Dear UASG friends, Recently we had 26th AGM of ICANN at Istanbul, Turkey. Snapshot of ICANN81 wrt UA is as follows: ICANN conducted its 26th AGM in Istanbul from 9th September 2024 to 14th September 2024. 1. I, along with Nitin Walia (Vice Chair, UASG), Nabil Benamar (Vice Chair, UASG), Satish Babu (Chair, Tech WG), Raymond (Vice Chair, Comm WG), Sandra (Vice Chair, Comm WG), Abdalmonem (Chair, ccNSO UAC), and Maria (Chair, CIS/EE LI), attended various sessions on Universal Acceptance (UA). 2. The UASG activities began on 30th October 2024 with a Community Update during Pre-ICANN week. During ICANN, we had a joint session with ccNSO UAC, where we discussed cooperation between UASG and ccNSO in promoting UA. 3. A 75-minute panel discussion on UA Strategy was the highlight of ICANN81. There were two panels, namely on UA Day and UA Academic Curricula. The session started with a brief introduction by Sarmad Hussain. One panel on UA Day was coordinated by Seda, whereas the other panel on UA Academic Curricula was coordinated by Gerald Ferreira from ICANN Org. • UA Day panel presenters were Anil Kumar Jain (myself), Satish Babu, and Abdalmonem. • Presenters for the UA Curricula panel were Dr. Nabil, Dr. Eunice Alejandra from Maxico and Sami Mohamed Ali from Bahrain. BIUAWG ( Board IDN/UA Working group) was kind enough to give UASG a 60-minute slot, which was attended by myself, Nitin, Nabil, Satish Babu, Qing chai, Maria, Raymond, Sarika and Sandra. I began the discussion by briefing the BIUAWG on the general holistic efforts and achievements of UASG. Nabil (Measurement), Nitin (EAI), and Satish (Tech) briefed the Board about technical achievements and ongoing work. The discussions were very positive. The following issues were given focus during the discussions: a) The five-year strategic plans of UA for BIUAWG.Hence, UASG’s five-year plans are required to align accordingly. b) The appointment of special full-time officers by ICANN Org to execute outreach to Big Tech, open source orgs and academia. c) SOI implementations, ICANN-accepted standard behaviors, and the decision-making process of the Coordination WG within UASG. The BIUAWG appreciated UASG’s efforts on these fronts. d) Possible plans to celebrate 10 years of UASG, including the possible update of the UASG Charter. e) Achievements of UA Day 2024 and preparations of UA Day 2025. In addition to ICANN Board directors who attended this meeting, namely Edmond Chung, Maarten Botterman, Alan Barrett, Herald Alvestrand,Jim Calvin,Patricio Poblete , Ms. Theresa, Sarmad, ,Seda and other ICANN staff joined the call in person from ICANN Org. Special mention of achievements by the UA Day program was made by both the Chair of the ICANN Board, Tripti Sinha, and Interim President and CEO of ICANN, Ms. Sally Costerton, in their welcome address to the entire ICANN community. It is worth noting that “Promotion of IDA and UA” is given a special place in ICANN’s five-year strategic plans starting from 2026. Sarmad Hussain conducted a session on IDN policy readiness for the upcoming gTLD round, giving details of efforts by gTLD and ccNSO teams in this direction. The ccNSO, GAC, and ALAC have started special groups to work on Universal Acceptance. The Board’s IDN/UA WG provides oversight and directions for uptake of UA.ICANN Org is reaching out to Big techs & academia and Open source community. The Government engagement is thru the Government Engagement and the Global Stackholder Engagement teams of ICANN Org. I can confidently vouch that today the entire ICANN community is committed to the development of Universal Acceptance and is working sincerely toward that goal. In summery, a special focus was given to UA related discussions, information sharing and consensus building. Five year strategic plans of ICANN & BIUAWG are very promising and futuristic for UA related development and implementation. ICANN board members and staff appreciated efforts of UASG for last one year and promised to extend all help in future. UASG programmes like Self EAI testing tools, UA academic curriculum and UA Day were widely appreciated by community at large. This testufy efforts by all of us in UASG comminty. ICANN 81 gave encouragement to UASG volunteers and community to continue efforts of UASG which are in right direction. Thanks, Anil Kumar Jain Sent from my iPad