I have waited to reply to this message because I believe that the matter is complex and I wanted to avoid to hit the send key before careful thinking.

My first reaction, to set the scene straight, is that Karl is absolutely right. Let me make an example for my position on the matter.

I have been instrumental in putting together the EURALO Individual Members association. This has been the only way - at least several years ago, when we started this project - to allow individual users to be associated and active in EURALO (and probably in At-Large).

To make an association, even if lightweight (thanks to Wolf Ludwig for having indicated the best solution for this), has a cost. The current rules do not allow ICANN to support the EURALO Individual Membership other than with a minimal - but highly welcome - administrative support. All other costs are carried by voluntary contributions - not in cash but in kind, because otherwise we would need formal accounting, audit trails, and overhead costs that would outnumber the actual expenses. To have “fees” for joining is not an option, because of the current internal At-Large rules.

the obvious limits of the current arrangement is that there is no guarantee that the volounteers providing the funding will do this forever. And, besides, there is an issue of transparency. For instance, I am a member of the Association, and it happens that I am also the owner of the domain name https://individualusers.org/. As such I pay the yearly registration fees. I am more than happy to do this forever, but does this make sense for the stability of this organization? In my SoI should I indicate that if I miss a deadline for the domain name renewal our web site could be taken by somebody else? And I am mentioning this case as a detail, because there are other costs that are being taken by other volounteer contribution, also in kind, without any prejudice to our operations.

However, other constituencies and stakeholder groups have some sort of “membership fees” or similar. To have some sort of funding solution for At-Large would not be conflicting with the ICANN rules. The question is how to organise this funding and what would be the constraints to this.

I have my own opinions. I believe that it could be done with safeguards - like full disclosure (SoI), approval by an At-Large Committee, whatever else you can see fit - but it will also create a bureaucratic overhead. So my questions are:

are we willing to create an administrative overhead to manage the financial needs of At-Large?
will At-Large members (ALSes and Individual Members) be willing to provide funds for At-Large?

If “YES” to the above, will the fund be voluntary or compulsory (a “Membership fee”)?

I am really curious about what the different opinions are on the matter, please provide your own comments.

On 07.04.2025, at 23:29, Karl Auerbach via At-Large <at-large@icann.org> wrote:

I have been watching this discussion and I would like to offer a suggestion.

The public component in ICANN has long seemed to be somewhat (perhaps more than merely "somewhat") dependent upon the largess, staff, and process of ICANN.

That dependency may affect (perhaps in subtle ways) the independence of the public sector within ICANN.

Might I suggest that in any decisions that are made about mechanism for discussion and technical support that the question be clearly asked (and answered) "Does this choice increase or reduce our dependence upon ICANN (or ISOC or any other body)?

This independence probably will not come for free - there will probably be costs in terms of money and time for acquisition, operation, and management. That suggests that there may be a need to develop some form of funding and staffing (perhaps part time) that is not under any outside control. That may be be a big step, but after listening to the public voice in ICANN and internet affairs for more than 25 years, it seems that these kinds of changes may increase the strength of that voice within internet affairs.

--karl--

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