Summary

  • Oscar Robles fills the remainder of Alan Barrett's term, through the close of the ICANN90 annual meeting on 4 November 2027.
  • September's call seeks a director for the following three-year term. It does not undo the appointment announced in August.

A seat can have an occupant and a recruitment deadline at the same time. ICANN's Seat 9 is one such case. On 25 August 2026, the Address Supporting Organization Address Council, or ASO AC, announced its selection of Oscar Robles. On 15 September, it invited nominations for Seat 9. Read only the headings and the second notice might look like a reversal. Read the dates inside them and it is succession planning.

The August announcement concerns a vacancy left by the death of Alan Barrett. Robles was chosen to complete the remaining term, ending at the conclusion of the annual meeting on 4 November 2027. The September invitation concerns a new three-year term beginning when the 2027 annual meeting closes.

Our earlier article described the seat as filled and then reopened, and said the relationship between the announcements was unexplained. That was wrong. Both notices identify their terms.

The appointment is more than a headline

There is also a document that settles who made the formal designation. In its letter dated 21 August 2026, the Empowered Community Administration designates Robles to Seat 9 for the unexpired term. The ASO's current appointments page lists him as serving from August 2026 to November 2027.

Selection and designation are separate steps, but that does not make the completed appointment perpetually provisional. Section 9.2 of the ICANN Bylaws gives the ASO AC the job of nominating people for Seats 9 and 10. The Empowered Community makes the designation. Section 7.12 provides for filling a vacancy for the predecessor's remaining term, and until a successor has been designated and qualified. Waiting for an additional Board vote would be waiting for the wrong kind of evidence.

One date in the ASO's extraordinary-selection chronology needs care: it labels 18 August as formal designation. The designation letter itself is dated 21 August. This account uses the dated instrument; the discrepancy does not turn September's next-term selection into a reopened vacancy.

Two routes into the same seat

The interesting contrast is not between an appointment and its supposed cancellation. It is between two ways of assembling the candidate field.

To fill the unexpected vacancy, the ASO AC chose an extraordinary procedure on 1 July. Under section 9.5.3 of its selection procedures, council members nominate at least two candidates. The published account says this exercise had no public call for nominations or public comment period. That describes this particular route, not every extraordinary selection the rules allow.

The regular selection for the next term opens the door wider. Anyone may nominate someone, including themselves. The deadline is 15 December 2026 at 23:59 UTC. Nomination alone is not admission to the candidate list: the Qualification Review Committee checks the required information and eligibility. If fewer than two qualified candidates remain, the nomination period is extended.

For someone considering a candidacy, this is the consequential distinction. The August vacancy is no longer the opportunity. The published December deadline belongs to the term starting in 2027.

A route to the Board, not an instructed vote

The ASO brings the Internet-number community into ICANN's governance. Its address-policy role and the composition of its council are set out in the Bylaws. The 2019 memorandum between ICANN and NRO is also public; it is not an agreement between ASO and NRO, as our earlier account suggested.

Yet nominating a director is not the same as sending a delegate with voting instructions. Under Bylaws section 7.7, directors act as individuals in what they reasonably believe are ICANN's best interests, not as representatives of the organizations that nominated them or their employers. The nomination route can bring particular experience to the Board without giving an outside organization ownership of a vote.

The next useful developments are therefore the qualified candidate list and the public-comment phase, scheduled to begin on 16 December. They concern who might serve next, not whether Robles's existing appointment survived September. The seat number stays the same. The term is what changes.

Corrected 25 October 2026: the previous account incorrectly treated the two notices as an unexplained reopening and questioned an appointment already documented by the Empowered Community Administration. This revision distinguishes the two terms and corrects the parties to the memorandum. The original URL and publication date are retained.