<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">Begin forwarded message:</div><br class=""><div class=""><div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">Below is the text that will be read into the record during the public forum on Thursday.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">—Rich</div><div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri;" class="">At ICANN52 in Singapore a bottom-up, grassroots initiative began around Universal Acceptance and asked to be recognized by the ICANN community as the UASG, or Universal Acceptance Steering Group - focused on global outreach on the acceptance of all TLDs. We asked the Board of Directors to support our efforts with staff resources. After the Singapore meeting, we drafted a charter and entered formal formation, receiving the staff support we requested to get the effort underway. At ICANN53 in Buenos Aires, we held our inaugural all-day workshop, detailing to the community our methodologies and proposed goals for moving the ball forward on Universal Acceptance. Just last month, ICANN approved our detailed budget request designed to support our work with the funds to make an impact. Now, after a second successful workshop with the community this past Sunday, we have a set of concrete action items with owners and deliverable dates and stand poised to move into the action phase of improving the state of Universal Acceptance. This is a great example of an effort that is truly bottom-up, with a community-driven mission that has an impact that should be felt for generations. We appreciate the continued support of the Board and the members of the UASG wanted to take a moment to thank you.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;" class=""> </span></p></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></body></html>