Hello Malcolm,
Our members, however, are ultimately in charge, and indeed in our organisation they are asked to approve any major strategic projects, as well as to ratify the Board's proposed annual budget for the company.
I think in principle ICANN also tries to engage its stakeholders in the development of the strategic plan and budgets. The community is asked for input, and drafts are shared with the community. The Board also meets with each of the stakeholder groups to get feedback during the public ICANN meetings. The Board takes into account the feedback received from public comments as well as face-to-face interactions with the stakeholder groups before it approves. If the Board felt there was broad push back from the community it would ask staff to revise before approval. In all of this process the Board believes it is operating on behalf of the community and its goals and objectives and not the other way around. There is however not a step currently where the stakeholder groups (e.g SOs and ACs) formally vote on the strategic plan or budget before it goes to the Board for approval. Regards, Bruce Tonkin