by ICANN.
 I'd like to invite other comments.  I see a hand up.  Peter.
 >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH:   Thanks, Vint.  Just a quick comment on how important, how good this is in terms of the use of the cross-constituency or cross-unit approach.  We get the occasional problem in ICANN that people are working in their own silos.  And this is the complete counter example.  We've had really good cooperation between the ccNSO and the GAC from the very beginning in working together to solve the issues questions and working on what the proper questions were.  And this is the next step, bringing in all the other parts.  And we've seen a lot of that cooperation.  So it's a tribute, really, to the multistakeholder model in action.
 >>VINT CERF:   It's a helpful observation, Peter.  Thank you.
 Any other comments on IDNs before we vote on this resolution?
 Roberto.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   I'm probably stating the obvious.  We have been saying this all for many years, that the IDN is a very important move forward.
 I think that I would like to stress the major point of interest for the IDN, once again, that it will allow people that have been at the margins of the Internet community to contribute much better because they can use the language and script that they are used to.
 I know that this has been said so many times, but I didn't want to give the impression to the community that we just -- that this is just one minor thing, one resolution among others.
 It is a very important step in the path that will go to the introduction of the IDN.  And I think that the whole board is really convinced that we are doing something for the good of the Internet.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Roberto.  I saw Janis Karklins' hand up as well.
 Janis.
 >>JANIS KARKLINS:   Thank you, Vint.  
 I fully concur with what Peter said.  It is exemplary cooperation between different constituencies and different organizations within ICANN in developing policy and developing methodology for rolling out IDNs.
 I can assure that GAC is extremely interested in these developments.  We'll do everything we can to be a part of the process.  And I'm convinced that in June next year, we will be able to report on the outcome of these activities.
 At the same time, I think it would be very important taking into account that, unfortunately, GAC is not universal, not yet, that we are -- that we find the way how to spread the word, spread the information what we are doing, what issues we are addressing, and trying to gather input also from those government representatives or from those governments which are not represented in the GAC.
 So this is just a point for reflection.  And, hopefully, we will find a way also how to do this outreach in this very crucial moment of reflection and setting up the policy.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Janis.
 Any other comments?  Paul Twomey and Susan Crawford.
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   Thank you, Chairman.
 I'd like to reinforce those comments made about the operation of the multistakeholder model within ICANN.
 I made an observation during the week that it does strike me that one of the ways in which we are now seeing the various constituencies working together, particularly the Governmental Advisory Committee in its public-policy role, for me, is -- one of my previous life experiences has been a senior government official.  It reminds me that we're building a model for cross-constituency policy development, which is very similar to domestic policy development in a particular country.  And so it's interesting that it's the same sort of model beginning to emerge of consultation with the particular players, the governments, the industry participants, the technical experts working together on definition of the problem and how to solve the problem.
 I think that has echoes of the ways in which things are often done on a domestic level in a particular country.  I think that's just an interesting observation.
 I would like to make another point, Chairman, that the resolution calls for the establishment of this working group to give us advice and to plan forward.  But I think we can all be very clear to the community, this is not the establishment of just another committee, and this is not the establishment of just another committee to cause delay.  There may be perceptions that that's -- that what ICANN does in IDNs is set up committees that then set up committees.  And we want to ensure that the community understands, and we'll make certain we work on a timetable to outline that these are pulling together key substantive steps so that we can actually introduce what is a very significant changes across a global interoperable Internet.  I want to reinforce, Chairman, that this is not seen as simply a committee for a committee.  This is got a very set task to do in the context of a program that we've got a clear mind for, and we will need to communicate that program clearly.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Paul.
 Susan.
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   I want to note for the board that there has been a lot of IDN policy work already done on the gTLD side of the house and that, indeed, IDNs are part of the new gTLD process.  That's our hope and anticipation.
 This resolution calls for the creation of a working group to explore a limited number of IDNs that would be closely mapped to the ISO-3166 list of designations that would be meaningful as expressions of a country name.
 I want to caution us not to be saying this is the introduction of IDN.  We have a very large process for new gTLDs which will be introducing IDN names into the root as well.  And I want us to keep this in perspective and be aware of the competitive concerns that operators in the gTLD side of the house have.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Susan.
 Rita asked to be in the queue also.
 Rita, if you can hear me, would you like to make your remarks?
 >>RITA RODIN:   I can.  Thank you, Vint.  And it's actually an interesting follow-on to what Susan just said.
 I agree with the comments made by Peter, Janis, Paul, and others about what a great milestone this is to have all of the constituencies under ICANN, including the GAC, working together.  But I just want to wish this working group luck, because I think there is some tough work ahead to do.  As Susan mentioned, there's been a lot of work done on the IDN policy.  And so I encourage this working group, once it's formed, to not shy away from the tough issues, but, rather, to discuss them and to document different points of view.
 It may be that this working group may not be able to resolve things in one shot.  But I do believe that everyone is excited by the IDN introduction and that this is a process that the entire community can work through and seek compromise and solutions.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Rita.
 I have a couple of other follow-on thoughts that I'd like to share for the record.
 The first one is that because the introduction of IDNs, however they happen to be used, as country-code designators or more generic labels, because that has to involve parties other than ICANN, and because, as Janis says, the GAC itself is not universal, and, therefore, the communications within our organization will not be sufficient to convey to all interested parties the value of these new IDNs, we should be looking for other organizations outside of ICANN with whom to cooperate in order to be -- to spread this word more broadly.  Internet Society comes to mind as one.  UNESCO, another.  And so on.
 The second thing is that we should be careful not to imagine that the introduction of an IDN causes content to be created.  It may help content to be discovered, but it does not cause it to be created.  So to the extent that we want more content on the network in languages that are native to many populations around the world, we have to encourage people to produce that content.  That's a completely separate activity, but one without which the Internet and the World Wide Web are far less valuable.
 Roberto.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   Just a very quick comment.  When I hear you talking about the separation between the IDNs and the contents, I think that this is -- we should remember this observation when we will be talking about the new gTLDs and how and when and why those are going to be introduced.
 It seems to me that in the community, there is still some confusion between the domain name and the contents.
 Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Roberto.
 Are there any other comments before we vote on these resolutions, as amended?
 I don't see any.  So if I could call for a vote now.  All those in favor of both resolutions, please raise your hand.
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12.  And, Rita, how do you vote?
 >>RITA RODIN:   I vote in favor, Vint.
 >>VINT CERF:   That's 13.  Are there any abstentions?
 Are there any objections?
 It's unanimous, Mr. Secretary.
 And we go on now to a discussion --
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   Vint, should be 14.
 >>VINT CERF:   Did I miscount?  Oh, you didn't have your hand up -- let's do it one more time and see if the chairman can still count.
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13 -- Cerf forgot to count himself -- and 14, Rita.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   You think that you are over the begun, but you have to stay another couple of hours.
 >>VINT CERF:   My body is here.  My brain is clearly somewhere out surfing.
 Okay.  It's unanimous.
 The next item on the agenda has to do with the GNSO improvements, which have been the subject of considerable effort.  And Roberto is going to lead that discussion as the BGC chair and also the leader of the working group managing that process.
 So Roberto.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   Yes.  I would like to keep the introduction very short, because we have been talking about this in several instances in this meeting.
 I would like only to say that the essence of what we are trying to do in the GNSO working group with the GNSO improvements.  We believe that the current GNSO has done an incredible amount of work.  And there's no kind of criticism, I would say, of the work of the GNSO.  But we just think that as things change in every context, and especially when we relate to market, the domain name market that has evolved so much, and the landscape has evolved so much, also thanks to the introduction of the first new gTLDs, the introduction of the registry/registrar model, there has been a lot of changes that have been -- where ICANN has been really an element of change.
 But now the market is really dynamic and is going in directions with the creation of new subjects that were unforeseen at the time when we laid out the basic structure of the, at that time, GNSO.
 So I think that our hope was that the DNSO, now GNSO, could evolve gracefully following the evolution of the market, and we have observed that this has not been the case.
 In other words, the basic structure with the constituencies that we had many years ago has not changed.
 We thought, in the beginning when we were talking in -- back in '98, about the introduction of new constituencies.  This has not happened.
 There's a kind of a crystallization of the status quo.  And I think this does not go to the benefit of the Internet community.
 Besides the old issue about the -- a constituency for the individual registrants that has been on the table since the meeting in, at least Berlin, if not before, we have new other subjects like, for instance, the domainers who are, how they can be in the picture.
 We had discussion these days, for instance,  in the relationship to the ISP that are considered somehow on the consumer side.  But in fact, the big raison d'etre of the ISPs is the fact that they provide services and they provide connectivity.  And also other service hosting, Web hosting and all this.
 So they have something to say also on the supplier side.
 And also this crystallization in constituencies has really ossified in a voting system where a lot of things seem to be really just a power balance of vote.
 So all this to say that what we are trying to do is, first of all, to give a little bit less power to the vote and more power to the ideas.
 And that means putting the working groups that are going to be open and not just expression of the balance of power in the constituencies, but open to external contribution, and to make that the focal point of the policy development process.
 That will need even a shift in our culture, in our way of thinking.
 The GNSO is, in fact, already going in this direction with some working group that have been established that are being extremely successful.
 That will mean that the importance of the chair of the working group is going to raise.  That means that we need to also support, in terms of education, tools, and so on, the work of the chair of the working groups.
 And at the same time, to change the council from a place where we have fixed and immutable silos called constituencies into a dynamic evolutionary structure where we have stakeholder groups that are grouped in the supplier and in the demand side of the domain name market, given equal weight to the supply and to the demand.  But being able to self-organize internally and to create new groups and to express new ideas and pushing a little bit the dynamics.  Make it easy for new group to join and making it for easy for new ideas to circulate.
 So this is the essence of what we are trying to do.
 We had some support, some criticism.
 The criticism was always very constructive.
 We think that we can include the element of the criticism in a new version.
 We are still in the public comment period.
 But I think that the basis of this has to be shared by the board as an endorsement of this being the way to go forward.
 And it has also to be explained to the community that we need to evolve.
 It is a little bit like the situation where you have companies that are established in the market, and the market is changing.  And if they don't evolve, they remain behind, and they become, with time, irrelevant.
 And I think that ICANN has to look at the future and has to look at positioning itself in the remaining position as the main place where activities that are related to the Internet community take place.
 And in order to gain and maintain this position in the current landscape and future landscape, I think that it needs to evolve.  Abandon old ideas and evolve.
 We are not talking about a revolution that will change everything.  We are talking about letting the system evolve, maintaining adherence to the ideas that have created, contributed to create, ICANN.
 Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Well, thank you, Roberto.
 Are there any other comments on the GNSO?
 I see Bruce Tonkin's hand up.
 >>BRUCE TONKIN:   Thank you, Vint.
 I just wanted to make a couple of, I guess, observations and perhaps suggestions for planning or prioritization.
 I think the GNSO improvements report is very thorough and covers sort of four or five main areas.  And then it recommends that the staff work with the GNSO community to implement those changes and then come back to the Board Governance Committee with more information.
 My sense through this week and through listening to the various speakers in the GNSO is that there is strong support for the working group model.  And I would hope that we would prioritize during the more detailed sets of procedures for how those working groups will operate.  Because they very much become the key for the future for the GNSO.  And it's important that we, I guess, one, have a fast process of getting a basic set of rules, but also have a structure that allows those rules to evolve with experience.
 And I think in the past, the rules that we have had for the PDP have been rigid.  They are sort of four years old.  As we're learning, we are not really being able to incorporate those learnings into those PDP rules.  And I hope that as we set up the initial set of rules for working group, we also set up a process to be able to evolve them as we learn how to make that process more effective.
 With respect to the structure, I think there's support for the strategy, and the strategy being that there's essentially suppliers in registries, registrars, that there's commercial users and noncommercial users.
 I think below that level, particularly in the noncommercial side, I think we need to give that some more thought.
 And then the question is, are we purely going to rely on a self-forming structure in that some kind of new constituency is formed or do we want to provide some sort of framework for those constituencies to form?
 So ALAC, to my mind, was an example where ICANN attempted to establish a framework within which sort of user organizations could become involved in ICANN.  Whether that's successful or not, I guess would come out of a review of the ALAC structure.
 But certainly, I think for the noncommercial side, we need to think about there are several separations there.  There's obviously noncommercial -- or large organizations that are, in fact, may very well be very well resourced, organizations such as large universities, Red Cross, et cetera.
 Then there is the -- I guess what we refer to as an individual registrar, and then I guess is it the fact that they are an individual that defines them or what they do that defines them?  So should we be having individual constituencies or should we be having a constituency of bloggers or constituency of e-mail users or whatever?  It's not clear yet, the best way to divide those so-called individual registrants.
 And then there's a difference between a registrant and a user.
 So even though we might be of the order of a hundred million registrants for domain names in the world, we're of the order of several billion users of the Internet.  And I don't think we clearly separate the difference between someone who is a registrant who actually wants to use an address for their work, whether it's a Web site address or an address for you to be able to reach them via e-mail.  But remember that many people, their e-mail is usually of the form of the person's name at some ISP.  So they are actually not domain name registrants but they are e-mail users.
 So have we really clearly captured that user input as distinct from the individual registrant input?
 So I think my comments would be that in terms of that high-level structure, I think you need to have a strategy, might even be a three-year strategy, for how that is going to evolve.  And then you need some concrete plans for the next 12 months with some milestones as to exactly what's going to happen in the next 12 months with respect to that high-level structure.
 So just some ideas.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Bruce.
 Other comments?  Susan?  No?
 Rita, do you have any comments?  I'm not hearing Rita.  I will assume she is muted.
 >>RITA RODIN:   I'm sorry, Vint I was muted.
 No, I just wanted to say we're going to the GNSO improvements working group last night and discussed some of the very helpful comments that we heard this week.  I think we were encouraged by everyone, really in the report in making their comments.  So there will be something shortly in terms of next what people will be doing.
 As I say the working group is looking to bring this to closure in fairly short order.  I encourage people to continue to stay tuned and contribute to the process.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you.
 I have three points that I would like to add to the discussion.
 The first one is a question.
 Has the public comment period for comments on the proposed GNSO improvements been extended to end of November?  Is that correct?  Can I get a response from -- Susan?
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   We are going to try to make this as clear as possible.  I understand it has been extended to the end of November, the public comment period, yes.  And what we are planning to do is come out, in short order, as Rita said, with a public page that describes exactly what the process is going to be from here on out so that there's no confusion.
 Thanks, Vint.
 >>VINT CERF:   Second question has to do with the implementation of changes to the GNSO structure.
 The GNSO structure is, in some respects, reflected directly in the bylaws of ICANN.  And I hope that this restructuring would allow us to escape from some of the strictures of detailed descriptions of these organizations buried in the bylaws.  So one of my question is that likely to happen?  Will we end up with a more flexible organization that doesn't require bylaw changes in order to establish modifications to the structure of the Supporting Organization?  That's a question.
