Thanks Nick,
I would like to volunteer if any work requires to be done (am a public accountant by qualification :-)
 
to do this however, it would be useful to have information on:
how are the budgets currently drawn up (process)
what are the budget amounts and allocations (or principles of allocation) currently (also if the 2007-08 budget is public domain information)
 
On your point of 'equal treatment', I was wondering (more at a conceptual level), if all regions needed to be treated 'equally' or 'equitably'. If 'equally' means that support for participation from regions where it is much lower (Asia/Africa) is the same as for regions where participation is much higher (US/Europe), it may actually be "inequitable". Is this a fair comment to make? If yes, it (equitable allocation) should be part of the strategy or base principles that Nick mentions in his mail.
 
Rajnesh,
Pls let me know if I could be any support to the APRALO budget processes.
 
regards,
Guru 
 
PS - as per http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm, Asia and Africa have 56% and 14% of world population and 12% and 4% of these have access to internet, compared to North America which has 5% of world population of which 70% have internet access. So it should be a priority for ALAC to push for greater availability of internet to the people of these regions and make internet access more equitable. One of such processes could be for people from these regions to have greater participation in the discussions at ALAC and at ICANN, than they may have now .

From: Nick Ashton-Hart [mailto:nick.ashton-hart@icann.org]
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 1:47 PM
To: Guru@ITfC
Cc: 'At-Large Worldwide'
Subject: Re: [At-Large] APRALO Budget

I think you have just proposed it ;)

Honestly I'm entirely happy to propose a regionalised budget internally for the year beginning July 2008. We would just want to be careful that in doing so, all regions are treated equally resource-wise.

As to participation, yes of course, I believe that it is not possible to have too much participation, and the broader-based that participation is, the better!

I am in the (unfortunately rather protracted) process of acquiring two new members of staff, one for coordination and support, and the other dedicated to helping build the capacities of the RALOs. Until then, I'm the only one here, so having a more aggressive recruitment strategy has been impossible, but it would be very helpful if the community could work on such a strategy, so when the new people are brought onboard they would be able to help to implement it.

On 9 Oct 2007, at 07:33, Guru@ITfC wrote:

Hi Nick,
Would it be part of ALAC interests/mandate to get more and more of the 'users' from different regions get more involved in its work / engaging with ICANN. On these lines, should we be putting in some effort to getting more participants from less represented regions of the world (relative to potential participation, even if not relative to other regions).
in which case, making region wise allocations would be more useful, as you have also suggested. can we ask ICANN to start budgeting in this manner from this year. how can one go about proposing such an idea?
thanks
Guru
_____________
Gurumurthy K
IT for Change, Bangalore
Bridging Development Realities and Technological Possibilities
www.ITforChange.net
From: alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Nick Ashton-Hart
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 11:45 PM
To: nirmol xxxx
Cc: Asia-Pacific Discuss; RAJNESH D. SINGH; At-Large Worldwide
Subject: Re: [At-Large] APRALO Budget

Nirmol:

Firstly, please be careful about sending emails to multiple lists. Your reply went to the global list, the ALAC committee (who are on the global list) and also to AP... Crossposting (and especially duplicate posting) is something that bothers many...

With respect to the funding which ICANN provides for At-Large activities, the budget for that is drawn up by the staff of ICANN. We do want and ask for the input of the regions, and the ALAC, on what projects and activities should be priorities for the region and if there is any financial component and it is possible to quantify that, this is of course helpful. If regions or the ALAC wish to have budgets and get funding from other sources, that would of course be entirely up to the region.

There is no budget for a specific region; ICANN doesn't budget in this way. We could, and it may make sense to do that going forward, but that hasn't been the case in the past.

The largest portion of the At-Large budget is for the travel support provided to the community to attend ICANN meetings. This is sufficient to support 35 people from the community attending each ICANN International Meeting. This is made up of the ALAC (15) and the ALS representatives from the region which the given meeting is in make up the rest. If there are some meetings where less than 35 people attend, then this funding goes to a meeting where there are more people, or to other projects which the community proposes during the year - that sort of thing.

As to timelines, regions and the ALAC are all free to propose ideas through December, really; I have to get serious about preparing a first draft in January. That said, having a set of priorities for work over the course of the coming year would be most helpful, and since the ALAC and the regional Secretariats are meeting in LA to do (amongst other things) just that, perhaps post-LA would be the most logical time to begin crafting a plan of activities that supports the macro-level strategy.

Of course, the suggestion box is always open. I would much rather put together a budget draft that's heavily informed by the community's plans and strategy for action than to make one up on my own.

--
Regards,
Nick Ashton-Hart
Director, At-Large
ICANN
Main Tel: +33 (450) 40 46 88
USA Tel: +1 (202) 657-5460
Fax: +41 (22) 594-85-44
Mobile: +41 (79) 595 54-68


On 8 Oct 2007, at 15:01, nirmol xxxx wrote:

Hi Raj,
I havent heard on this myself except that I am a part of the Budget-WG.
In this regard I request all members to send their views on items they intend us to consider in formulating the next Budget.
Raj, please let me know who will be financing the budget or do we have to undertake a study on sources of funding as well? I understand that so far ICANN was funding the activities.
Please also let us know the time line for the preparation of Budget.
Nick, can you forward me the last budget and guidelines, if any, with respect to the same prepared by ICANN or APRALO so far.
We understand that the Budget is for the FY 2008-2009.
John, please feel free to contact me on the above email to work on this further.
Regards,
Nirmol


"Rajnesh D. Singh" <rajnesh@pacificit.org> wrote:
Hi John/Nirmol,

Cheryl advised at the last teleconference that the ALAC budget process
is underway (or will be very soon).

We need to get the APRALO submission finalised. Please let us know
status of your WG's work thus far, and what we need to do to get this
finalised.

Just to revisit, APRALO will meet at:
(i) ICANN February 2008 meeting (likely to be in Delhi)
(ii) IGF 2008 (Delhi in November)

Additionally, we need to consider presence at:
(i) APNG camp
(ii) APTLD meeting
(iii) APNIC meeting

We also need to look at support for:
(i) APNG Camp 2008


If anyone has suggestions for further meeting/event support, please advise.

--

Kind regards,

Rajnesh D. Singh

COO, PATARA www.patarapacific.com
Chair, ICANN Asia Pacific Regional At-Large Organisation www.apralo.org
Chairman, Pacific Islands Chapter, Internet Society www.picisoc.org
President, IPv6 Forum Pacific Islands www.ipv6forumpacific.org
Director, Pacific Internet Technology Centre www.pacificit.org

310 Princes Road Tamavua Suva Fiji
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Read my ramblings at http://singh-a-blog.blogspot.com/