Hi folks, I asked in May that the BC Members list be updated and that an up-to-date contacts list be sent out (the last one was ages ago): http://forum.icann.org/lists/bc-gnso/msg00019.html and we were told at the time that they would be updated "after the completion of the invoicing cycle." Initial invoices were due April 21, 2009, yet it is now August 12, 2009. Now that the BC mailing list is public and unmoderated, the Secretariat has far fewer duties to perform, yet this task remains undone (and the compensation of the secretariat has not been reduced!) According to Section 4.2 of the BC charter, it's the duty of the officers to "oversee the work" of a secretariat, yet this appears to not have been done successfully. Looking at the charter, the duties of the secretariat are: 1) web site hosting, design and updating 2) an e-mail list of members 3) membership fee administration and financial reporting 4) co-ordination of physical and telephone meetings I estimate #4 takes less than 10 hours per year, given the few number of telephone meetings that take place (which really only take minutes to setup using internet conference call systems), and could be easily assigned to BC members. Given the move to an unmoderated and public mailing list managed by the GNSO, #2 essentially takes no time, perhaps 3 hours/year at most (to add/delete people to the mailing list, basically sending an email to Glen, or doing it via the automated system), and once again could easily be assigned to BC members. As for webhosting, we're fortunate to be able to find a relevant comparable, given that CADNA's Form 990 statement for 2007 is public, see: http://www.loffs.com/images/cadna-form990.pdf According to that statement, CADNA spent $3,825 (dollars, not Euros, see page 2, line 43) on web expenses. I think anyone taking a look at www.cadna.org and comparing it to www.bizconst.org would note that CADNA's site is professional, well-designed, and far superior to the BC's website. It's clear we would get a much bigger bang for our buck by outsourcing the website maintenance of the BC to an organization such as the one maintaining CADNA's website. The remaining task is simply collecting money from members! I think this is outrageous, that the main duties of the Secretariat at this point, taking into account the above analysis, is to collect money from BC members, and then pay himself with our own money for that "work." This has gone on far too long. Since Philip Sheppard is a director of the Secretariat, he must obviously recuse himself from discussions due to the obvious conflict of interest. Can Mike Rodenbaugh and Zahid Jamil, our other officers, explain how and why the above situation has persisted for so long? Are the officers doing the best they can to manage the finances of this organization, given that I estimate it would cost at most $7,500/yr (if not far less) to perform all the duties of the Secretariat, and indeed could be close to zero if the GNSO performed some of these duties under the toolkit that has been discussed, and under the GNSO web site improvement project that our member Chris Chaplow has been representing us on: http://forum.icann.org/lists/bc-gnso/msg00245.html which would include a content management system to allow members to maintain/update websites. So, in conclusion: 1) Where is the updated BC members list and contacts list? 2) Why are the BC officers continuing to squander the money of the BC members on an overcompensated and underworked Secretariat? The time for change and improvement is now. Sincerely, George Kirikos 416-588-0269 http://www.leap.com/