 Susan.
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   Again, yes, our anticipation is that we would lick to remove, for example, the very detailed description of the PDP, which as Bruce described, has gotten woefully out of date, from the bylaws, is one recommendation made in the report, so that it can be modified in a more dynamic basis.
 And in general, provide for a simpler structure for the GNSO going forward that we believe will be future-proof.  Will be able to stay in place for a while.
 Thanks.
 >>VINT CERF:   Last observation I wanted to make is in part reflected in remarks that Bruce just made.
 There are a number of identifiers that are used in the Internet that bind an identifier to a destination, an I.P. address, that are not domain names.
 People who use instant messaging are using identifiers that ultimately end up mapping into an I.P. address.  But these identifiers are not specifically domain names.
 The e-mail addresses, while they contain domain names, are actually not domain names because it's the left-hand side to the left of the @ sign that determines the real destination of a piece of e-mail.
 There may, in fact, be other identifiers invented in the course of time which will be of use to users that will not fall into the same regime as the current domain name system.
 And ICANN is going to have to be attentive to the fact that this is still a very dynamic environment and that the notion of identifiers extends well beyond domain names.
 This is going to pose an interesting problem for the organization because if it stays closely aligned to its original objectives, as these new identifier spaces are created, ICANN will have no specific responsibility for them.
 I am not, in this observation, suggesting that it should.  I'm only suggesting that the focus of attention right now on all the complexity surrounding domain names is, in part, a function of the heavy use of domain names at present.  But as time goes on, the ball game may move out from under ICANN.
 That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it should be -- the board should be attentive to that possibility.
 Are there any other comments that we'd like to engage in now?  If not, we'll go on to the next item in the agenda.
 Thank you very much for that discussion, Roberto.
 The next item has to do with posting of terms of reference for the independent review of the Root Server System Advisory Committee.
 This is part of the formal and regular process of reviewing all components of ICANN.
 Our practice is to produce the Terms of Reference, to post it, and to allow public comment before we engage in the actual evaluation of any particular ICANN component.
 So I would like to ask Vanda to put this resolution on the table.
 Vanda.
 Turn on your microphone.
 >>VANDA SCARTEZINI:   Posting of Terms of Reference for the independent review of RSSAC.
 Whereas Article IV, Section 4 of ICANN bylaws calls for the board to cause periodic reviews of the performance and operation of each Supporting Organization, each Supporting Organization council, each advisory committee, other than the GAC, and the Nominating Committee by an entity or entities independent of the organization under review.
 Whereas, on 8 December 2006, the board approved a comprehensive schedule for independent reviews and directed staff to execute the reviews as scheduled.
 Whereas the board has considered the Board Governance Committee's recommendation that draft Terms of Reference for the DNS root server system advisory committee, RSSAC, independent review be posted for public comment.
 Resolved, the board directs staff to post the draft Terms of Reference for the RSSAC independent review for public comment and further consideration.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Vanda.  Is there a second for this motion?  I see a second from Roberto.
 Is there any discussion of this motion?
 I don't see any.
 There is an empty microphone and a moment of silence.  The Chairman can't pass up the opportunity to make an observation about the Root Server System Advisory Committee.  This is a very important part of ICANN's structure.
 The domain name system doesn't work without the root servers.
 So it's really important for us to understand how that system works, how well the advisory committee serves ICANN's needs, and whether it can be improves.
 So I think this is very important action on the part of our regular review process.
 Assuming there aren't any other comments on this -- Suzanne, I have just an offer to you if you have anything to say.
 >>SUZANNE WOOLF:   I hadn't planned to since our role is largely to our job and to make sure that things are working as N1 required and to keep things moving forward.
 >>VINT CERF:   Amen to that.
 I'll call for a vote, then.  All those in favor of the resolution, please raise your hand.
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13, and Rita, how do you vote?
 >>RITA RODIN:   I vote in favor, Vint.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, 14.  It is unanimous, Mr. Secretary.  And we will go on now to the next item on the agenda, which is a discussion on the GNSO PDP on contractual conditions for existing gTLDs.
 I would like to call on Bruce Tonkin to lead this discussion.
 Bruce.
 >>BRUCE TONKIN:   Thank you, Vint.
 This policy development process was kicked off in February of 2006, and the GNSO completed its work at its meeting in August of 2007, this year, where it passed by a certain majority vote a set of recommendations for the board.
 The final report, which includes that vote, has now been posted on the GNSO Web site, which is www.gnso.icann.org.
 This is now before the board for consideration.
 There were ten recommendations, and I won't attempt to go through them, but just to give the board a sense of the type of recommendations.
 Some of the recommendations are really asking for some form of written standard procedure to set expectations for the future.
 So for example, one of the recommendations is that there should be a policy guiding registry agreement renewal.
 And I note that the staff have included in the financial year '07/08 operating plan a project to establish a plan to facilitate a timely process for registry agreement renewals.
 So some of these recommendations are already in effect, starting to be incorporated into ICANN's planning.
 Then there are other recommendations along the lines of asking ICANN staff to do further analysis of an issue.
 So one of the examples of that is doing some further analysis of exactly what registry data does get collected, including potentially traffic information, as to what traffic is -- or DNS traffic is associated with a particular gTLD, and how might that information currently being used, and are there any concerns about how that's being used.
 So that's really a recommendation to conduct some sort of study.
 So that's just giving a bit of an idea of the various scope of those recommendations.
 And I believe that the staff will provide a report for the board before the board considers those recommendations to just set out if the board approved those recommendations, how the staff would actually implement those recommendations.
 I don't know if we have Denise Michel, who is the vice president of policy, whether she can give us a sense of when the board might receive that plan.
 >>VINT CERF:   Denise is here at the floor, and she is making an effort to capture a microphone, which is refusing to -- there we are.
 Denise, you have the floor.
 >>DENISE MICHEL:   Thank you.
 The board report has been submitted to the board.  A public comment e-mail list has been open for any further comments people might have for the board.  Since this was approved -- So the board is now in its consideration phase of this final report.
 Since the report was approved by a supermajority vote of the council, the next steps are for the board to consider the report and then adopt the report, unless by a vote of supermajority or 60% of the board, the board determines it is not in the best interest of the Internet community.
 I would be happy to answer any further questions.
 >>VINT CERF:   Are there any questions from the board for Denise?  Susan.
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   Not exactly a question.  Nor a historical comment here.
 There was great deal of concern in the history of this particular PDP, concern and some confusion, over what the appropriate scope of the GNSO's policy-making is, or should be, particularly when it comes to policies that might be considered to be binding on existing registries and registrars.
 One element of the GNSO improvements report is to attempt to clarify for the future the scope of the GNSO's role so that we don't have to go through these tussles with these PDPs.
 I understand that with respect to some of the recommendations listed in this contractual PDP, there is concern about whether individual recommendations were the subject of consensus across the GNSO.
 I hope that we can explore that at a later date.
 I don't propose that we discuss that today.
 I don't think the board is ready to vote to adopt these recommendations today.
 But I hope that we will explore that at a later meeting.
 Thanks.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Susan.
 Any other comments?
 If not, we'll move on, then to the next item on the agenda, which is a review of the proposed ALAC-related bylaws changes.
 I would remind you that this is important because we have been adapting and Changing ALAC for some time now, and we need to reflect that in our bylaws.
 So Vanda, let me ask if you would enter this motion into the record.
 >>VANDA SCARTEZINI:   Okay, thank you, Chair.
 Review of proposed ALAC-related bylaws changes.
 Whereas the At-Large Advisory Committee has proposed a revised process for handling applications for membership in the at-large community worldwide.
 Whereas, the new process attempts to improve considerably upon the previous process, including by providing the regional at-large organization with an important role in evaluating new membership applications.
 Whereas, this new process is designed to increase the transparency by which applications are judged, and at the same time, help ensure that applicants will understand the criteria for judging applications in advance of submitting them.
 Resolved, the board takes note of the proposed new ALS applications process, and directs the staff to post the related proposed amendments to Article IX, section 2(4)(i) of the ICANN bylaws for public comment and requests that the staff prepare a summary and analysis of the public comments.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Vanda.
 Is there a second for this motion?  Ramaraj has his hand up.
 Is there any further discussion of the motion?
 Roberto.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   Yes.  Just a quick explanation on why, also for the benefit of the community on why those changes are necessary.
 When ALAC has been formed, there were certain specific rules for joining and for becoming an at-large structure, which is the key element in the building of the ALAC.
 We have seen over the years that reality was, as too many times, was a little bit more complex than the way we thought.
 And there were certain perfectly legitimate at-large structures who could contribute substantially to the process of ALAC and to the policy development; that because of some minor inadequacies or noncorrespondence to the language and to the strict requirements that we had, could not join.  And that created also a lot of misunderstanding with some parts of the community.  Created also complaints to the ombudsman and lots of things.
 And I think that this change in the bylaws will allow ALAC to be more flexible in accepting new members in terms of new at-large structures.  And I think that that will go really for the benefit of the whole community.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Roberto.  Are there any other comments?
 I would just make one observation, that this is an example again of our -- well, the complexity of placing in the bylaws detailed structures that dictate the way in which various parts of our Supporting Organizations function.
 And if I could speculate for a moment, I think when the -- when ICANN was created and when we went through the evolution and reform program, it wasn't clear exactly how the various pieces of this complex structure were going to interact and work.  And by putting things into the bylaws, it made it difficult to change, but that meant that the board had to pay attention to modifications.
 It may be that as we gain experience with these organizations, these components of ICANN and confidence and their ability to work, that we may be able to extract some of the detail from the bylaws and achieve a somewhat more flexible and responsive structure.
 When Roberto said that things were more complicated, it reminded me of my favorite theorem 207, which reads, everything is more complicated.
 Let me ask if there are any other comments on this proposed resolution before we call a vote.
 I don't see any.
 Rita, do you have any comments?
 >>RITA RODIN:   No, Vint.  Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Okay.  Thanks.
 In that case, I'll call for a vote on this.
 All those in favor of the proposed resolution, raise your hand, please.
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13.
 And Rita, how do you vote?
 >>RITA RODIN:   I vote in favor, Vint.
 >>VINT CERF:   That's 14.  I won't call for abstentions and objections.  It is unanimous, Mr. Secretary.
 The next item on the agenda has to do with the evaluation of ICANN's geographic regions, particularly in the context of the ccNSO, and I'd like to call on Peter Dengate Thrush to introduce this resolution.
 Peter.
 >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH:   Yes, thank you, Vint.  I guess I am asked because of my connections with the ccTLD community, so let me introduce this, by way of background, to remind people that under the bylaws the ICANN world is divided into five regions, and the ccTLDs have experienced some difficulties with the current structures.  These include boundary issues, not being quite clear about whether a ccTLD close to the boundary should be or be could somewhere else, and also with what's become known as the repatriation or patriation of overseas colonial or offshore territories.  So what the ccNSO has done is produce a detailed report on the impact of those bylaws and the effect of them in the operation on the ccNSO.
 And some of them are quite significant.  There are major disincentives or barriers to people in some of those regions from taking part in the ICANN process, simply as a result of the unintended consequences of the bylaw operation.
 So that's the report that the ccNSO have commissioned, and it's referred to in the resolution I'm about to read out.
  ccNSO doesn't think it's appropriate to make recommendations to other organizations within the ICANN structure as to what they might do about the five regions, but this resolution, at their request, calls on those other constituencies to contribute to a process.
 So the resolution reads:
 Whereas, an ICANN board resolution in 2000 directed staff to assign countries to geographic regions on the basis of the United Nations statistics division's current classifications, and introduced the concept of "citizenship" in relation to the definition of ICANN geographic regions.
 Whereas, Article IV, section 5 of the ICANN bylaws directs that a review of the definition of ICANN geographic regions should occur at least every three years, and the last review was completed at the ICANN board meeting in Montreal in June 2003.
 Whereas, the ICANN bylaws define the five geographic regions as Africa, North America, Latin America/Caribbean, Asia/Australia/Pacific, and Europe.  And also expand the concept that, quote, "Persons from an area that is not a country should be grouped together with the country of citizenship for that area," unquote, so that the area or territory itself was similarly allocated to the region of the, quote, "mother country," unquote.
 Whereas the ICANN geographic regions were originally created to ensure regional diversity in the composition of the ICANN board and were subsequently expanded in various ways to apply to the GNSO, ALAC, and ccNSO.
 Whereas, the ccNSO has concerns about the present geographic regions and related representational issues, and the  ccNSO Council adopted the recommendations in the final report by the ccNSO regions working group which addressed these issues.
 Whereas, the  ccNSO Council approved a resolution recommending that the ICANN board appoint a community-wide working group to further study and review the issues related to the definition of the ICANN geographic regions, to consult with all stakeholders and submit proposals to the board to resolve the issues relating to the current definition of the ICANN geographic regions.
 Whereas, any change to ICANN geographic regions could have wide-spread effect in ICANN, the views of other Supporting Organizations and advisory committees should be sought by the board.
 Resolved, the board respectfully requests that the ICANN community, including the GNSO, ccNSO, ASO, GAC, and ALAC, provide the ICANN staff with input on the  ccNSO Council's resolutions relating to ICANN's geographic regions.  The board further directs staff to summarize and analyze this input and prepare a report for consideration by the board.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Peter.
 Is there a second for this resolution?  I see Demi Getschko's hand up.
 Is there some discussion, further discussion of the resolution before we call a vote?
 Yes, Raimundo.
 >>RAIMUNDO BECA:   Thanks, Vint.
 I will abstain on this resolution due to the fact that the -- in my opinion, we have things much more important to do in geographical regions than to review the numbers of regions and the boundaries of regions.
 In fact, if you see the structure of the RIRs, if you see the structure of the RALOs, they have been applied with pragmatical considerations.  They are not exactly the same regions like indicated in the United Nations statistical division.
 And I have been very -- been raising very strongly for many years now the fact that ICANN has in the international community what I have been calling a strong regional footprint and has the credibility on the regional working.  And we should not undermine that.  And that's why I think I will abstain.
 I have nothing against studying regions.  But -- we have to do it.  But I would say that our labor should be more in strengthening the footprint of ICANN and not mainly to review the boundaries.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Raimundo.  I see Susan -- oh, I'm sorry.  I've seen several hands go up.
 Roberto had his hand up first, was the first one I saw.
 I see Janis.  Let's just run around this way.  So it's Roberto, Janis, Susan, and Vanda.
 Roberto.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   I have two simple comments.  The first one is that I have observed during my tenure, various positions in ICANN, some problems with the geographic regions.  For instance, my latest experience was in ALAC and it was particularly funny to realize when we were trying to put together the RALO for Europe that the Internet Society based in Tahiti was belonging to Europe.  And so we were thinking of having our first European meeting in Tahiti.
