Board and Larry Strickling transcript, Cartagena

Background: The ICANN Board had publicly announced that it intended to approve the Applicant Guidebook (the rules for new Internet extensions) at its Cartagena meeting in December 2010.

Shortly before that meeting, it received a blunt letter from United States Assistant Commerce Secretary Larry Strickling warning the Board that in the US government's view it was in no way ready to approve the Guidebook.

Mr Strickling and the Board then had a private meeting in Cartagena to talk through the letter and how to respond to it.

The transcript of that meeting was only made available after the Guidebook had been approved some six months later, and in response to a formal request under ICANN's document disclosure policy (DIDP).

The result of Strickling's letter and the subsequent meeting, transcribed below, was the creation of a 'GAC Scorecard' outlining all of the governments concerns (there were 81 of them), and a series of extraordinary meetings between governments and the ICANN Board in order to reach agreement.

BOARD with LARRY STRICKLING Meeting

7 December 2010, 6:30 pm