>auDA has formally applied to IANA to re-delegate .au. This is the first step
>in a formal process which involves Robert Elz. It is NOT an attempt to 'go
>around' him or exclude him or force the re-delegation.

I query what "formal process" you are referring to.

RFC1591: -----
"The IANA tries to have any contending parties reach agreement among 
themselves, and generally takes no action to change things unless all the 
contending parties agree; only in cases where the designated manager has 
substantially mis-behaved would the IANA step in."

"For any transfer of the designated manager trusteeship from one 
organization to another, the higher-level domain manager (the IANA in the 
case of top-level domains) must receive communications from both the old 
organization and the new organization that assure the IANA that the 
transfer in mutually agreed, and that the new organization understands its 
responsibilities"
End ----

Has auDA formally requested Robert Elz transfer the trusteeship of .au to 
auDA ? What was his reply ? Since the IANA has no role unless contending 
parties cannot agree I will leap to the conclusion that he still has some 
concerns. Or did you simply send him copies of the documents you sent to 
IANA, (while he is apparently on long service leave) and ask him to reply 
to them.

I apologise if my comments seem terse. I consider the formal request to 
re-delegate au a major milestone in the administration of the au space and 
I have seen no minutes of meetings where the decision was taken to ask the 
IANA to re-delegate (did the board vote on this ?) , see no 
postings/discussions on the auDA website, the first we hear about this is 
from the press. I cannot help but suspect there is more to the story and am 
saddened, seems it would be better to just wait it out or mediate the 
concerns with a trusted third party. I will await the postings, which I 
believe should have been put forward for comments as just about everything 
else is.

Thank you for your hard work to date, I support auDA but but this business 
has an unpleasant/unessary ring to it.

Cate Coorey
catecoorey§bigpond.com
auDA member
Sydney