[registrars] Washington & PersonalNames Update

["Michael D. Palage" <michael@palage.com>]

Hello All:

There is important information regarding the Washington meeting and the
PersonalNames launch contained below.

WASHINTONTON MEETING

As previously stated the registrar constituency will meeting Friday,
February 21st in Washington DC. This is the day after the two day workshop
on Cross Border Fraud that the Federal Trade Commission is hosting. The
registrar meeting will be held at the Phoenix Park Hotel
(http://www.phoenixparkhotel.com/) located at 520 North Capitol Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20001. This is conveniently located near Union Station and
the FTC offices, 600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20580, where the
workshop is being held.

For those of you wishing to make reservations at the Phoenix Park Hotel for
either the FTC work shop or the registrar meeting please call the Phoenix
Park Hotel at 202-638-6900. Our group number is 3520. The following rates
(129-single/159-double) will be held until February 4th. After that the
normal rates I have been told are in excess of $200. This is approximately
the going rate for a 3-star hotel in downtown DC.

I will be posting an preliminary agenda of the meeting shortly. As
previously mentioned, by-laws revisions will be a topic of discussion so
that in and of it self should make for some lively discussion. After a
session to address registrar specific issues, by-laws and new TLDs, the
meeting will be expanded to be a cross registrar-registry meeting where we
will try to tackle some industry problems such as transfers, whois, and
IDNs.

I would like to thank Bob Connelly for making ancillary arrangements at the
Army Navy Club. Although the prices for this facility were a little cheaper,
the Phoenix Park Hotel room discount for attendees more than offset the
facilities savings. For those making final flight arrangements, Dulles is
probably the best option for international travelers. Regan/Nation is the
best for continental US travel, although you can fly into BWI and take
public transportation (Metro) to DC.

I am currently looking at about 20 registrar attending the meeting, and
about 6 registries, although other have been expressing an interest in
attending. I will be putting together a formal list of attendees shortly.


PERSONALNAMES.COM

I spoke with Fran Coleman, general counsel and VP of Law and Policy from GNR
Limited the holding company for both the registry and the registrar. After
listening to the concerns that I conveyed from the registrar constituency in
connection with the recent PersonalNames rollout, Mr. Coleman and Charles
Mancini, CEO of GNR Limited have agreed to host a call with registrars to
discuss this issue. In order to maximize the productivity of the call, GNR
Limited will be providing a statement for registrars to review prior to the
call. This statement will be provided to me shortly, and I will forward it
along with the dial-in details tomorrow.