 So that didn't go through, because, in fact, they were wiser than us and they got together with some other colleagues, I would say Internet users in the Pacific area.  And, in fact, they found it more effective to rely with the other people of the other Pacific Islands, regardless of which geographical regions those different islands belonged to.
 And so --  But that, institutionally, can really cause a problem when we have the selection of -- for leadership positions.
 The second thing is that, since I have observed different problems in different communities, I do believe that the problems that the ccTLDs, for instance, have, although they might be connected with the problems that the ALAC has in the geographic regions, we might have see a collaboration, a cross-constituency collaboration that is always very useful.
 But I would warn against the result of this collaboration being the attempt of finding a one-size-fits-all solution.
 I think that, as I have said already once before and many times since I am in ICANN, reality is more complex than we think.  And I don't think that it will be a good idea to, I would say, constrain ourselves in thinking that the geographical regions that are used, for instance, for selection for geographical diversity on the board have to be necessarily the same rules that apply for the distribution of the ccTLDs or for the distribution of the regions for the addressing, because there might be some practical aspects related to the way the infrastructure is built, that, for instance, will cover different geographic areas for the distribution of addresses than for the institution of ccTLDs.  And for the ALAC, it might be, again, different.
 So it's absolutely necessary that all the parties that are affected will get together and find a rational solution.  But I think that they have to work under the assumption that this solution can be flexible.
 Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Roberto.
 Janis, you had your hand up.
 >>JANIS KARKLINS:   Thank you, Vint.
 Disclaimer, I am not speaking on behalf of the GAC, but as the GAC chair.
 I would like to make two comments and ask one question.
 Comment number one, the geographical distribution in multilateral arena is very sensitive issue.  If we look to the universal organization, which is United Nations, despite all the considerable change of the world in '90s, of last century, United Nations is still using the geographical distribution which was established as a result of the second world war.
 And there have been several attempts to revamp United Nations regional structures.  But they were unsuccessful.
 The comment number two:  We had very extensive discussions in the GAC on GAC priorities.  And one of the main threads in the discussion was that GAC has a very limited -- limited resources, and we would need, really, to concentrate on issues which have significant public-policy implications.  And, therefore, from this comment comes my question.  And the question is, is there any timeline on these inputs that the board is asking of supporting organizations and advisory committees?
 Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   My first thought is that there should be.  And if we haven't set a deadline, please provide your input, the board should give guidance along those lines.
 Susan, you were next anyway.
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   Thanks.
 Vint, one of our great concerns is the survival of ICANN as institution after you depart.  And I just want to make this small effort to show that we can continue.
 I have two typo suggestions in the "whereas," clause right before resolved.  It really should say, whereas, because any change to the ICANN geographic regions could have widespread "affect," with an "A," in ICANN, the views of other supporting organizations.
 So we'll do our best with the typos.  This is a difficult question, geographic regions.
 I think we should be responsive to the concerns of the ccNSO here.  I also think we should set a deadline for when these comments should come in.  Thanks.
 >>VINT CERF:   Okay.  Vanda, had you your hand up as well.
 >>VANDA SCARTEZINI:   Yes.  Well, I would like to consider two issues.
 Roberto really explained the part of the at-large in the community, the division in the community.  And I do agree with Janis that this is a very sensitive issue.
 But in the --  That's -- when you face at-large communities, like in the fellowship program, how are you going to choose people from different regions?  We really decide to divide into a different way to make sure we could, you know, reach, really, people from each developing region.
 So the statement of Roberto is clear.  We need to review for some groups not as a definition for ICANN, but we need to be allowed to use the other divisions than this one that we are using to bear a balance of the representativeness or the people from many different regions that in this division really don't fit comfortably or even balance when we pick those people.  So I believe this is very important.  And, really, we must be flexible and not come out with a formal statement that really impacts other sensitive areas of the whole political division.
 Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Vanda.  
 Are there any other comments?
 I have some.  
 And, Rita, if you want to make any, please let your -- let that be known.
 First observation I would make is that just based on this discussion, it's conceivable that we will end up with multiple definitions for "region" depending on the purpose for which that definition is intended.  And I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.  But if that's the case, we need to be aware of the side effects of having different regional definitions and to make it very clear which one we're using in any particular context.
 I can't help but reflect on Janis' comment that the regions that are currently defined in the United Nations were a consequence of World War II. 
 If we thought that bylaw changes were hard, imagine what it's like to change definitional regions only by having another world war.
 [ Laughter ]
 >>VINT CERF:   I hope that ICANN can do better than that.
 Rita, do you have any comments before we go for a vote on this resolution?
 >>RITA RODIN:   No, Vint.  Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   All right.  In that case, I'll call --  Oh, I'm sorry.  Yes, Raimundo.
 >>RAIMUNDO BECA:   Let me add one comment.
 Within the United Nations, there is not only one division of regions.  The ITU is -- ITU is a United Nations agency and has a division which is not the same as this one.
 And the one we are using in practice is more near from the economic council of and not the statistical one.  So we have in the bylaws, using the statistical division.  And, in fact, we are using almost the ISOC one.  And that's the -- has some sense, because it has the sense not of the statistics of the demographics, but, really, of economics.  And, in practice, we have been very flexible.
 And I wouldn't be -- and the reason why I am stating is because I think that we shouldn't put the emphasis in trying to change the number of regions, but we should be on the emphasis to flexiblize the application.
 But, in practice, we have been very flexible.  And I will give you an example.
 Jamaica, on the RALOs, is in Latin America and the Caribbeans, and in the RIRs, is in ARIN.  And some of the people are the same people.  But when they speak addressing, they are in ARIN, from Jamaica.  And when they speak RALOs, they are in the Caribbeans, with Latin America.
 And that's what -- how the regional division is applied.
 >>VINT CERF:   You may have just underscored, perhaps unintentionally, the value of having some flexibility in regional definition.
 In any case, I think that we're ready to call for a vote on this resolution.
 So I'll ask all those in favor of the resolution, please raise your hand.
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12.
 Rita, how do you vote?
 >>RITA RODIN:   In favor, Vint.
 >>VINT CERF:   Are there any abstentions?
 One abstention.  Please record Raimundo.
 And I take it there are no objections?
 Thank you.
 Let's move on now to the next topic.  This is the perennial topic of WHOIS.  This is a discussion item.  And I'd like to ask Bruce to take us into an update on the status of the WHOIS discussions.
 >>BRUCE TONKIN:   Thank you, Vint.
 So I guess several things have been going on on WHOIS.  The first thing I'd like to raise is that the GNSO Council last year proposed to the board that the board direct the staff to create a procedure for dealing with conflicts between the current ICANN agreements for registries and registrars and national laws that might apply to particular registries or registrars.
 That procedure is actually up on the screen here now.
 The current draft of that was dated December last year.  And the ICANN board then -- or the ICANN staff, I guess, sought advice from the GAC on that procedure.
 At this meeting, the Governmental Advisory Committee reported back to the community that they welcome the opportunity to respond on that procedure, and that there was quite a lot of diversity in the national policies and procedures amongst the GAC members, and that the GAC is advising the board to use as the basis for resolving any potential conflict that specific cases be referred to the relevant national government for advice on the authority of the request for some change for a particular registry or registrar.
 So I believe the next step now would be for the staff to update their procedure in taking into account that advice, but also point out that the staff have been operating in the spirit of this procedure with respect to the Telnic proposal for dot TEL, which I believe the board will be considering soon.  So I think we are already operating in the spirit of this, and I expect the staff will be able to update that procedure and present it to the board for its consideration.
 The second thing that's happened with WHOIS this week is that the GNSO voted on the proposal from the WHOIS task force, and the GNSO essentially determined that there wasn't sufficient consensus to present that recommendation as a supermajority recommendation to the board.  So, instead, the council will be presenting a report to the board indicating the views of the constituencies on that particular proposal.  But it did not receive a majority in support.
 The second thing the GNSO is commencing, I guess, is a new study to study some of the factual material behind some of the considerations around WHOIS.  So you'd expect that examples of some factual information could be how many individual registrants are there, and then perhaps if that's established as a benchmark, how might that change over time.
 I believe separately that the staff are also doing further work on analyzing the current accuracy of the WHOIS.  And, hopefully, that we can establish some benchmarks on some of the perhaps important parameters associated with WHOIS.  And then as we consider further policy in that area, we can identify whether that policy is improving, whatever that parameter might be, whether it's accuracy or improving the participation in the registration of domain names by individuals, just as examples.
 So I think that's probably enough of a summary, Vint, so I'll leave it there.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Bruce.
 Are there any comments from the board?
 Susan.
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   Thanks, Vint.
 So the headline here that Bruce is presenting us with is that individual registries and registrars will have a clear mechanism by which to come to ICANN and say they need an exception from the operation of the WHOIS clauses in their contracts because national law to which they're subject requires that they not be bound by those clauses in our contracts.
 And that's a very good development.  That's a step towards a more balanced approach to the entire WHOIS question.
 I think everybody's aware that the WHOIS clause is a vestige of a gentler time when there was a roughly homogeneous use of the Internet, and people in academic institutions wanted to be able to contact each other in case there was a problem with a particular host.
 As the years have gone on and the population using the Internet has become much more heterogeneous, and many more individuals have come to be domain name registrants, the appropriateness of requiring as a condition of using a domain name that you display your personal information has come into question.
 Many people wonder why, in order to register a domain name, their contact information has to be displayed to the world on a Web-enabled interface.  And we have heard over the years from data protection authorities, most recently, the article 29 working party, that, in fact, this is an unlawful requirement of ICANN's, in conflict with national law when it comes to the handling of personal data.
 At the current time, inside the GNSO, there's a lock.  There are three constituencies -- the ISP, business constituency, and I.P. constituency -- who are very strongly interested in retaining the status quo of this clause, because, in effect, they would like to make sure that they are always able for free to access this information easily if they're worried about infringement problems.  There's also a concern from law enforcement that they need to be able to access this information quickly in case of troubles.
 There has been a lot of detailed work on a tiered access proposal -- that's what's called OPoC -- to allow particular people to get access to this information.
 I just want to suggest that the GNSO Council itself has pointed us to this problem, the problem of the lock and the status quo, and that there's no reason for any of the parties now to change their position materially.  If you want the clause to stay in place, you just stay there.  And there's no reason to move off that position.
 I want to draw the board's attention to the fact that earlier this week, ten votes on the GNSO Council were cast in favor of a resolution that would have said, all right, guys, you've got a year to come to a resolution on the treatment of personal data in WHOIS.  And if you don't come to that resolution, the clause will be removed from the contracts.
 No one is saying that the clause should be removed.  This is an attempt to change the incentive structure to have a more constructive conversation.  And ten members of the council, including its chair, voted in favor of that resolution.
 So I want to suggest to the board that we look carefully at this report that Bruce has mentioned when we get it from the GNSO Council about the nature of the discussion that's happened so far and that we consider whether particular steps could be taken to protect individual registrants' data that would also serve the interests of the law enforcement and business interests who are concerned about having access to that information.
 So that's the comment I'd like to make at this point.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Susan.
 Rita asked to be in the queue as well.
 Rita, would you like to make your comment.
 >>RITA RODIN:   Yes.  Thank you, Vint.
 And I just want to preface the comment with the fact that I do represent Telnic, and I'm not talking on behalf of Telnic, but, rather, for a general premise.
 Since the inception of ICANN, and, in fact, when we were drafting the UDRP, for example, we realized that ICANN doesn't really have the power to pass international law, although it might like to at times.  And, therefore, it's very important that the organization must respect and acknowledge that there are differences in the way different countries treat different things.  That's part of the ICANN reality.
 And as we've heard from Janis and the GAC, and as we've seen in various countries, sometimes it takes a while for a country to develop its laws and formulate policy, particularly in areas like Internet jurisprudence that are very rapidly developing.
 So I think it's very important that the ICANN community appreciate and respect that local people have a right to create policies and account for things that may be within the ICANN process in different ways.  And I think we need to build something into the ICANN processes and requirements that specifically acknowledges that.
 Thanks, Vint.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Rita.
 I'd like to make a couple of remarks --  I'm sorry.  Vittorio, did you have your hand up?
 I'll let Vittorio speak, and then I'll take a chance.
 >>VITTORIO BERTOLA:   Thank you.  First of all, I wanted to say that the at-large does not have a common position on WHOIS, and I think it will never have, because this is exactly one of the issues where you see all the different range of needs from different parts and constituencies.
 So maybe if you speak with civil rights groups and many ALSs in India with individual registrants, you get a strong desire to have protection for their privacy.
 But then when you speak with, for example, antispam groups or consumer protection groups, and maybe with average users who are not registered, you get the desire to get -- know in a reliable way WHOIS behind a certain domain name.  
 By the way, I don't think that these two requirements are impossible to satisfy at the same time.  But, still, there's -- for the time being, it's been impossible to get people to a reasonable compromise on this.
 So I wanted to add one personal consideration on the fact that this problem is much bigger than it looks at first sight, because it's cultural.  I mean, the balance between, I mean, access to information, privacy, is deeply cultural, and it's really different in different parts of the world.  And the same problem we have here at ICANN with WHOIS is -- I mean, it's being had in other discussions on airline passenger information or bank transfer information.
 So I have the idea that this will be a global discussion that this will go on for ten more years, even more, at higher levels than ICANN, and maybe we will end up with an agreement at the intergovernmental level, or in any case at the international level.
 So I'm very happy that in the meantime ICANN finds a procedure to allow the people that are in the middle, so registrars and registries, not to be forced to violate their laws.  And I hope that the procedure actually is effective.  So I would hate it to become a way just to defer the problem and keep them in the middle of this problem.
 But I think if it can be implemented well, it can work.
 But then my suspect is that we start with -- we have a system that started 20 years ago with very different sets of requirements in a very different environment, and then we started to patch it in several ways.  But, you know, when you build a system, you're an engineer, you get to a point in time where you cannot just patch it anymore, you have to really redesign it from zero, basically.  And I suspect we might be in a point in time in which we want to collect a new set of requirements and redesign it completely.
 Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Vittorio.
 I'd like to make two observations.  The first one is that if we proceed along the path that it looks like we are currently on, data will be -- data collection will be mandated by ICANN to the registrars and registries, but the availability of that data to the public will be filtered by local law.  And, in a sense, that may be the best that you can do, given that the local laws vary for the reasons that Vittorio mentioned.
 There is a general question of whether registering a domain name should be an act which requires public visibility.
 If we can't achieve uniformity, it may be that the precise answer is to do exactly as we've seen on worldwide basis.
 Everyone has different opinions about what should be protected, and we should allow our system to adapt to that.
 I don't see any other hands up so perhaps we can go on to the next topic.
 This one is next steps on new gTLDs.  
 I'm sorry, Paul, did you have a comment?
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   Yes, Vint.  I wanted to say in listening to the conversation that I agree with your characterization.  It's a small thing but perhaps if I could just make a clarification point.  And I'm not in any way trying to undermine anything that Susan said but she did use in her comments, talked about the (inaudible) working group, the word was "illegal" used, "illegality" was used in the description.
 >>VINT CERF:   "Unlawful" was the term Susan used.
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   I wonder if I can read into the record the actual wording from that letter.  It does actually say this -- a number of places in the letter, Article XXXIX (inaudible), but in this particular paragraph, "As a matter of fact, registrars operating in EU member states under the current ICANN registrar accreditation agreement face a generally present and unresolved conflict between EU data protection legislation and several international rules on the one hand and current WHOIS practice on the other hand."
 So I just wanted to just put the exact wording in the record.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Paul.
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   "Conflict" and "unlawful" are not terribly out of sync so I accept that.
 >>VINT CERF:  The next topic has to do with new gTLDs, something that everyone is very are interested in, I think, and, Rita, I would like to ask you to introduce the resolution, if you could.
 >>RITA RODIN:   Sure, Vint. Whereas the GNSO initiated a policy development process on the introduction of new generic top-level domain, or gTLDs, in December of 2005.
 Whereas, the GNSO committee on the introduction of new gTLDs has addressed a range of difficult technical, operational, legal, economic, and policy questions, and facilitated widespread participation and public comment throughout the process.
 Whereas, the GNSO has successfully completed its policy development process on the introduction of new gTLDs, and has arrived at a set of policy recommendations that has been delivered to the board.
 Whereas, members of the GNSO committee held a six-hour workshop at the L.A. meeting on the 29th of October 2007 to provide detailed information to the community on the substance of and rationale for each of the recommendations.
 It is resolved that the board acknowledges the committee's conscientious engagement in the complex analysis and discussion required to arrive at its recommends recommendations, and wishes to thank the participants in the GNSO council and the new gTLDs committee of the GNSO for their hard work in this key policy area.
 >>VINT CERF:   Rita, I apologize for interrupting.
 Peter reminds me you need to slow down a little bit because we have translations going on here in addition to transcription.
 >>RITA RODIN:   I'm sorry, Vint.
 It's resolved the board expresses its thanks to the organizers and participants of the GNSO workshop on new gTLDs held this week in Los Angeles.
 And it is resolved that the board acknowledges the GNSO's recommendations and notes that staff has posted the report for public comment.
 The board further asks the staff to continue working on implementation analysis and to come back to the board and community as soon as feasible with a report on implementation issues no later than the ICANN board meeting in January 2008.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Rita.
 Are there any -- First of all, is there a second for the resolutions?
 Susan seconds.
 Are there any further comments on this resolution?  Not seeing anything, I think we will proceed -- I'm sorry, Roberto, yes.
 You had your hand up.  You were going to vote, is that right, as opposed to a comment?
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   I thought you were asking for the second.
 >>VINT CERF:   I got one already from Susan.
 All right.  So a little confusion here.
 Now I can call -- The motion has been made and it has been seconded.
 And if there are no further comments, I'll call for a vote.
 All those in favor, please raise your hand.
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13, and, Rita, how do you vote?
 >>RITA RODIN:   In favor.
 >>VINT CERF:   14.  It is unanimous, Mr. Secretary.
 I would like to call on Steve Crocker to introduce the next item.
 My understanding is, procedurally, as a nonvoting board member, Steve can't officially put this on the -- place a motion on the table, but, Bruce, I'll ask you to assist.
 Steve, could you lead us into the SSAC appointments, please.
 >>STEPHEN CROCKER:   Thank you very much, Vint.
 I have been chair of SSAC from its inception in 2002, and liaison to the board from the time that that position was created.  And I have to say that I have been well supported by the board.  It has been a very close and comfortable working relationship, and I want to thank the board for its continued support.
 We have probably the least amount of formal procedures of any of the ICANN components, and perhaps it will be a measure of evolution over time when we get more procedures.
 The single rule that governs us is that membership on the committee is approved by the board.
 I made it a practice over time to recruit people and then -- and periodically provide the board a batch and some background information.  And this is one of those times.
 Two people have served on the committee and are leaving -- have left, actually, Allison Mankin and Jon Peterson.  And a rather good variety of new people have begun to participate:  Jeff Bedser, Patrik Faltstrom, Danny McPherson, Rajasekar Ramaraj, Shinta Sato, Mark Seiden, and Rick Wesson.
 So with that, I would like to ask the board to approve two resolutions.  Resolved, ICANN thanks Allison Mankin and Jon Peterson for the completion of their service to ICANN by membership on the Security and Stability Advisory Committee.
 And, resolved, the following individuals are appointed to the SSAC:  Jeff Bedser, Patrik Faltstrom, Danny McPherson, Rajasekar Ramaraj, Shinta Sato, Mark Seiden, and Rick Wesson.
 Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Steve.
 Bruce.
 >>BRUCE TONKIN:   Thank you, Vint.
 I would like to propose that motion as read by Steve Crocker.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much.
 Is there a second?  And I see Peter seconds.
 Is there any further discussion of this motion?  Steve Goldstein.
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
 I just would like to note how fortunate the board is to have among its advisors both Steve Crocker, Suzanne Woolf from the RSSAC, Thomas Narten from the IETF, because frequently things come up where we need some elucidation, some technical understanding of the things we discuss.  And Steve and Thomas and Suzanne have always been willing to share with us their insights and it's been exceedingly valuable to the other board members.  So I wanted to note their contribution and thank them for it.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Steve.
 Any other comments before we vote on this motion?
 All right.  Although in favor, please raise your hand.
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13.
 And Rita, how do you vote?
 >>RITA RODIN:   (Inaudible).
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you.  Mr. Secretary, the motion passes and, Steve, we are pleased that you have officially placed new members on the board, and certainly I hope you will convey our thanks to Allison Mankin and Jon Peterson for their service to the community.
 >>STEPHEN CROCKER:   I will.  And thank you very much.
 >>VINT CERF:   The next item on the agenda is an extraordinarily important one because it has to do with money which somehow has risen in significance on the Internet from its early days.
 And I would like to ask Raimundo who chairs the finance committee to introduce the motion.
 Raimundo.
 >>RAIMUNDO BECA:   Thank you, Vint.
 Before reading the resolution, I would like to make a couple of comments about this issue.
 The first comment is that ICANN has a policy to build an investment fund and a reserve fund of one year budget since three or four years ago.
 The money was collected, but the organization began to have the investment fund, but there was not a policy.
 And surprising -- Well, and we had this year between 20 to $25 million of reserve fund.  And we didn't have a policy.
 So the board decided one month ago a policy which you can see it now, it's public.
 So now we have a policy.  And in the context of this policy, we are now proposing -- the finance committee is proposing to the board the resolution which I am going to read, with the particular indication of how to play within that policy.
 The second comment I would like to make is that the -- on the preparation of the budget of next year, it's more important to know if the -- we're going to have a one-year or one year and a half or two years reserve fund.  It's more important to know how much we want to add to the fund on the next year, because that is what is important for the budget.
 So we are indicating in this policy that the target of the investment -- of the additional funds needed for the next year is one of the most important variables of the budget of next year.
 And the final comment I would like to make is to the impressive work of the staff on the name of Doug and Kevin on their team and having all the elements of the policy first and the application.
 So I would like to highlight that also.
 The motion reads as this:
 Whereas, ICANN has funds available for investment conserved through operation of the reserves policy, and ICANN would benefit from an investment policy.
 Whereas, ICANN staff has concluded due diligence on potential investment policies and worked with the Board Finance Committee on establishing a policy that will work for ICANN.
 Whereas, the Board Finance Committee during its meeting on 28 October considered and reaffirmed the policy of maintaining a 12-month fiscal reserve and voted to recommend that the board approve the following four resolutions.
 Resolved, the board adopts the proposed ICANN investment policy, with the reference indicated, and directs ICANN staff to utilize it in making investments and seeking appropriate authorizations for actions.
 Resolved, the board delegates to the Board Finance Committee the authority to disburse funds up to $5 million from the reserve fund if required for emergency reasons and directs the Board Finance Committee to notify the ICANN Board of Directors as soon as possible, but not later than seven working days, after authorizing any such disbursement.
 Resolved that the board authorizes the CFO and the COO, or both, to engage an investment management company, or companies, to implement the ICANN investment policy.
 The CFO shall report regularly to the Board Finance Committee regarding performance at the time of the monthly financial reporting, and the Board Finance Committee shall annually review the investment policy.
 Finally, resolved, that the Board Finance Committee requests that the ICANN engage in dialogue with the ICANN community regarding the development of a plan that establishes annual targets, with the goal of fully funding the 12-month reserve.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Raimundo.
 Is there a second for these motions?
 I see Steve Goldstein's hand up.  I see Peter's, too, but Steve beat you to it.
 Is there any further discussion of the motion?  Ramaraj and then Steve Goldstein.
 >>RAJASEKHAR RAMARAJ:   As a member of the finance committee, I thought I would add a couple of points to what Raimundo said.
 One is that the money that -- a portion of that annual reserve fund has actually been accumulated so far.  And there is an opportunity cost attached to it which seems considerable, because of want of this investment policy.
 The investment policy will focus actually on safety and performance.  That's based on community feedback on that issue, focused on safety, principal safety and performance.
 We actually asked Kevin and the policy investment advisors to check up what is an optimum level for the policy, and it looks like for well-run, not for profit companies it's at least 12 months.  So it's based on that that we recommend, that it continues to be at about that 12 months.
 I would like to add to what Raimundo said that Kevin and his team actually moved very quickly because of this large opportunity cost to get this policy in place.
 Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much.
 Steve Goldstein.
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   Thanks.  And to add to what my two colleagues have already said, the opportunity cost of just leaving that money in a money market fund as opposed to investing it wisely, depending on what assumptions you make, but it is of the order of a million dollars a year.  So it's very important that we have a good investment policy.
 And, in fact, our auditors have commented much the same way, saying that an organization like yours should have an investment policy so it's a good thing that we do that.
 And the name Kevin has been brought up a few times in the two statements.  This is Kevin Wilson first meeting.  Kevin is our new CFO and many of you probably don't know him but I see him sitting here.  Could I ask Kevin to stand up, please.
 [ Applause ]
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Steve.
 You know, that million dollar figure just -- would just barely cover my wine costs during the year.
 Oh, well.  Oh, for that little dream.
 Bruce.
 >>BRUCE TONKIN:   Thank you, Vint, I just wanted to make a comment on the last component of that resolution which is that the Board Finance Committee requests the staff to engage in dialogue with the community regarding the plan to develop the targets in terms of the input, if you like, into the reserve fund.
 And just point out that that is not a trivial task because of the number of variables that we will be facing over the next 12 months.  And the two in particular is, I guess, the introduction of new gTLDs and also the introduction of IDNs, both quite complex, quite a lot of work.  Even once we have a process, we won't know how many applications we will have.
 There might be various revenue elements associated with those, like if we add new gTLDs and we have some requirement of some transaction fees.
 So I think there will be a lot of variables, particularly in the next 12 months, that will make that hard to do and I think the finance committee is trying to be fairly conservative, perhaps, in its collection of revenue.  But it's worth understanding that it's not going to be easy to get that plan to any degree of certainty.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Bruce.
 Are there any other comments?  Raimundo.
 >>RAIMUNDO BECA:   Let me add one additional comment.
 It has been said these days in this meeting that there are some options.
 ICANN may receive a lot of amount of money in the next year, but we should be very careful in the way we spend this extra money.
 There's a well-known phenomena in economics which has been called the Netherlands disease.  It's when a country receives a lot of money and they don't spend it correctly.  Then it could be worse for the institution than not receiving it at all.
 So we should prepare, now that we have an investment policy, to also prepare a policy on what to do with the extra money which is only one shot.  You will perhaps not have it again.  Or you have it for two years or three years.  But the institution has to live much longer.
 So I think that we are going to work in the finance committee on the Netherlands disease. 
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much.
 Paul, did I see your hand up?
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   Yes, Vint, and I suppose we're sort of having a broader discussion now about budgeting than necessarily just on the point which is in the resolution.  But if I can take off that tangent or proceed along that tangent.  I wanted to sort of reinforce, I think, the last two interventions.
 I'm glad Bruce made the intervention he did.  That was actually my most substantive point.
 Members of the community may be interested to know the following observations I have received this week.
 I have been asking people in various meetings what are your estimates of the number of applications we may receive in the first round of new gTLDs.  The smallest number I have received, interestingly, was from a GAC member, and that was in some tens.
 The largest was from a registrar, and that was 2,000.
 So there is a very large variation.
 >>BRUCE TONKIN:   Just for that one registrar?
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   And Bruce says was that just for that one registrar.
 In asking the question, I purposely did not say what would a fee be.  I then said to people, "What do you think fees could be?"  Just to get a sense, for applications.  Some people have said $50,000, and some people have said half a million dollars.
 So that's another form of variation.
 I have also then asked people what do you think is the expense ratio, the cost -- When we look at the costs of implementing and supporting the introduction of new gTLDs, I have said what do you think is the difference between that for an ASCII string versus that for an IDN string?
 I have to say here I did have a personal view.  My personal view is it was something like four-to-one difference for the -- the IDN being four times more expensive than the ASCII.  To process, that's right.  Not just process, but to process and support in terms of successful implementation.
 I did again have a registrar say to me he thought that registrar was ten to one.
 So just to reinforce for the community Bruce's comment.  We have a lot of uncertainty at the moment as to what that both revenue and expense element may be when we look at next year's budgets progress.
 >>VINT CERF:   The implication of all that, I would think, is that we want to be very conservative in our planning.
 If there are no other comments, let me move to a vote, then.
 All those in favor, please raise your hand.
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13, and, Rita, how do you vote?
 >>RITA RODIN:   In favor, please.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much.  Mr. Secretary, the motion passes.
 The next item on the agenda has to do with the conclusion of two memoranda of understanding with two organizations outside of ICANN.  And I'd like to call on Roberto to put this motion on the table.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
 I forgot that it has been so many years that I am in that this process that I need glasses.
 Whereas, ICANN has developed a collaborative program with private and inter-governmental parties to conduct outreach to governments and local Internet communities.
 Whereas, ICANN staff has engaged with respective organizations both globally and regionally.
 Whereas, organizations have expressed an interest to enter into nonbinding MOUs or cooperative agreements with ICANN to highlight cooperation.  Resolved, ICANN's CEO is authorized to enter into the MOUs with the inter-American Telecommunication Commission of the Organization of American States, CITEL, and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization, CTO.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Roberto.
