Re: [council] Date for meeting in Washington area -23/24/25 Feb 2006
I will not be able to attend this meeting as it conflicts with meetings at WIPO in Geneva that I am already ticketed to attend. I won't be able join in the GNSO meeting via telephone either. I don't see any advantage to holding this meeting in Washington DC. It will skew the results of the meeting in favor of "DC-insiders" and away from ordinary users and the larger international community. I think we should at least reconsider holding this meeting in Washington DC. Robin GNSO.SECRETARIAT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: [To: council[at]gnso.icann.org] Dear Council Members, As requested by Bruce Tonkin, the GNSO Council chair, I am providing an update on the proposed meeting in the Washington DC area. The proposed dates are: Thursday 23 February from 1:30 pm to 5:00pm Friday 24 February from 9:00 am to 5:00pm (Open Forum planned for half a day) Saturday 25 February from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm In view of these meetings, there will be no GNSO Council meeting as planned on 21 February 2006. http://gnso.icann.org/calendar/#feb The room space can accommodate 30 people at an open U shape table and there will be 10 extra chairs on the sides. Some of the constituencies have informed me that their representatives will participate remotely and that they would like to have one or two additional designated representatives for on site attendance. If you will be participating remotely, the constituency should agree who will attend the meeting in person and let me know as soon as possible please. DIAL IN will be provided for remote participation of councillors. The meeting room has a podium, pc projector, wireless Internet connectivity and microphones.The cost would be for drinks and food, and will depend on the number of people attending, but I am told a sandwich/salad style lunch can be catered for at usually about 350- 400 US$ for about 35 people. There is a contribution for unlimited coffee, sodas, and juice that we are asked to make -- which is much nicer than having to worry about ordering catering for drinks. That might be about 150- 175 US$ An alternative is to break for lunch. There are numerous lunch places to buy salads, soup, sandwiches "on one's own".I have contacted about 10 hotels in down town Washington and the room rates vary from 190 to 250 US$. In order to negotiate a reasonable price, and hold sleeping rooms, I do have to know how many rooms will be needed and would be most grateful if you could give me an indication whether you will be attending or who will be attending from your constituency. There are 3 airports serving the Washington DC area: - Regan national airport is the closest being 15 to 20 minutes cab drive to Down Town Washington DC. - Baltimore (BW1) is about 1hour 15 minutes but does have subway transport between the airport and Down Town Washington DC. - Dulles (IAD) is about 50 to 60 minutes away by cab or shuttle and there is an excellent shuttle service between Dulles airport and DownTown. There is no subway nor are there trains between Dulles and Down Town Washington DC.I hope this helps. Please contact me if you have any questions and please let me know whether you will be attending in person or by remote particiaption.Thank you. Kind regards, Glen Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat - ICANN gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org
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