The ICANN Board of Directors is meeting this week for our September Board Workshop. It will take place 4–6 September 2026 at ICANN's Los Angeles headquarters.
We look forward to welcoming ICANN Board Director Oscar Robles-Garay. The Address Supporting Organization appointed him to the seat previously held by Alan Barrett, who passed away in May. Oscar is the former CEO of the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry and the current CEO of LNET, a nonprofit organization that implements digital public infrastructure focused on open standards, interoperability, and sustainability. I am certain that the Board will benefit from Oscar's unique insights and perspectives.
Before going into the workshop agenda, I would like to note the passing of Bertrand de La Chapelle, a longtime member of the ICANN community who served as a member of the ICANN Board as well as a vice chair of the Governmental Advisory Committee. He played an important role in the development of the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, including through his involvement in the World Summit on the Information Society and the Internet Governance Forum. Bertrand was a beloved and highly respected leader in the global Internet governance community, and he will be deeply missed.
Now, here is an overview of the matters the Board will discuss at this three-day workshop:
2026 Round: The Board will receive an update on the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Program: 2026 Round. The 15-week application submission period closed on 12 August 2026, marking a significant milestone for the ICANN community, Board, and organization.
Review of Reviews: The Board will discuss the progress of the Review of Reviews Cross Community Group and the input received during the Public Comment proceeding on the group's draft report. The draft report proposes a three-pillar system for ICANN Reviews that includes two scheduled reviews, the Accountability and Transparency Review and a Structural Review, as well as an On-Demand framework.
ccPDP4: The Country Code Names Supporting Organization's Fourth Policy Development Process (ccPDP4) produced policy recommendations for the selection and deselection of Internationalized Domain Name country code top-level domains. The recommendations build on the existing IDN Fast Track process and, at the request of the Board, address the issues related to the introduction of variants and variant management at the top-level. In this session, the Board will consider the next steps recommended by the ccPDP4 Board Caucus Group.
Latin Script Diacritics PDP: This policy development process (PDP) working group has developed proposed rules to allow a single registry operator to simultaneously operate an ASCII gTLD and versions of that gTLD containing Latin script diacritics, which the group submitted to the Generic Names Supporting Organization Council for consideration. During the workshop, the Board will familiarize itself with these draft recommendations and their implications, resolve any questions, and identify any material concerns that warrant further consideration through the appropriate processes before the recommendations reach the Board. This session demonstrates the ICANN Board and organization's ongoing efforts to improve the effectiveness and pace of policy development.
RSS GWG: The Board will continue its review of the Root Server System (RSS) Governance Working Group's (GWG) proposed functional model for RSS governance. In particular, we will consider how it compares to various Root Server System Advisory Committee publications about RSS governance, including the RSSAC037 model and RSSAC058 success criteria.
RIR Governance: The Board will review the status of the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) Governance Document following the work of the Address Supporting Organization Address Council to propose updates to the Internet Coordination Policy 2.
Finance: The Board will hear an overview of the ICANN organization's financial results for fiscal year 2026, which ended on 30 June.
Internet Governance: The Board will discuss the latest developments in the global Internet governance landscape, focusing on ICANN's preparations for the International Telecommunication Union Plenipotentiary Conference 2026 and the Internet Governance Forum 2026.
Board Efficiency: The Board will receive an update from the Board Efficiency Work Team, which is tasked with making recommendations to the Board on ways to improve the efficiency of our working process.
On the final day of the workshop, the Board will hold a Regular Meeting. After the workshop, I will share another update with an overview of our progress, but until then you can explore the meeting agenda and any resulting resolutions on the Board Activities and Meetings page.