 Are there any comments on this particular resolution?
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   Just a question.
 >>VINT CERF:   Yes, Susan.
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   Can we make sure that the text of these MOUs is available somewhere publicly or linked to, as we have with other documents from the resolution?
 >>VINT CERF:   That's a good idea.  Mr. Secretary, can you please make that amendment?  And I hope there aren't any disagreements with that.
 That's a friendly amendment.  Thank you, Susan.
 I have a procedural question, Mr. Secretary, and general counsel.  Steve Goldstein has departed from the room briefly and he wanted -- he has handed me a proxy, and I'm not sure whether we have ever permitted proxies.  He has permitted in all the discussions for this particular vote.  Am I permitted to incorporate his proxy into this vote?
 >>JOHN JEFFREY:   Mr. Chairman, he needs to be present to vote, so we can record his vote when he returns to the stage.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much.
 In that case, are there any other comments on these MOUs?
 Let me just make the observation that it is, in fact, very important for ICANN to establish relationships with organizations outside of itself that have interests in what we do.
 As I think I referred to earlier today, much of our outreach is necessary in order to communicate with the population that has an interest in the Internet and an interest in what policies we establish.
 So I'm a very strong supporter of this particular proposal.
 If there are no other comments, let me ask that you raise your hands -- I'm sorry, Paul.
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   Chairman, I think you have not yet asked for a second.
 >>VINT CERF:   You are quite right.
 Do I get a second?  From Raimundo, thank you very much.
 Getting ahead of myself.
 Now that it's been moved and seconded, and if there are no other comments on the proposals, I'll call for a vote.  All those in favor, raise your hand.
 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12.  And Rita, how do you vote?
 >>RITA RODIN:   In favor, Vint.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you.  Mr. Secretary, I will ask Steve Goldstein how he votes when he returns.
 Thank you very much.
 The next item on the agenda is the approval of the dot museum renewal agreement, and I would ask Paul Twomey to introduce this resolution.
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   Thank you, Chairman.
 Just before I do introduce the resolution, I just want to say that there's been a lot of discussion and with the dot museum registry about this movement on the agreement for quite some time.  We appreciate very much the spirit in which that's been conducted.  And also, I think, on the staff perspective, I would like to say we have also appreciated the spirit in which other interested parties -- for instance, the registrar constituency and others -- have been involved in those discussions.  I think that's been -- while it has been somewhat lengthy, it's certainly been a productive procedure.
 So moving to the resolution.
 Whereas, ICANN staff conducted good-faith negotiations with Musedoma, sponsor -- dot museum sponsored top-level domain for the renewal of their sponsorship agreement.
 Whereas, on the 2nd of March, 2007, ICANN announced that negotiations with Musedoma had been completed and posted the proposed dot Museum renewal agreement for public comment at the following link.  
 Whereas the ICANN directors on 30 March 2007 passed a resolution -- there's a link for that resolution -- granting an extension to the current agreement to permit additional time to negotiate the renewal agreement.
 Whereas, on the 31st of August 2007 ICANN posted an updated agreement that addressed community concerns voiced in the original public comment period that is between the 2nd and 23rd of March, 2007, and at the registrar constituency meeting in Lisbon on the 27th of March 2007, and opened a new public comment period from the 31st of August through to the 30th of September, 2007.
 Whereas, the board carefully considered the proposed renewal agreement, public comments, and the sponsor's responses, and finds that approval of the proposed renewal agreement would be beneficial for ICANN and the Internet community.
 It is resolved the dot museum agreement is approved and the president is authorized to take such actions as appropriate to implement the agreement.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Paul.
 Is there a second for this resolution?
 I see Ramaraj.  And others.
 Is there any further discussion of this proposal?
 Seeing none, I'll ask for a vote.
 All those in favor, please raise your hand.  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13.
 And Rita, how do you vote?
 >>RITA RODIN:   In favor.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you.  That's 14.
 And the motion passes, Mr. Secretary.
 Steve Goldstein, while you were out of the room, I inquired as to how we procedurally capture your vote on the two MOUs.  And I was told that I merely need to ask you how you will vote or -- well, how you want to vote on them.
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   In favor, Mr. Chairman.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you.  We will record that in the vote.
 Well, there is only one more item of specific business before we get to a long string of thank yous.
 And this has to do with a question that was raised twice during the course of the week on the matter of legacy applications for top-level domains and what procedures we would consider undertaking to determine what, if any, position those legacy proposals or applications have in the context of new gTLDs.
 There were two in particular that were raised.  One was Dot Web and the other was dot III.  And I'd like to ask general counsel to characterize work which could be undertaken in order to determine a reasonable outcome or a reasonable analysis of the position of those legacy proposals.  And I'd like -- I don't think we need to pass a specific resolution, but I believe that there should be in the record a sense of the board as to how to move forward to answer this longstanding question.
 So, John, would you kindly summarize the proposals that you have for analyzing that particular question.
 >>JOHN JEFFREY:   Yes, Mr. Chairman.
 We've recently received a couple of requests from the 2000 applicants that had submitted applications for gTLDs during that round.
 >>VINT CERF:   I'm sorry to interrupt.
 2000 means the year, not the number of applicants?
 >>JOHN JEFFREY:   That is correct.
 So on a couple of different occasions, we've now been approached with indications that there was interest in how those might be resolved or if they had been resolved.  And we've agreed to -- from the staff side, to undertake a review of comments that were made by the board and any statements that were made by board members.  Some have been cited by the former applicants.  And we will prepare a report for the board and produce a recommendation regarding how they might be treated as we approach the next round of new gTLDs.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much.
 Any other comments on this proposed line of action?
 So I --  Yes, Steve Goldstein.
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   Yeah.  I'm encouraged to know that we will, indeed, be looking into the matter, because every time the board turns over, there's always some unfinished business or apparently unfinished business that might be left over from a previous board, of which we may be unaware.  And, again, I just want to say that I'm delighted that we will be looking into this and resolving it.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you.
 Thank you very much, John Jeffrey.
 I might suggest to you that at either the next or -- next board meeting or the one after that, perhaps an update could be given on where that analysis stands.
 Well, we now have completed everything except lots and lots of thank yous.  So I think we ought to get to that.  I'd like to call on Ramaraj to thank the Nominating Committee of 2007 in a resolution of appreciation.
 Ramaraj, could I ask you to introduce that motion.
 >>RAJASHEKAR RAMARAJ:   Sure.  Whereas, on 8 December, 2006, ICANN appointed George Sadowsky as chair of the Nominating Committee.  Whereas, the Nominating Committee chair asked Adam Peake to serve as vice chair to assist him in the direction of the Nominating Committee.
 Whereas, the 2007 Nominating Committee consisted of delegates from each of ICANN's constituencies and advisory bodies.
 Resolved that the ICANN board expresses its deep appreciation to George Sadowsky, Adam Peake, and all of the members of the 2007 Nominating Committee for their dedication, hard work, and successful efforts.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you.  Is there a second?
 I see Vanda.
 I'd suggest that we pass this resolution by acclamation.
 [ Applause ]
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   I think they deserve a standing ovation.
 >>VINT CERF:   And I'd like to ask George Sadowsky and Adam Peake to join me on the stage, please.  Is Adam here?
 I don't see him.
 All right, George.
 If you do the math, George, this lovely jacket --
 >>GEORGE SADOWSKY:   Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   -- and wrapped thing --
 [ Laughter ]
 >>VINT CERF:   -- probably add up to about .02 cents per hour of effort that you put in as the chair of the Nominating Committee for the last three years.  But I want to convey to you publicly and on behalf of the board our deep appreciation for the work you've done and for the work you will continue to do as advisor to the subsequent Nominating Committee.
 So, George, thank you very much.
 [ Applause ]
 >>GEORGE SADOWSKY:   Thank you.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   I'm actually a little surprised that George didn't remind you that you should be sending in ideas for board members and other things to our new chair, Hagen Hultzsch.
 Thank you very much.
 And I guess we'll have to save these and send them to Adam Peake when he's available.
 All right.  The next item on the agenda is a gigantic thank you to the staff and the scribes, the event teams, the tribute participants, and the local hosts.  And I've asked Peter Dengate Thrush to put that on the record.
 Peter.
 >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH:   Thank you, Mr. Chairman.  Just for those that are interested in such things, it's not a resolution.  It's just our expression of thanks.
 The board wishes to extend its thanks to ICANN staff closely involved in the organization of this meeting, most particularly Paul Levins, Diane Schroeder, Michael Evans, Steve Conte, Kieren McCarthy, Jason Keenan, Tanzanica King, and Marc Salvatierra, as well as other corporate affairs staff for their role in hosting this ICANN meeting.
 The board would also like to recognize that of the 30 meetings that ICANN has held, Diane Schroeder has been responsible for organizing an incredible 24 of these.
 The board also recognizes that Diane today celebrates seven years and one day of employment at ICANN.
 [ Applause ]
 >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH:   Congratulations, Diane.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   Peter, if you don't mind my interruption, that's 49 years in Internet time.
 [ Laughter ]
 >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH:   There's more.
 The board would also like to thank assistant secretary for communications and information John Kneuer, of the NTIA, Department of Commerce, for participating in the welcome ceremony.
 The board expresses its appreciation to the scribes, Laura Brewer, Teri Darrenougue, Jennifer Schuck, and Charles Motter, and to the entire ICANN staff who was present here in Los Angeles for their efforts in facilitating the smooth operation of the meeting.
 The board wishes to thank the externs of the Law School of Pepperdine University, Chris Aul, Grace Ayres, Tom Gajewski, Marcia Wallis, Leda Guine, Indu Sen, Jill Gaffney, for their volunteer efforts at the Los Angeles meeting, most particularly for supporting the example.test evaluation station.
 The board also wishes to express its appreciation to VeriLan Events Services, Inc., for their technical support and webcasting services, PSAV for audiovisual support, Paragon Language Services for interpretation, and Stacy Hoffberg for her support of the at-large community fellows and registration.  Additional tanks are given to the Hilton Los Angeles airport for the fine facility and their support.
 The board most particularly would like to thank Stephanie Edens from Creative Elements, Sony Studios and Todd Mitchum, Ryan Buckley, John Valenti, Jeff Butcher, Jill Klekas and Steven Garcia for their role in helping to create a most extraordinary gala and tribute to Vint Cerf.  The board also expresses its thanks to Ira Magaziner and Steve Crocker for their participation in the tribute.  The board extends a particular thanks to those who contributed to the video tribute to Vint Cerf, Dr. Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dr. Eric Schmidt, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Google.  Dr. TAREK KAMEL, minister of communications and information technology, Arab Republic of Egypt.  Also commissioner Viviane Reding, member of the European Commission, information society and media, and vice president Al Gore, Nobel laureate 2007, peace, and chairman, generation investment management.
 The board also wishes to recognize the sponsors of this meeting, VeriSign, Public Interest Registry, Afilias Global Registry Services, InterNeXt, Logic Boxes and Skenzo, .mobi, .Asia, EURid and Neustar most particularly for sponsoring the welcome reception.
 To ARIN, Domainsponsor, Paragon Language Services, Teck Policy Summit, Global Domains International, Inc., ICANNWiki.
 Finally, but by no means least, the board wishes to thank all the participants that attended this meeting.  Your perspective, energy, and insight is critical to making the ICANN model work and also its commitment to one global, interoperable Internet.
 Thanks.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Peter.
 I think we owe a round of applause to all those who have been named.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   Just on a personal note, I don't know if all of you in the room were able to participate in the gala, but after all that was said and done, I thought maybe I should just go home and die, because it doesn't get any better than that.
 The next thank you goes to Vittorio Bertola, who is departing from the board.  And I would ask Roberto to please introduce that resolution.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   Thank you.
 Whereas, Vittorio Bertola was selected as nonvoting liaison to the ICANN board by the At-Large Advisory Committee to serve first during the year 2007.
 Whereas, Vittorio has provided excellent insight, leadership, and expertise in this role, with an unmistakable Italian panache and Lamborghini speed of speech.
 Whereas, as Vittorio has represented the voice of reason. and even-handedness during his long service as liaison and has provided sage advice and counsel in all matters coming before the board.
 Whereas, Vittorio has been a strong advocate of the at-large community and its involvement in ICANN.
 Whereas, Vittorio Bertola has concluded his term as liaison on behalf of the At-Large Advisory Committee at the Los Angeles meeting.
 Resolved that Vittorio Bertola has earned the deep appreciation of the board for his term of service as liaison and the board wishes him well in his future endeavors.
 >>VINT CERF:   Is there a second for the resolution?  Vanda.
 I suggest that we acknowledge this resolution by acclamation.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   Why is that man smiling?
 Well, we have more.
 This one is a thank you to Francisco da Silva, who has completed a second term, a second sentence, on the board.  Yes, Francisco?
 >>FRANCISCO DA SILVA:   It is a third.  Because the first one --
 >>VINT CERF:   I beg your pardon.  It's the third.
 >>FRANCISCO DA SILVA:   The first one was an PSO elected member, as you have been, Mr. Chairman.  The second one was as liaison.  And again as liaison.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you for that reminder.
 Vanda, would you put this resolution on the record.
 >>VANDA SCARTEZINI:   Okay.
 I will start in English and finish in Portuguese in honor of Francisco.
 Thanks to Francisco da Silva.  Whereas, Francisco da Silva was appointed liaison for a third term in the ICANN board on behalf of the Technical Liaison Group to serve during the year 2007.
 Whereas, Francisco has provided excellent insight, leadership, and expertise in this role, with a Portuguese flair for enthusiasm and humor that is unmistakably his own.
 Whereas, Francisco has provided unique perspective to the board on the technical application of the Internet in the context of the Worldwide Web.
 Whereas, Francisco has provided valuable counsel on matters of policy that are the responsibility of the board.
 Whereas, Francisco da Silva has concluded his term as liaison on behalf of the Technical Liaison Group at the Los Angeles meeting.
 Resolved, the ICANN board resolves that Francisco da Silva has earned the deep appreciation of the board for his term of service, and the board wishes Francisco well in all future endeavors.
 Francisco (Portuguese, not translated) thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   What she said.
 >>VANDA SCARTEZINI:   No, this is private.
 >>VINT CERF:   Ladies and gentlemen, I ask that we vote this by acclamation.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   So, Francisco, if you would kindly join me in the front of the stage.
 This is just another small memento of our appreciation for your service a third time to ICANN.  It's much appreciated.
 >>FRANCISCO DA SILVA:   Thank you very much.
 Yes, I would like to say that Vanda said something to me in Portuguese, but this is not an official language of the United Nations, and, again, we are not entitled to speak Portuguese in this room.  Nevertheless, in this airport, when we have to pass the security, the instructions to put the fingers and these kind of things, are written in English and two Asiatic languages and Spanish and Portuguese.  So I would like if the meeting has been here in LAX, perhaps we could have had also the Portuguese language.
