At-Large RALO and GNSO Constituency Leaders:

We are pleased to report that the Community Regional Outreach Program (CROP) FY19 Wiki space is now ready to be used.  Please also refer to Sally Costerton’s and David Olive’s blog post published today on this subject.

For FY19, US$50,000 was allocated to the final FY19 Budget for CROP. The Board made this decision on the recommendation of ICANN organization, based on community consultations and public comments on the Draft FY19 Operating Plan & Budget as well as further consideration about how to provide support to community outreach efforts while remaining within appropriate budget limits. 

As part of this process, staff was directed to review current guidelines and develop improved, additional criteria. To ensure consistency with other community travel and outreach requests administered under all ICANN programs, the final criteria balances the program goals with the need to ensure cost-effectiveness. 

The general principle governing the updated CROP guidelines is that CROP may be used for FY19 outreach efforts that are directly and demonstrably related to ongoing ICANN policy, technical and advisory activities. CROP allocations will be subject to the new CROP guidelines and specific criteria, with a staff assessment to be conducted at the end of FY19. 

Each RALO & each eligible GNSO Constituency (BC, IPC, ISPCP, NCUC & NPOC) is allocated up to three (3) individual regional trips (4 days and 3 nights maximum per trip). 

Travel allocations are to be used for the following types of events:

• ICANN Public Meetings occurring in the relevant region; or
• Official meetings organized by ICANN Org occurring in the relevant region; or
• If there is no Public Meeting or official ICANN meeting occurring in the relevant region in that FY, a meeting in that region that is assessed by the relevant regional GSE VP as being:
  1. Directly and demonstrably related to ongoing ICANN policy, advisory or technical activities (e.g. a Regional Internet Registry meeting), and
  2. Consistent with ICANN Org’s outreach plan for that region. 

(For RALOs, “relevant region” means the region applicable to each RALO. For GNSO Constituencies, this means the region where the ICANN Public Meeting, CANN-organized meeting, or an event assessed under the criteria outlined in (ii) above is taking place.) 

• Please note: if a RALO or eligible GNSO group has used at least one allocation for an ICANN meeting (or ICANN-organized meeting), it may use its remaining allocation(s) for meetings that are assessed by the relevant regional GSE VP as being directly and demonstrably related to ongoing ICANN policy, technical or advisory activities (e.g. RIR meetings).  
• No out-of-region travel will be permitted.  

We invite you to browse through the CROP FY19 space and through the CROP Procedures & Guidelines page for details about the program. Please email us (crop-staff@icann.org) if you have questions on specific aspects of the FY19 program.   For a complete list of individuals who have CROP duties, please see our CROP Contacts page. If there are any changes to your community Program Coordinators for CROP, please inform us as soon as possible so the list can be updated accordingly.  

We are looking forward to collaborating with all of you over this fiscal year. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to CROP Staff: crop-staff@icann.org    

Kind regards from your extended CROP Team: 

Benedetta Rossi 

(crop-staff@icann.org)

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Benedetta Rossi | Manager, Policy Support & Community Services

benedetta.rossi@icann.org | +33.610.38.27.02

ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers