Comments Submitted by Judith Hellerstein
I very much appreciate the opportunity to comment on the proposed Travel Support Guidelines. Without ICANN travel support the number of At-Large attendees at meetings would be a small number indeed. That is in contrast to much of the rest of the ICANN community, who regularly attended ICANN meetings and events. My comments are organized following the Draft Community Travel Support Guidelines document and most comments will be preceded by the Section title and page.
Approved ICANN Events should be clarified. A better description would be to add or substitute this phrase: "These are meetings where ICANN is funding the attendance of the participant". The guidelines currently state--
Travel by the Numbers, Page 10, on the split of numbers. If there is a split of .4, .4, &.2 does this mean we can combine 2 flight slots and 1 per diem to create a full slot. Since the flight component and the hotel component they are valued equally there should not be any reason why they should not be combined. In the past, I was told this could not be done, but hoping in the future we can do this. In the past, we were told that you can separate the slots and have the flight go to one person and the hotel and per diem to another. But you could not combine 2 flights Plus per diem together to get a fully funded slot. If this has changed then I would also propose that the flight component also include travel to/from the airport. Currently this in the per diem portion but if we are breaking everything up we need to separate that part from the per diem as well.
Wire Transfer and FX Fees/Losses, Page 9
ICANN uses wire transfers because it is the most practical and presumably the cheapest way for ICANN to distribute per diems and reimbursements. Setting the limit for reimbursements at $50 per transfer (which could easily exceed 10% of the amount transferred) is not reasonable. All fees that can be demonstrated to be paid should be reimbursable or for regular travelers added to the amount transferred. If a limit needs to be set than I would recommend a lower limit like $25 USD
Shared Funding, Page 10: I suggest that we separate out transfer to/from airport from per diem and attach these costs to the flight component, perhaps in these miscellaneous fees.
Normally the Per Diem is used to cover meals and other expenses such as local transfers. But when these are separated how do you cover transport to and from the airport? What are the “miscellaneous expenses” that are bundled with Air?
Cancellations and Substitutions, Page 11--"Up to 45 days before the start of an event, a community group or program may substitute another supported traveler under either of these circumstances".
I think this needs to be clarified as many groups, even CT who do to follow this rule. If we have a rule that is not followed perhaps we should look at better defining the rule. I think 45 days is too long and we should allow substitutions at a date closer to the event.
Recovery of fees: I think that there should also be a way to recover Per diems sent out to a traveler who has cancelled. I noticed when reviewing the Travel report that Per diems were paid to people who had cancelled. Is there a process for people who cancelled or dropped out to return the perdiems they had already received. If so, what is that process? I think this should be clarified.
Visas, Page 12: I also noticed on the travel report that visas often cost more than 200 and that ICANN has paid more so perhaps they may want to raise the reimbursement amount to cover actual costs. As such ICANN needs to set a more realistic number. As we see from the travel reports that often the $200 limit is not reasonable. Visa costs can be quite expensive, and courier fees along, which are often mandatory, can easily exceed this amount. ICANN claims it wants to be inclusive and encourage diversity. The CCWG-Accountability WS2 recommendations reinforce this. Travel Guidelines have to be realistic about the costs incurred in parts of the world and not limit the m to costs that are reasonable in Western developed countries.
Special Circumstances, Page 12
This is a good Idea and helpful to people who need visas but it is unclear what is covered and how many days. Flights? Hotel?
Self-Arranged Travel, Page 13:
I greatly appreciate that self-arranged travel is allowed for, however, there should be an automated process for those travelers who have approved funding, received the welcome letter, to be granted automatic approval. Maybe there could be part of a website where they enter their request and the system automatically approves them. This way it could be verified that they received the welcome letter from CT. Alternatively, it would be far preferable to allow them to request a blanket approval for such travel and not make them request it each time, having to wait for approval to be “granted” prior to making air arrangements. Unless there are cases where such permission will be refused for regular travelers, why place the extra impediment in the way, causing delays for the traveler and extra work for ICANN staff? I often have to send multiple messages to get approval, wasting staff and my time.
At-Large travelers have been told that Self-Arranged Travel is available only for ICANN meetings and/or for funded trips co-located or surrounding an ICANN meeting. As such CROP trips or funding to attend an ICANN organized meeting do not allow for the supported traveler to arrange their own travel. I am always told that since there are no listing for Maximum reimbursable fares we need to use the ICANN Travel Agent.
If travel can only be self arranged for meetings that are co-located with an ICANN meeting that this should be made explicitly clear in these rules and guidelines as currently it is not. The section on Maximum Reimbursable Fares implies that this is not the case. “Although the maximum reimbursable airfare is based on a nonrefundable economy class ticket, supported travelers may purchase any type of fare and any class of service, as long as the fare is under the maximum reimbursable fare for their region.”
Business Class, Page 14— “Business class travel is available only for ICANN Public Meetings and is authorized only for the current chairs of the three Supporting Organizations, four Advisory Committees, and the Nominating Committee.” However, members of certain of ICANN’s Technical Committees are often flown on Business Class, examples are RDS EWG and the Technical Liaison Group. If only the approved groups are supposed to fly Business than how is it that these other groups were given this opportunity.
On the Travel Report it is listed that certain people flew business class, which might be true but ICANN only paid for Economy. As such this gives the wrong impression that some can get approval to travel Business. They might have travelled in Business and so that it what was recorded on the table but ICANN only paid for the max for economy. As such the table should be corrected to include only the class that they were supported in and not what they traveled in.
What I would state is that regardless of the class of service purchased, if the supported traveller is only supported for economy class, than that is what should be listed. It should not be listed that they travelled in Business Class, yes they might have but ICANN did not pay for this. They paid only for economy.
Preferred Travel Itinerary, page 14: Since ICANN is not paying for airport transfer fees, Participants should not be penalized by wanting to take flights leaving on their preferred carrier from a preferred airport. Preferred airports in a city have flights that maybe more expensive, but the costs in time and in money to reach these airports are often less expensive as such a true comparison cannot be made. Insisting that participants take the cheapest flight puts more burdens on the participants. For example flights from DCA are often more expensive than IAD, but it is much easier to get to DCA and more cost efficient than to get to IAD.
Reimbursement for Self-Arranged Travel, Page 14
I
do not understand why it should take ICANN 50-60 days after
approval for payment. Once approval is granted it should take a
maximum of 2 weeks for payment.
Train Travel, Page 17:
Train reserved reservation should ensure that each passenger has
a guaranteed seat. If this means the travel needs to be in a
higher class than that should be done.
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