Annette,  I am a little confused and concerned by your posting of the information below... Firstly in terms of some of the interpretation of outcomes and next steps you indicate as a *result*  of our meeting on  Thursday in LA in which, under the Agenda item covering Budget,  Doug Brent, and Denise Michel discussed with the ALAC and RALO secretariats a number matters, but where to my clear memory of the meeting NO established outcomes were agreed to.  And I would encourage the At-Large Community to access the transcript and recording of this public meeting when it becomes available to assure themselves of exactly that.  

 

I note that you have posted this on behalf of yourself, fine but as yourself, Jacqueline and I were the members of the previous  ALAC  Budget Sub Committee, it appears to me that it could be misread by some, to indicate that you are posting this as  information on behalf of either the ALAC or the Budget Sub Committee, or alternately as a form of meeting report again on behalf of ALAC and/or those who’s meeting it was. As your words below, are not any form of official report, minutes or a set of meeting notes on the outcome of our discussions on Thursday, as they have neither been reviewed or established as a true and accurate record by all those in attendance,  it clearly cannot and I would argue strongly IS not the case, that any one should use them in any form of official advisory capacity.

 

The one consequence that we can confidently, in my opinion, inform the At-Large community about at this stage,  is rather that:- 

 

‘At the second session meeting of the combined ALAC and RALO secretariats in LA at the 30th ICANN meeting, where Doug Brent, Chief Operation Officer and Denise Michel, Vice President – Policy Development, made themselves available to discuss a number of matters under the Agenda Item #8 ‘Budgeting Process’,  ( background to these discussions can be found at https://st.icann.org/alac/index.cgi?finance_and_budget_committee ) it can stated that;  both our (ALAC’s) desire for equitable, transparent and proactive involvement in the Budget planning processes, {in a manner that maximises the input of and outcomes for Internet users}, and ICANN’s request(s) to have the At-Large Communities be involved, have now been recognised as very much matters of similar intent.

 

It therefore appears  that there should indeed be a way that we can move forward in establishment of a set of mutually agreed, well documented procedures to best facilitate these requisite outcomes.  So that, whilst ALAC plays a role in the aggregation of the  wider communities needs for project and activity support, as well as finding ways that RALO and ALAC priorities and objectives to be reviewed, analysed, costed and prioritised; and further that this information can form part of the data set ICANN uses in the future  production and refinement of budget allocation to the ALAC and At-Large in any given financial reporting period, by ICANN;  also that, to whatever degree, ICANN funds are being made (or being requested to be made) available to assist these outcomes being met,  that the clear fiduciary responsibilities and the allocation of funds per se, are clearly  under the control of ICANN staff, with all the associated accountability to the ICANN community as a whole.  

 

To this end it is essential that, the responsible staff at ICANN for these budget planning, processing  and allocation activities, meet (at our earliest possible mutual convenience) with a representational group from the ALAC (the natural fit here is the ALAC Finance and Budget Committee*) to further investigate and develop the specifics of such “input into budget planning processes and  funded project proposals” for consideration by all parties involved.’

 

*Regarding the ALAC Finance and Budget Committee (FBC), as you rightly point out as Jacqueline moves from being a ALAC Member to an ALAC Liaison to the ccNSO,  we have had our Finance and Budget Committee reduced to just you and I, to that end at our next ALAC Teleconference on Nov 13th , we will (amongst other things) populate our various internal Committees and those positions not subject to an Election process...  Vanda at her earliest interchanges with the ALAC has indicated her interest in being part of the FBC and I most unreservedly support your suggestion that she be nominated  so if you were nominating I’m happy to second, but what would be of great additional benefit (particularly as we move towards a more clearly defined role for the FBC in the planning of project funding etc.,)  is if representation from each region (this was also discussed at our last FBC meeting and on meeting follow up) could be the basic make-up of the group...  

 

As the Chair of ALAC has always been a Member I am happy to also represent APRALO, I assume Annette that you wish to continue and will represent EURALO, so then that means when Vanda Joins us, that is LACRALO representation... So can we also ask for an ALAC Member from NARALO and AFRALO to also offer themselves for this important Committee role,  and be prepared to discuss and finalise this at our meeting on the 13th.

 

Kindest regards,

 

Cheryl Langdon-Orr (CLO)

 

 

 

From: alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Annette Muehlberg
Sent: Monday, 5 November 2007 6:53 AM
To: ALAC At-Large
Subject: [At-Large] budget committee nomination and thanks to all

 

All,

 

thank you all for the friendly and very productive meeting in LA. It was sad to loose our old ALAC members: to all of you many thanks. It was great to get know all new ALAC members and I hope, this was an encouraging start for all of you.

 

I think it was very positive, that in our last meeting on thursday we agreed on abolishing the secretariat-list and have a joint ALAC and Secretariat list. As well, that we decided, that if chairs/secretariats of the RALOs take part in ICANN meeting, we will always have joint ALAC-Secretariats meetings.

 

I would like to thank Dough Brent and Denise Michel for joining us on our thursday meeting. It is very helpful, that we now have a general procedure in place for planning our project/budget planning:

 

- Chair sends out to all regional lists a request for planning their regional projects and handing in budget applications for the planning of the current fiscal year 2007/2008 as well as 2008/2009. Applications have to include a clear definition of the projects, its missions and what should be accomplished.

Budget Committee puts proposals together. ALAC (in coop with RALO nominees), based on the proposals of its Budget Sub-Committee, plans a prioritised proposed budget / funds requirement forecast, for a given period, based upon RALOs and ALAC members input.

2. ICANN/the ICANN community decides on funds availability and proposes a match of funds (modified, full or partial) to each prioritised proposal (and if certain project proposals are not accepted as being either of merit OR able to be funded, ICANN gets in touch with ALAC before denial and explains its reservations, so that the Sub Committee can act to find a consensus for the budget plan).

3. We care about transparency: at least ALAC and RALO nominees should always have access to an online forum where all the budget expanses - planned and already realized. Budget Committee receives every single extra request (workshops etc. of RALOs and ALAC as well as individual demands of ALAC and RALO members (such as travel costs to meetings other than ICANN meetings) for reason of transparency and to give recommendation to staff (larger projects in consultation with ALAC).

 

Dough informed us, that next year the operating plan and budget plan will be set up at the same time (february?) and will then be discussed by the community.

Though the fiscal year begins july first, ALAC has to hand in its planning (based on inputs by the At-Large, RALOs and the ALAC itself) beginning January next year. And immediately to come up with the planning for the current fiscal year.

For an event as big as an users summit in Paris next year, we were told that we would have to come up with especially convincing arguments. As always: the amount of money needed has to be weighed with the importance and possible impact of the respective project. 

 

As we have one place free on the budget committee (former member was Jaqueline), I would like to nominate Vanda for our budget committee, who already showed a lot of interest in the budget planning and told me that she would accept the nomination.

 

There is a lot to do, we will work on it together.

I hope everyone has a safe trip home.

All the best to all of you

Annette