Chartered objectives for the Working Group:
Preamble: The Joint SO/AC Working Group on New gTLD Applicant Support shall evaluate and propose recommendations regarding specific support to new gTLD applicants in justified cases. The working group expects to identify suitable criteria for provision of such support, to identify suitable support forms and to identify potential providers of such support. However, there is no presumption that the outcome will imply any particular governing structure. Accordingly, if the recommendations indicate that the preferred solutions are of a voluntary nature, the criteria and other provisions arrived at in line with the objectives below will solely serve as advice to the parties concerned. The objectives are not listed in any priority order. An overall consideration is that the outcomes of the WG should not lead to delays of the New gTLD process.
Objective 1: To identify suitable criteria that new gTLD applicants must fulfill to qualify for dedicated support. The criteria may be different for different types of support identified in line with Objective 2 and 3 below.
Objective 2: To identify how the application fee can be reduced and/or subsidized to accommodate applicants that fulfill appropriate criteria to qualify for this benefit, in keeping with the principle of full cost recovery of the application process costs.
Objective 3: To identify what kinds of support (e.g. technical assistance, organizational assistance, financial assistance, fee reduction) and support timelines (e.g. support for the application period only, continuous support) are appropriate for new gTLD applicants fulfilling identified criteria.
Objective 4: To identify potential providers of the identified kinds of support as well as appropriate mechanisms to enable support provisioning.
Operating procedures for the Working Group
The Working Group will operate according to the interim working group guidelines set out in the Draft Working guidelines of 5 Feb 2010
Milestones
| Dates | Tasks/Goals |
| 29 April | First conference call. Preparations for chair election and charter. Work planning |
| 10 May | Adoption of charter by participating SOs and ACs |
| 5 May - 9 June | Weekly conference calls. Drafting of recommendation. |
| 15 June | Posting of "snapshot" on WG's plans and progress for public comment |
| 21-25 June | Community discussions during ICANN Brussels Meeting |
| 10 July - 10 August | Weekly conference calls resumed, development of final recommendation based on public comments received. |
| 13 August | Final recommendation posted. |