 Anyhow, thank you very much for the -- for having given me the opportunity to be here and to say these things.  I like very much to be here and to serve, and I don't know, as Vanda said, if I will come one day, but before we die, we never know when we return.  I don't like to say goodbye, because there is always tomorrow.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   Vittorio, somehow we got out of order here, and you get an acknowledgment, too.  I don't know how that happened.  It's my fault.
 You've got your microphone and ready to go at Lamborghini speed.
 Vittorio, let me thank you once again for all of the time you've served not only on the board as liaison, but in the previous years working so hard in the vineyards of ALAC.  A small token of our appreciation.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VITTORIO BERTOLA:   Thank you.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VITTORIO BERTOLA:   If I might take my 30 seconds or 30 minutes, I don't know.
 I just wanted to thank everyone, not just for the formal thank yous, but for the abundant informal thank yous that I received at dinners or in the corridors from several members of the community, even some I wouldn't even have totally known they knew me.  So thank you, really, thank you all.
 [ Applause ]
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   With a microphone -- with one hand burdened by a microphone and the other burdened by his gift, he had trouble saying very much to us.
 >>VINT CERF:   Yes.  Oh, so now we know -- oh, well, all right.
 We have -- gosh, we have so many people moving around, don't we?
 Steve Goldstein, would you kindly put on the record a thank you for who is also finishing his term.
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   Yes.  It would be my distinct pleasure, Vint.
 Where Joichi was appointed to the ICANN board by the Nominating Committee and started serving on the 20th of December in 2004.
 Whereas, Joichi has served the board with considerable energy and skill.  He has served as a member of the finance, compensation, conflicts of interest, and audit committees, and has provided excellent insight, leadership, and expertise in these roles.
 Whereas, Joichi has Chronicled ICANN meetings and other activities through his refined skill as a photographer, and thereby demonstrated a keen eye for the best in people.
 And I might add, I asked him to take photos of this while I was reading it, but I guess he didn't.
 [ Laughter ]
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   Whereas, Joichi is the embodiment of transparency and information-sharing that the Internet encourages.
 Whereas, as Joichi has concluded his term as director of the ICANN board at the Los Angeles meeting.
 Resolved, the ICANN board resolves that Joichi Ito has earned the deep appreciation of the board for his term of service, and the board wishes Ito-San well in all future endeavors.
 >>VINT CERF:   Is there a second?
 I see one from Susan.
 Ladies and gentlemen, I suggest we vote this by acclamation.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   And if Joichi would join me on the stage.
 You give us an opportunity to say "thank you," a small token to remember us by, and an opportunity to make some parting words.
 But let me tell you personally how much I've enjoyed having you on the board.  Joichi has an extraordinary depth of understanding of the way the Internet works and the way people are using it.  So it gave us a very special perspective, which we are going to miss.
 >>JOICHI ITO:   Thanks, Vint.  And I don't really have a long speech, but I'll just say that when I joined, I kind of felt like I was tricked, because there was -- turned out to be a lot more work than I had anticipated, and that NomCom had told me it would be.
 And that's actually one thing that wasn't in the NomCom recommendation, which is that I think there is, on the one hand, a lot more work than most people believe.  On the other hand, I came in with a rather skeptical eye about what ICANN really does.  And I was wondering what all these people get together and spend so much time doing.
 And I'm now departing with a huge amount of respect for the people who spend so much time here, the board and all the people who participate.  And so while I can't be spending the same amount of time moving forward, I hope to be able to be more supportive from the outside and sort of provide the kind of outside support that we don't have enough of for ICANN.
 So thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Joichi.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   Well, we have another departing board member.  And that's Vanda Scartezini.  And I've asked Roberto if he would kindly put the motion on the table for us.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   Whereas, Vanda Scartezini was appointed to the ICANN board by the Nominating Committee and started serving on 20th December 2004.
 Whereas, Vanda has served the board with considerable energy and skill.  She has served as chair of the ICANN audit committee and as a member of the board governance, conflicts of interest, meetings and compensation committees, and the joint ICANN board and ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee working group, and has provided excellent insights, leadership, and expertise in these roles.
 Whereas, Vanda has been insightful in dynamics of the international arena, bringing experience from all sectors as a contribution to this multistakeholder organization.  Vanda has drawn on her long experience on ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee.
 Whereas, Vanda has been generous in sharing her insights and support for ICANN's fellowship program.
 Whereas, Vanda has concluded her term as director of the ICANN board at the Los Angeles meeting.
 Whereas, Vanda has been nominated to the At-Large Advisory Committee committee, ALAC, and will continue to serve the ICANN community.
 Resolved, the ICANN board resolves that Vanda Scartezini has earned the deep appreciation of the board for her term of service, and the board wishes Ms. Scartezini well in all future endeavors.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Roberto.
 Is there a second?  I see Steve Goldstein.
 Ladies and gentlemen, let us vote this by acclamation.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   I have to tell you that Vanda has been part of this team in one form or another for a very long time:  Service on the GAC, service on the board, and now service on the ALAC.
 So we owe you a great deal.  I'm stunned by your continued energy and your determination to help make this whole process work well.  We have a small token to say "thank you."  And offer an opportunity for you to address the assembled crowd.
 >>VANDA SCARTEZINI: Thank you, thank you.
 Well, just I will start, thank you, John Jeffrey, because I appreciate him, the information that I was chair of the reconsideration to the board, with this kind of task give to us, both of us.  
 Thank you, John Jeffrey.
 And I would like to recognize that during this time, we really made huge progress.  And this board really has made a lot of progress.  The organization is much more professional.  We could deal with the translations, we could deal with IDN.  So I'm proud to participate in that.
 And especially to be here under your leadership was an honor.  And I wish you guys a huge success, because we will need that.  And from the other side, I will demand that.  Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Vanda.
 [ Applause ]
 >> (inaudible).
 >>VANDA SCARTEZINI:   Well, I would like to express my deep appreciation for the whole staff that always make me feel as part of this group.  Thank you for all of your effort and cooperation and the kindness you treat me.  Thank you.
 [ Applause ] 
 >>VINT CERF:   I understand that Adam Peake has returned to the room, so if I can ask Adam to please join me on the stage.
 So Adam, earlier we thanks thanked George Sadowsky.  We would like to thank you now for your service to the board and the rest of ICANN on the Nominating Committee, a task thankless in many regards.
 We'd like to offer two small tokens of esteem, and offer you an opportunity to express yourself briefly to the assembled audience.  But we thank you for this hard work.
 >>ADAM PEAKE:   Only to say thank you and it's a pleasure to be a part of a volunteer organization, and that's why I think we put time into it.
 And sorry, Joi, my e-mail does say something about two hours a week and hang out with Vint and drink wine.  But I hope you enjoyed it, and thank you.  And thanks, Vint
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   It's my understanding that Alejandro is on the phone right now.
 Alejandro, can you hear us?  Hello, hello?
 >>ALEJANDRO PISANTY:   Can you hear me?
 >>VINT CERF:   Okay, yes.
 I have my bunny ears on now.
 Alejandro, we had tabled a motion at the last meeting because you were unable to join us, and we'd like to bring that motion back up for execution.
 However, I'm going to ask an indulgence.
 I'd like to put this motion on the table.  I don't want to read that motion.  It's on the screen right now.  It was read at the last meeting.
 I actually have some additional material that I would like to read to append to this particular motion.
 So I would like to make this motion, first of all, -- put this motion on the table as it was presented in San Juan, ask for a second for clarity.
 I see Peter and many others.
 And I'd like to ask your indulgence while I read something a little bit more prosy.
 This is a thank you to Alejandro Pisanty.  He was elected by the domain name Supporting Organization to serve on the ICANN board beginning with the annual meeting in late 1999.
 And he was elected to a second term by the DNSO in mid-2003, and elected for a final term by the GNSO.
 His term as a member of the board expired on June 8th, 2007.  He was elected vice chair of the ICANN board at the annual meeting in 2001, and serves -- I'm sorry, and served ICANN in this position through the annual meeting of 2006.
 Alex has taken on some of the most difficult and demanding assignments that any board member can have.  He has devoted selflessly and modestly countless hours to ICANN over many years.  He served as the chair of the ICANN committee on evolution and reform from its formation at the annual meeting of 2001 through the implementation of its recommends recommendations in 2003.
 Together with the late Hans Kraaijenbrink and others on the committee, Alex worked through many months of debate and no doubt gigabytes of e-mail to achieve consensus on the restructuring of ICANN.  We have benefited enormously from this work, even though the payoff has sometimes taken time to emerge.
 Among the most recent was the emergence of the five regional at-large organizations, thanks to the tireless efforts of the At-Large Advisory Committee and many others.
 Alex also took on another difficult challenge, the chairmanship of the Board Governance Committee from 2004 through the end of his term on the board.
 The workload of this committee is significant, dealing with the review of ICANN's operational components, and the population of the committees of the board as well as offering for considering a slate of board officers.
 He also served as a member of the executive committee during his time of office as vice chair, served as a member of the finance committee in 2004 and 2006, and of the reconsideration committee from 2001 through June of 2003.
 He was a key member of the ICANN board and governmental advisory joint working group.
 On top of this stunning list of specific services to ICANN, Alex also played a major role in the Working Group on Internet Governance that emerged from the World Summit on the Information Society.
 He defended ICANN in its role against major efforts to transfer its functions to the international telecommunications union or some alternative United Nations organization.
 He continues to serve ICANN and the Internet community as a member of the Internet Governance Forum advisory board that assists IGF in the preparation of the agenda for the annual IGF meeting.
 His support for the Internet includes service as the chairman of the Internet society of Mexico and as a technical representative to the World Summit on the Information Society on behalf of the Mexican government.
 In his day job he is the chief information officer of the national University of Mexico that has over 250,000 students.  That's the size of a small city.
 It would be hard to overstate the value of Alejandro Pisanty's efforts on behalf of ICANN and the Internet.
 I do not think there is a harder working person in our community.  Yet in the midst of all the heavy debate, Alex retains an incisive, ironic, and biting sense of humor.  Many of us have enjoyed his rapier wit even if we, ourselves, were sometimes skewered by his insightful observations.  He is extraordinarily literate and articulate in several languages, something leaving most Americans, including me, in some awe.  And on top of it all he does everything with a style that is uniquely his own.
 His seasoned leadership is leavened by a spicy and irresistible Mexican passion.
 It fosters a compelling desire to want to join in his causes and help him achieve his objectives.
 I offer my sincerest and personal gratitude and highest esteem to Alex for the work he has done this past decade and for the work he continues to do on behalf of ICANN.
 All of us benefit in so many ways directly and indirectly as a consequence of his commitment, energy, determination, and still in the arena of ideas, policy, technology, diplomacy and operations.
 He is without question a renaissance internaut without whose leadership and guidance our course not have run as straight nor our institution weathered as well the stresses of the time.
 I ask you to accept this resolution by acclamation.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   I'm sorry, there are other people who would like to make comments.
 Yes, Roberto.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   I would like to not make the long story of my association with Alejandro since the early day of the formation of ICANN before ICANN, but just one small thing that relates to the -- almost the present.
 I -- When I arrived into the board in this present tenure, so stepped out as liaison and started being a regular member, Alejandro suggested me as the person for taking the office of vice-chairman that he had.  And also helped me very much.  Although I had a few years of experience in the board as liaison, I think that especially his guidance in taking over the Board Governance Committee was really essential.
 I think I could have not done my job without the advice of Alejandro.
 I still have mixed feelings about his suggestion of me taking over his role, but anyway, I think it was done with a good intent and not with the intent to kill me of work, because to take over all what he has done was really a great honor of me, but it has pointed out to the community how valuable he was when he was doing that.
 Thank you.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much.
 Raimundo, you had asked to speak as well.
 >>RAIMUNDO BECA:   Yes, but I'm going to do it in Spanish.
 I would like to thank Alejandro for all of the help that he has provided ever since he was the director of ICANN to the community, the Latin American community.  He was greatly helpful in the creation of LACNIC which a couple of days ago came to be five years old.
 And I would like to thank him personally because for me it was immensely helpful to have him help me understand in my own language many of the subjects which are very difficult to unravel to somebody who comes to a place like ICANN.  This is very complicated and he helped me enormously.  And a great part of what I have done, I owe to him.
 Thank you very much.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very much, Raimundo.
 The board has just lost all of its displays here, so not everyone may have understood the --
 >> Just you.
 >>VINT CERF:   I'm looking here.  I'm fine.  I got -- oh, yours are okay?  It's just mine that has gone out.
 Well, many bad words.
 Alex, if you are on the phone would you care to say a few words to us from your far-away location?
 >>ALEJANDRO PISANTY:   Yes, thank you, Vint.
 I don't know if you hear me well.
 >>VINT CERF:   Well, I'm deaf but everybody else seems to be doing fine.
 [ Laughter ]
 >>ALEJANDRO PISANTY:   Vint and fellow members of the board, friends, I'm very moved by hearing this.  I can only say all of this work has been very fun, has been very exciting.  I have had great teachers among many of you.  I have particularly a word for Hans Kraaijenbrink who created the concept of the Board Governance Committee and is not here to see the fruit of the work he did and started on ICANN reform and (inaudible) in particular.
 And I'm very happy to thank everybody that has taken part in this huge effort, particularly for their patience with me.  Board, staff, the large number of members of the community.
 I do apologize for my (inaudible).  I apologize I will not pay for all of my offenses, because you know how stubborn I am, but for most of the offenses I have inflicted on members of the community.
 And I have been particularly proud to say that for these many years I have been able to see fine examples of leadership, of (inaudible), of understanding, of understanding the nature of the Internet and its huge potential.
 When I started in ICANN, I was of the view that it was going to be a very interesting group to watch and to take part in, because it was this cyberspace meet space kind of collision in which we were in the end of the '90s.  From a developing country, we have to join, we have to be part of the (inaudible).  We cannot wait for Internet policy to be shaped for us, to be developed for us.  
 And I hear in Raimundo's words every indication of this view, and I hope and trust that ICANN will continue to do its part, because the community has a huge effort to do, to do in the face of the people and organizations who still don't completely get what the multistakeholder process is.
 So again, thanks to all.  I will continue to be part of the effort as many ways as possible.  And thank all of you for this extremely kind words and expressions.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you very, very much, Alex.
 We lack forward to the opportunity to see you in Rio in the IGF.
 And I have been told that we have a very, very nice gift for you, images of which we can put up on the display here if Steve Conte would be so kind to pull this up.
 I don't know if you can see this, Alex, but this is a world clock which is actually a rather large affair, and it shows you where it is light and where it is dark in the course of the 24 hours, so you will be able to figure out whether we are in the dark or not in the board depending on where we are and what time it is.  But we hope that this will remind you that we appreciate your service on a global scale and that we think you find time to continue to join us from time to time and continue to share with us your insights, your ideas and your energy.
