Summary

  • ICANN’s 31 August call combines first-come handling with priority for groups without previous appointees. Both nomination deadlines are 9 November 2026.
  • The priority applies separately to mentors and selectors, not to students seeking programme places. Current rosters cannot establish the full history needed to apply it.

A fast nomination is not the only claim on a NextGen@ICANN seat. In its 31 August Community Digest, ICANN invites its Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees, or SOs and ACs, to put forward candidates for two different sets of three positions. If more than three groups nominate, the notice says arrival order will be used, while giving priority to groups that have not previously supplied someone for that role.

That qualification matters. It makes the allocation something other than a pure race to submit. It also makes historical participation, rather than just the timestamp on a nomination, part of the decision.

Two roles, two histories

The mentors will support participants at ICANN88–90, with travel funding. The new selection committee is to serve a two-year term beginning with applications for ICANN89 at the start of 2027. Groups may renominate former appointees; individuals may not nominate themselves directly.

The responsibilities are not interchangeable. Mentors help newcomers prepare, find relevant people and take part in the community. Each supports up to four participants. The selection committee assesses applications against published criteria and helps update those criteria. Its standing terms prohibit members from also serving as NextGen mentors.

The current mentor page lists RSSAC, ALAC and GAC. The committee page lists GNSO – NCSG, RSSAC and ALAC for the group starting in January 2025. Those are snapshots, not a complete history. A group missing from today’s mentor list is not necessarily a first-time nominator; previous service on the committee is not the same as previous mentoring.

The rule therefore needs a role-specific unit of comparison. Counting six positions together would lose precisely the distinction the call makes.

A nomination has work behind it

Community nominations need not arrive as soon as a volunteer raises a hand. In October 2025, ALAC reported that its appointment committee had reviewed and ranked 14 expressions of interest for a NextGen mentor. It sent its chosen candidate to ALAC on 16 October, followed by a consensus call ending on 20 October. Alfredo Calderon was selected for ICANN85–87.

That is a historical example, not a prescribed timetable for this round. It nevertheless shows why receipt order can reflect the speed of an organisation’s own selection process as well as a candidate’s enthusiasm. A group undertaking a broader internal search may need more time before it has one authorised name to submit.

Two public descriptions also need to be read together. The standing committee page gives nomination opportunities to SOs, ACs, Stakeholder Groups, Constituencies and Regional At-Large Organizations. The new notice addresses SOs and ACs. It does not expressly abolish the broader routes. The notice estimates about 30 hours over four to five weeks per application round; the standing page says about 20 hours over three weeks. These are different published estimates, not evidence that measured workload has risen by a particular percentage.

The students are in a different queue

Applications for the ICANN88 student programme opened on 31 August and close on 9 October 2026; selected participants are due to be announced on 17 December. That application window is not the 9 November community-nomination deadline, and the incoming committee’s stated starting point is ICANN89.

Nor does first-come handling of community nominations determine which students win places. Their selection involves scores and qualitative assessments under the programme criteria.

The evidence checked on 3 September does not establish a 2027 appointment, rejected nominee or complete historical priority list. No failed allocation can be inferred. The narrower governance issue is already visible: priority for previously unrepresented groups is only intelligible if the relevant role, nominating unit and history remain attached to it. Lu Heng’s Note 36 calls for attention to structures rather than villains. Here the structure begins before a student enters the room—with the choice of who will select and guide them.

Sources

  1. ICANN — 31 August call
  2. Mentoring roles
  3. Selection committee rules
  4. Student programme and dates
  5. ALAC — October 2025 selection
  6. Lu Heng — Note 36