Members at the ccTLD constituency meeting in Los Angeles expressed serious concern about ICANN Board's lack of communication and consultation on substantive matters of policy, contrary to Article III, Section 3 (b) of the ICANN ByLaws.

The publication of the Draft Letter to Governments, posted November 12 implies Board adoption of the principles of the GAC Delegation/Redelegation Advisory paper before carrying out the procedures mandated in Article III, Section 3b, and in particular consultation with ccTLD managers as a particularly affected group.

The Board authorised (in Resolution 00.13) the President and staff to work with the ccTLD organisations on such matters. Such consultation has not yet begun on a formal basis. Personal visits by some staff members to selected European managers has caused concern.

The ccTLD Constituency has more general concerns about the lack of consultation prior to Board resolutions on substantive domain name policy matters. The Constituency was not consulted prior to a Board Resolutions (00.74, 00.75) directing IANA on the "delegability" of ISO 3166 alpha-2 codes in relation to the creation of ccTLDs. Despite requests at Cairo, following several redelegations, both voluntary and involuntary, there has been no publication of the criteria for such decisions by IANA.

The ccTLD Managers are also disappointed to have once again received a "Staff Working Paper - ICANN Cost Recovery Structure" whilst in transit to the LA ICANN meeting, leaving no time for consideration and discussion prior to the November 2000 ICANN Meeting.

This repeats events in Yokohama when the so-called "Status Quo" document was also published by staff just days before the ICANN meeting.

Since the decision to reject the geographically representative ccTLD delegation to the Cairo ICANN Meeting of the "President's Task Force on Funding", there has been no consultation with the ccTLD Constituency regarding the ICANN Budget for Financial Year 2000-01.

We are concerned that the published financial statements of ICANN may misrepresent the true position. Most ccTLD Managers have not accepted there is legal basis for ICANN to issue ccTLD Managers with invoices. Most ccTLDs have decided not to pay ICANN money in response to those invoices, but have instead made donations which currently exceed one million dollars. ccTLD Managers look forward to the opportunity to discuss their contribution to future ICANN funding, in conjunction with formalisation of relationships.

We look forward to closer liaison in the future and would welcome an opportunity to formalise this process.