 So thank you, Alex.  This clock will be shipped to you by staff so it will arrive in safe condition, we hope you will find it very useful.
 >>ALEJANDRO PISANTY:   Thank you again very much, Vint, and everybody.
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you, Alex
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   Well, there are a few more to do, and I would like to call on Paul Twomey for the next one.
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   Thank you, Vint.  It is a change in our normal procedure but one that I am very pleased to take the reins of for the next two resolutions.
 The next resolution is a thanks to Carla LaFever, and I am particularly pleased to move this resolution, partly in testament to all the kindness Carla has shown me and all the many phone calls Carla and I have done from all around the world saying, "Where's Vint?"  It's a bit like saying "Where's Waldo?"
 The resolution reads as follows. Whereas Carla LaFever has worked with Vint as a colleague since 1984, and she has served Vint loyally as his chief of staff since 1996.
 Whereas Dr. Vinton Cerf has served as a member of the ICANN board since 1999, where November 2000 he was elected as chairman of the board.  Whereas Carla's able assistance has enabled Vint to fulfill his obligations to the ICANN community with great skill and good cheer.
 Whereas, Carla is patient, kind, sensitive, and equipped with a sense of humor that is dryer than a bar at the end of an ICANN meeting.
 Whereas Carla has made huge sacrifices of her own in service of Vint in the ICANN community.
 Whereas Carla is, in fact, an expert in cybernetics, and many years ago developed the Cerf1943 prototype cyborg and has been controlling it ever since
 [ Laughter ]
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   It is resolved by the ICANN board that ICANN wishes to extend its utmost thanks to Carla for her long and able service to Vint and the ICANN community.
 The board wishes Carla all the best in her future ventures.
 >>VINT CERF:   Second
 [ Applause ] (standing ovation)
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   Is it on?  It's on.
 So Carla, just for taking all those cell phone calls, let alone anything else, thank you so much on behalf of all of us.  As you heard, you are deep in the hearts of the ICANN community.  And this is just a little something to show our gratitude.  So thanks very much
 [ Applause ].
 >>CARLA LaFEVER:   I just want to say that it's been an incredible privilege and an honor to be associated with this organization and all of my dear friends, and I really do wish everyone continued success with the great and important work that's going on here.
 [ Applause ]
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   Now it is my great joy to move to the next resolution.  But before I do so, I would like to -- even as we draw to a close, show, I suppose an item of ongoing continuity which will be pleasing to Vint.  Vint, in his service to ICANN and beyond that, has always been a great supporter of the Regional Internet Registries and I.P. addressing model, and I know he has been keen throughout his entire tenure here to work together with that community in the Regional Internet Registries and the NRO to ensure the continuation and formalization of our relationships.  I am pleased to be able to report this morning that in the purpose of formalizing the relationships between ICANN and the NRO and the Regional Internet Registries that the negotiating teams have come to a successful conclusion of the final drafts to be presented to the board for approval of those formalization documentation, and I think that's an excellent timing and a testament to your own initiative there, Vint
 [ Applause ]
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   So let me move to a resolution.
 Whereas Vinton Cerf was appointed to the ICANN board and began his term in November 1999.
 Whereas he was selected by the Nominating Committee to serve two additional terms on the board.
 Whereas Vint has served the board with superhuman energy and unique skill.
 Whereas he has served as chairman of the ICANN board since November 2000, served as chairman of the compensation committee, served as a member of the executive committee, the executive search committee of the board in November '99 to January 2001, and the discussion group for geographic and geopolitical names in dot info and has provided excellent insight, leadership and expertise in these roles.
 Whereas Vint as dedicated tens of thousands of hours to supporting the board, including many in the early morning, in whatever city, town, hamlet or cave in the desert that has had any form of Internet access.
 Whereas he has logged over a million miles in air support to ICANN, its community, and constituents.
 Whereas, most of this travel has been financially supported by MCI and Google as Vint has married his day job with his ICANN role, and the board particularly appreciates this support by MCI and Google.
 Whereas Vint's family has supported him with years of loving patience and encouragement for his patient support and encouragement of others.
 Whereas Vint has chaired over 70 global teleconference board meetings with extraordinarily aplomb and coordination, which is impressive considering he is a self-proclaimed "deaf guy."
 Whereas Vint has provided broad-spectrum leadership through sartorial elegance, humor, laser-like curiosity, charm, athleticism, decades of technical knowledge, personal networks, media savvy, business acumen, dancing, and advanced fluency in Kinglon.
 [ Laughter ]
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   Whereas Vint has, through his agenda-setting and management of accountability, shown a fundamental personal commitment to the founding principles supporting ICANN's mission, namely ensuring the security and stability of the DNS, allowing market mechanisms to support the management of the DNS in a manner that promotes competition and choice for users and registrants, facilitating the bottom-up, transparent policy development process, and engaging the participation of the global stakeholder community in the ICANN process.
 Whereas the ICANN community came together to celebrate Vint's eight years of service on the board at a gala ceremony here at ICANN's 30th international public meeting in Los Angeles, the same city in which Vint grew up, studied, and operated IMP 1 at the dawn of the ARPANet, a precursor of the Internet.
 Whereas Dr. Vinton Cerf has concluded his term as director of the ICANN board at the Los Angeles meeting, the ICANN board resolves that Vint has earned the appreciation of the board on the scale of the totality of IPv6 address space for his terms of service, and the board wishes Dr. Cerf well in all future endeavors.  The board sincerely hopes that Vint will continue to be available to ICANN for advice and counsel in all matters of common interest in the future, but it does recognize that he has earned at least a 12-month holiday from formal ICANN participation.
 Rather than calling for a second, Mr. Cerf -- or Dr. Cerf, we can inform you that the entire board seconds this resolution.  And individual board members may wish to make their seconding status clearer through intervention.
 We might perhaps start with Rita Rodin on the telephone who does wish to say some words.
 >>RITA RODIN:   Thanks, Paul.
 I hope that you can all hear me.  There is suddenly a garbage truck that has appeared outside.
 I'm going to keep this short, but I didn't feel as though I could let Vint step down without a few words of admiration.
 I first met Vint in 1997 as a young lawyer at Skadden Arps.  The firm had been hired by Don Heath at the Internet society and I was sent to a meeting in Geneva to sit with, among others, Vint Cerf.  You can imagine my thrill.  
 ISOC was trying to obtain a federal registration for the Internet society in the U.S., but the application was being opposed by a party that had previously been awarded a trademark for the word "internet."
 Well, you can imagine how Vint felt about that.
 It was interesting for me to hear the debate that ensued as Vint discussed his views on how the Internet was intended to be a global resource, to be accessed and used freely by all.
 Thus the notion of a particular person or entity controlling the term was unacceptable.
 I was really struck at the time by the passion with which Vint truly believed in the Internet and its amazing potential to touch and change the world.
 Fast forward nine years, and I'm getting seated as an ICANN board member.
 From the moment I stepped into the board work room, I was struck by the way Vint navigated the board through some very difficult discussions.
 During my all-too-short tenure on the board with Vint, I found him to be a great leader and teacher.
 I feel as though I owe him a great deal of personal thanks for his patience and willingness to discuss, and sometimes argue, issues with me, and for his example in the ways of diplomacy.
 I'm also continually amazed at Vint's particularly ability to review the board list and offer elegant and articulate response, literally within minutes, no matter where he is in the world.
 You know, he tells us he's the deaf guy and that the little things in his ears are hearing aids, but I personally think they are some kind of super fast transmitter to always keep him online and one step ahead of everyone else.
 Finally, can't think enough for his kindness and support these last months.  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for sharing yourself with the ICANN community all these past years.  We will miss you terribly and wish you lots of luck, health and happiness.
 Thanks.
 [ Applause ]
 [ Applause ]
 >>VINT CERF:   Thank you so much, Rita.  I couldn't ask for a kinder sendoff.  For you, personally, I hope much health and rapid recovery from all that you've been through in the last few months.  Thank you so much for joining us today.  It means a great deal to me personally.
 >>RITA RODIN:   My pleasure.
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   Thank you, Rita.
 The second process is continuing, and I think Roberto would like to say some words.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   Yeah.  I would like just to remember the moment when I first met Vint in person.  It was at the Cairo meeting.  I'm sure that Vint doesn't remember this one.
 >>VINT CERF:   I remember the Cairo meeting.
 >>ROBERTO GAETANO:   The Cairo meeting is unforgettable.  But this detail.
 I was talking to Theresa, and -- that was -- the Cairo meeting was when I came back into the ICANN process after having left for a couple of years.
 And I came back as -- in the general assembly of the DNSO, then becoming the chairman.
 And I was talking to Theresa.  And then John Klensin came and said, "Oh, we are late for lunch.  We have" -- and Theresa said, "Come with us."
 And the fourth person at that table was Vint Cerf.
 So when I realized that -- you know, I was very embarrassed, because, you know, I was not meant to be in that company in the first place.  And was really feeling a lot of emotion for being close to this person that I knew was the father of the Internet and all these nice things that we have been reminded in these last days.  And, to be honest, I thought that that was going to be the first and last time that I was going to have lunch with him, in fact.
 It was, indeed, the first, but not the last.
 I was so moved by the emotion that -- in fact, at that lunch, I could barely eat.  And I couldn't figure out what to do, where to put my hands.  And if I had to say something or just be silent.  Because, you know, if you -- sometimes if you stay silent, you don't make it so obvious that you don't know exactly what to say.
 But, anyway, I was really full with emotion.  I tasted a little bit of wine, because -- and I realized exactly from that first experience that when you have a meal with Vint, the wines are excellent.
 And I have to say that then in my third come-back to ICANN, first as a liaison, and then as a board member, I had other occasions to sit at the table with him and to talk.  But I have to admit that still, with some of the emotional involvement of that first day, that I'm continuing, when I sit at the same table and I exchange opinions, I'm still feeling the same emotion that I had at that time.  I still feel that it's so -- how lucky I am that I can relate to Vint and spend some time with him.  And I'll stop it here, because I'll start crying otherwise.
 [ Applause ]
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   So we'll proceed around the table.  Those who wish to, in a little or a greater way, in groups or together, individually, who wishes to make contributions, please do so.
 >>STEVE CROCKER:   Well, since we're recalling the -- how we managed to get engaged in this venture, I've known Vint for a while, he called me up and said, well, we have this little Security and Stability Advisory Committee, would you come and chair it.  It'll just take you a few months to get it going and everything will be okay.  I was reflecting back on.  And I think the image that comes to mind is from Laurel and Hardy, a fine mess you've gotten us into, Ollie.
 >>VITTORIO BERTOLA:   Thank you.  I do have a couple of observations that I want to make personally.
 The first one is that I have been addressing you for seven years, first from the public microphone, and then your mailing list, and then in board.  And I've seen lots of people addressing you in several occasions.
 Something that was not immediately obvious but I realize now is that you were always -- I mean, when someone is talking to you, you were always reasonable and patient and understanding and constructive, which is exactly what allows us addressing you to be at times rude and destructive and angry and unreasonable.
 And that's very important to keep the community together.
 So that's my first thing to you.
 And the second one is, well, the thing I have really admired about you, is that I have seen you for three ICANN meetings nearer than before, and it must be extremely rewarding to be Vint Cerf, but it must also be extremely hard.  I mean, everyone is stopping you and wants to be introduced to you and talk to you.  And the way you can turn that into positive energy is astonishing.
 I mean, it's so easy in that situation just to enjoy the appreciation of the others or even to exploit them or manipulate them, and this is something you never did.  You reflect the positive feeling and so encourage people to be good-willing and constructive.  And that's really exceptional.  Thank you.
 [ Applause ]
 >>JANIS KARKLINS:   I was already paying tribute to Vinton Cerf in the GAC communique.  I just want to share with you one secret.  Vint this morning sent me an e-mail saying that he accepted our invitation, and he is becoming a lifelong advisor to the GAC.
 So thank you, Vint, for what you are doing.  Thank you for your support to Government Advisory Committee and to the spread of the Internet all over the world.  And I wish you all well to do so.  And maybe you can think and change your title from just evangelist to the Pope.  Thank you.
 [ Applause ]
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   Well, I first met Vint in 1989 at Bear Lake, which was the University of California Los Angeles's mountain retreat, which I hope hasn't burned down.
 >>VINT CERF:   I don't think so.  But it came close.
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   And there was a small group of people there.  And, as a matter of fact, the two folks who started Cisco probably in another local garage were there at the time.  Gosh, I forget their names.  Do you remember their names?
 >>VINT CERF:   Started Cisco?
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   Yeah.
 >>VINT CERF:   Glen Bosack.
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   And his wife?
 >>VINT CERF:   I don't know whether they were married or not.  But in California, it's sort of not relevant.
 [ Laughter ]
 >>VINT CERF:   I'm sorry.  I don't remember -- it's Sandra something. 
 >>Sandy Lerner.
 >>STEVE GOLDSTEIN:   Loyal employee of Cisco now.  Thank you.  
 There were a small group of people there, no more than 50, and I had just joined the National Science Foundation to work in the networking group there, but I was really a tie-row to the field.  But I do remember that meeting, the theme of that meeting, and Vint was leading the theme.  I can't remember the exact measure we were talking about, but Vint said, "Let's plan ahead for the Internet in case it ever reaches something like" -- it was a million users or a million addresses.  And that was 1989.
 So things have grown since then, as has my respect for Vint.
 Thank you, Vint.
 [ Applause ]
 >>SUZANNE WOOLF:   I suppose it's my turn.
 Just real quick.  But I do remember at the Rio ICANN meeting, it was the first ICANN meeting I had been to in a long time.  And several of us have been invited by, I believe, it was the GAC to talk about those mysterious root servers and who are we, anyway.
 And I was -- remember being at the reception, and there you were, among all these very serious-looking people, and you wanted to know how anycast worked.
 Thank you for always being about making it work and for your inspiration to keep making it work for the people of the world.
 [ Applause ]
 >>SUSAN CRAWFORD:   So we've had all these speeches about TCP/IP and the leadership of the Internet.  And Vint's balletic grace is apparent to us as he gives a gift to a departing board member, as he bangs foreheads with the Maori tribesmen.  It's very impressive.  But what you may not see and what we are privileged to see here on the board is Vint relaxed.
 Vint relaxed is a raconteur.  He tells stories about tales of adventure, high society, wine, Internet personalities, don't forget that Vint and Sigrid greeted the arrival of the IMP 1 on the loading dock at UCLA with a grass of champagne.  That's Vint for you.  He is a charmer, interested in what everyone has to say, generous, and friendly.  We treasure the relaxed Vint as we treasure the leader Vint, and we will miss him extraordinarily.
 [ Applause ]
 >>JOICHI ITO:   I don't have a whole lot to add to all of the things that everybody's been saying, but I will say that Vint's a really good sport.  Whether it's, you know, posing for my photos or whether it's taking silly jokes and laughing at them for us or whether it's having patience for a lot of things that he didn't need to have patience for.
 And telling me when I asked him about the dress code, whether we needed to wear three-piece suits for ICANN, tell me that I could wear a tee shirt if I wanted to.
 So I think I really appreciate Vint's inclusiveness and tolerance that he's shown for board members and the community.  And thank you for everything.
 [ Applause ]
 >>THOMAS NARTEN:   Yeah, thanks, Vint.  I guess what I would just say is, you know, like everyone else says, for me, I think the summary has been the infectious enthusiasm you have for making the Internet work better and grow.  And I have sort of a couple of stories along those lines.
 My experience with you goes back to about 1984 or '85 when you were, I think, chair of the IAB or at an IAB meeting and I was at that time a graduate student and I got into the scribe program where I was able to sit in the room and take notes and type them all up and report them later.  And hear all the discussions that were going on and all the things that were issued and discussed.
 And even then, at that point, I felt like I was a part of something and there was this enthusiasm for making things work, you know, trying to solve problems that were potentially really big, having a real impact on the world.  And at the same time, having fun doing that.
 And as a sort of more recent example, this sort of typifies that, I believe it was in Morocco, I believe there was a group of the techies that were talking about IDNs, and somehow, Vint was, like, we caught him in the hallway, and it turns out he didn't have dinner plans, which is pretty amazing in and of itself, and the next thing I knew, there was about six or seven of us in his suite, ordering dinner, and we were discussing the problem of the month with IDNs.
 And having a great time at it.  And I think we actually made some, again, a small amount of progress at that meeting that cascaded and has helped us get to where we are today.
 So thanks, Vint.
 [ Applause ]
 >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH:   Vint, it's sort of difficult to think of what to say under these circumstances, there are so many aspects of your contribution that one can focus on.  So I decided I'd select institution-building, one could have commented about your inventions and the rewards of governments.  But what you've always recognized is the need to have a structure around the invention and the technology, which a lot of inventors, which I have some experience of, have never recognized or been unable to do.
 You recognize that for all this technology to proceed and be as effective as it can be, it needs structure.
 And so I want to just note your formation in 1979, which is a long time ago, of the ICCB, the Internet Configuration Control Board.  And then your migration of that through in 1993 to the Internet Activities Board.  And then in 1992, the conversion of that into the Internet Architecture Board, and then the formation of ISOC in 1992.  And then your role through MCI in supporting the next sort of range of developments, the internationalizational developments, the IAHC.  And then in 1997, your involvement with the green and the white papers.  And all of which brings you inexorably, of course, to the formation of ICANN in 1998.  And here you are today and have been the chair and the leader and the inspiration of that.  
 So I'd like to thank you for that contribution to these institutions.  Having played a small role myself, I know how difficult it is to get anything off the ground in this area.  And all of your institutions have been substantial and contributed enormously and long lasting.
 So these will live behind you.  These are contributions that are now embedded in the infrastructure as much as the technology itself.
 So I thank you for that.
 [ Applause ]
 >>NJERI RIONGE:   Vint, it's June 2003 in Montreal.  I think, I believe second woman on the board after Linda, who was professional, articulate, and had done a fantastic job, and I had to follow in her footsteps.
 And you find -- and you ask me if I am an entrepreneur, and I said yes, and you understand finance and audits, I say yes, and you say, well, you're going to be the chair of the audit committee.  Is that okay?
 I say, yes.
 Then a board retreat.  And I had understood very clearly from the whole process of the NomCom that the one thing that was such an eye sore for ICANN at the time was what I called marketing, with all the four "P's."  And I make this distinctive decision to raise the issue of marketing in one of our retreats.  And I'm sure all of you engineers know the relationship between marketers and engineers.
 And there lies a conflict between me and Vint.
 But I insisted.  And Paul candidly called me aside over tea break and said, "Njeri, I think we can actually deal with this by calling this communication."  And I said, "Okay.  Well served.  Thank you very much.  I will call it communication."
 I am so grateful today to announce that after those conversations and those opportunities of challenge between me and Vint, we are now at least well served with good communication material.  Thank you, Vint.  And thank you so much for your ability to understand cultural diversity, cultural complexes in the way that we communicate, which is not always easy, because we are all coming from different perspectives, different perceptions.  And you do that magnificently well.  Thank you so much.
 I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this team with you as chair.  Thanks.
 [ Applause ]
 >>VANDA SCARTEZINI:   Okay, Vint, a lot of things have been said, and I believe all colleagues have said a lot.
 I would like to make just one small point.  In that part last night, in the tribute, you allowed us to be part of the history.  And I thank you so much for that.
 [ Applause ]
 >>RAIMUNDO BECA:   I met Vint for the first time in June 2004 in Kuala Lumpur.  Of course I knew from many, many years ago who was Vint Cerf.  But he didn't know who was Raimundo Beca.
 I was on the board for one month, so we had the opportunity to chat and to be on phone calls.  And we were in the board room, and he was chatting with me, discussing.  He didn't realize that I was sitting in the place, absolutely, like me and Vanda now, we are chatting.
 Well, you know, we can talk about this -- "Oh, you are Raimundo Beca."
 Well, today, I have the opportunity to make something almost exactly the same on the chatting.
 Vint sent this morning to the board list a document that he called legacy document, which is a fantastic document, really, really, it's a document I think that he is going to make that public, I don't know if it's today or later or whatever.
 And besides the content, which is extraordinary, maybe the devil is always --
 >>VANDA SCARTEZINI:   In the details.
 >>RAIMUNDO BECA:  Not -- but, well, --
 You know, in the -- the reference of the document is -- was or is, or was, I don't know, ICANN look in future, version 4.
 So I sent an e-mail saying, "May I have a contribution to that document?  Could you change it to version 6?"
 [ Laughter ]
 >>RAIMUNDO BECA:   Thank you very much.
 [ Applause ]
 >>RAJASHEKAR RAMARAJ:   Vint, looks like I've had the shortest introduction with you on this board.  And I'm really sorry about that.
 I really would like to thank you for being a great mentor during -- to a rookie board member, and for making this last one year wonderful.
 Thank you very much again, Vint.
 [ Applause ]
 >>DEMI GETSCHKO:   I'll begin with this information and comment.  I saw Vint in tee shirt, wearing tee shirts in a CCI ARIN meeting in Hawaii, I suppose it was in '93.  And on the tee shirt was written "I.P. everywhere."
 It has been an honor for me to share this board with Vint and be chaired by Vint.
 It's really an honorand a great pleasure.
 And for a last thank you, I will say, long live and prosper.
 [ Applause ]
 >>FRANCISCO DA SILVA:   Now it's my turn.
 I saw Vint the first time in person in Stockholm 2001, in a room of this type, and the stage was a bit higher than this one.
 And I have seen him jumping.  And I said, oh, we have a man!  Because I like very much sport.  This is the first condition to be a good chairman.
 This I have never forgotten.
 And the second impression was in Lisbon this year when we went together to a Fadov house, and about the wine, so I know what Roberto was referring to.
 And, really, the most expensive wine was not the best wine.  And these were Portuguese wines.  But Vint was already advising me on these issues.  And I began to make a mistake, and he had to correct, and we changed to the good, and it was a cheaper wine, but we corrected.  And this is another facet that I think it is important for us to understand these matters.
 The other issue, that it is -- when we have begun with this discussion of the IDNs in Rio, there was still Katoh-San that chaired this committee.
 And Vint was taking this as -- it was expected -- very seriously.  And also, he said, "Oh, we could speak about these issues at breakfast," because it was difficult to advance, and we were already discussing these details in those days.  And I -- it was very interesting for me, because I also like the topic, even if I am operationally outside, I like it.
 Anyhow, what Rita said, that Vint is always on, and all the details, it is true not only for the subjects of the ICANN, but if we have other subjects and we have other proposals, he's always available.  And four of these issues I have had examples in the last month.  And this is a very specific matter.  It is always with his energy, always available.  And as he said once in our board when he was asked, when do you sleep?  He answered just, HUH -- you remember this? -- it is losing our time, we have to be always -- this was in Tunis, in Carthage, because we were connected all the day, all the night.
 There is something here I would like to say in front of everybody, because he has not yet cooked.
 As you know, I am a liaison, gTLD liaison, in particular, appointed by ETSI.  
 But in all these years, I couldn't yet make him synchronize to be with us in ETSI.  This is something that, in particular, all of our colleagues in the telecom community on the ETSI board would like to have there Vint in a kind of "Hell's Kitchen" to have a kind of a free discussion.  And I hope this can be.
 There is only one problem with Vint.  He cannot speak Portuguese.  I don't know why such a person with all these qualities cannot speak Portuguese.
 Thank you, Vint.
 [ Applause ]
 >>BRUCE TONKIN:   Okay.  It's hard coming at the end of the table to be able to say anything new actually, but I'll try.
 I think rather than giving a history of when I first met Vint, I think I will make some observations about what I think some of Vint's strengths are and hopefully we can learn from that in terms of the leadership of the organization.
 First of all, I think one of Vint's great strengths is he is open to change and encourages people at ICANN to propose new ideas and new proposals.
 But it's also recognizing that he, himself, has such deep knowledge and experience on the evolution of the Internet, and it would be very tempting for someone like Vint to basically say, "You're wrong, I know this better than you do, and this is what you should do."  And Vint has never done that and I think that's really one of the great strengths of a leader.
 And rather than trying to tell you what you should do, Vint's very careful at managing it by asking the right question.
 So he will ask a very straight question or give advice and say, "Here are some things you might want to think about when you are trying to solve that problem," or to enhance your idea.
 And I think that's very important, that Vint has shown that style of leadership, both within ICANN but really it's the strength of the Internet itself.  Because it would be tempting for the early founders, the developers of the I.P. protocol, of which Vint is one of them, to try to patent that, to try to control it from there going forward, control what the changes are, but Vint decided from the very beginning it would be an open protocol, it would be an open standard, anyone could use it and evolve from it.
 And I think it must be very amusing for Vint to sort of sit back at this meeting today and hear us at ICANN, which is responsible for assigned names and numbers, we don't seem to be talking about names and numbers much.  We are talking about geographic regions of the world and how they should be defined, we have been talking about language scripts in this meeting and the equivalents between different character sets.  We have been talking about who is it that is actually using this Internet, and we have this thing called WHOIS.
 But that really shows you how important the Internet is to the world, that we actually are having those discussions.  Because it wasn't important and if it was just a narrow protocol from just one company or one individual, we would probably still be arguing about the bits and bytes.  But the very fact that we are arguing about these very complex problems, and to my left here, Paul Twomey, always brings a historical perspective.  But I think what you are seeing here, and it's your legacy, both in terms of your leadership that you have allowed something to be able to be created and evolved, and you have also been able to help us along the way by asking the right questions.
 So I really thank you for your great leadership, Vint.
 [ Applause ]
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   Vint, I have already said a number of things about you, some of which are true, some of which are not.
 [ Laughter ]
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   I would just like to say one that's true, in the last eight years, and in particularly the last four and a half, it has been one of the highlights of my life to work so closely with you, and I thank you for that.
 There's a further resolution we will put on the table which we have been keeping in reserve.
 And then we'll ask you to say a few words, and then we'll share a gift with you.
 And the resolution reads as following, and I think it's now on the screen.
 Whereas Vinton serve has served the ICANN community with extraordinary skill and goodwill from his appointment to the board in 1999 to the end of his term here at the Los Angeles meeting.
 And whereas the IANA maintenance the IANA Special People Numbers Registry, the SPNR, and to read from that registry, which was last updated on the 26th of June, 2003, for those who have worked for the benefit of the Internet into the wee hours too often, for too little compensation, and with too little public appreciation, although I'm not certain about that last bit, thank you for your dedication.
 And you will see there are a number of people here who have been granted this -- who have been put on this particular registry, in particular, Jon Postel, Joyce Reynolds, Bob Braden, Louis Touton, Daniel Karrenberg, Steve Crocker, Scott Bradner and Stephen Wolff, It is resolved the board requests the IANA to enroll Vinton Cerf as entry number 9 on the IANA Special People Numbers Registry.
 Do I have a second for the resolution?
 [ Applause ]
 >>PAUL TWOMEY:   I will also take that acclamation as the initial approval of the previous resolution and would ask Vint if he wants to say a few words.
 >>VINT CERF:   I will, Paul.  I will not say a lot of words.  I had an opportunity to say some Tuesday night with great thanks to my colleagues, family and friends for the support they have given me over the past eight years on this board.
 What I would like to do, however, is enter into the record officially a document which I call "looking towards the future."  It has been submitted or sent around to the board.  I think the staff have it available.
 It's a moderately long paper, and I don't intend to go through all the points of it at all.
 I do ask that you look at it, because it's my attempt to summarize largely in the near term the challenges that will face ICANN and the Internet.
 But I would like to, if you will forgive me for reading, I would like to read the last couple of paragraphs because they are called the collective goal, and I hope that we here in this room and those who are online and on the rest of the Internet will share them.
 As of this writing, there are only about 1.2 billion Internet users around the world.
 Over the course of the next decade, that number could conceivably quintuple to 6 billion, and they will be depending on ICANN, among many others, to do its part to make the Internet a productive infrastructure that invites and facilitates innovation and serves as a platform for egalitarian access to information.  It should be a platform that amplifies voices that might not otherwise never be heard and creates equal opportunities for increasing the wealth of nations and their citizens.
 ICANN's foundation has been well and truly fashioned.  It is the work of many heads and hands.
 It represents a long and sometimes hard journey that has called for personal sacrifices from many colleagues and bravery from others.
 It has demanded long-term commitments, long hours, days, months and years.  It has called upon many to transform passion and zeal into constructive and lasting compromises.
 ICANN has earned its place in the Internet universe.  To those who now guide its path into the future comes the challenge to fashion an enduring institution on this solid foundation.
 I am confident that this goal is not only attainable.  It is now also necessary.
 The opportunity is there:  Make it so.
 [ Applause ]
 (standing ovation).
 >>VINT CERF:   Well, ladies and gentlemen, it would appear that we have completed all of the business at hand for the board which is now sitting, and that we should call this board meeting to a close.
 We have an additional board meeting, which will take place immediately after this one, but I suggest we take a ten-minute break, partly to allow the departing board members to exit the stage, partly to allow others to get rid of the morning's coffee if they need to, and to allow the new board members to take their seats and to allow the new board to organize itself.
 So I will call this meeting to a close and thank all of you for your attendance.  And I ask the new board to take their seats.
 [ Applause ]