GNSO Council, I wanted to respond to the GNSO Council¹s inquiry regarding ICANN travel support for GNSO counselors attending the India meeting. ICANN has always valued highly the work of volunteers in the organization and now has the resources to re-examine its travel support policies. As I previously noted, it is important to re-examine the situation and come up with explicit, sensible policies that 1) support ICANN volunteer work, 2) justify this use of money ICANN collects, and 3) have ICANN community support. Some of the reasons why finding the right answer here is hard include: - It is important to provide appropriate support to volunteers (and there are varied perspectives on what is ³appropriate²), - GNSO counselors need an answer now about possible travel support related to India, - ICANN has never before provided Council travel support to ICANN meetings, nor has such travel support been included in ICANN¹s budget, - Support has to be balanced with the cost of that support, to be in concert with the interests of registrants, - Different constituencies within ICANN are asking for India travel support, and the actions the GNSO/ICANN take now could have broader implications, and - As I mentioned in my last note, ICANN is right now working on an overall policy for the community that could be reviewed at the India meeting (though, again, this timing will be difficult); I'm very reluctant to set new precedent just as we're trying to put a more comprehensive plan in place. So, trying to balance these various concerns: - As Denise has suggested, staff will support the GNSO Council¹s request for India travel support by using previously budgeted inter-sessional travel dollars for airfare to India, and staff will report on this decision to the ICANN Board, - In the absence of an overall policy, ICANN will provide counselors with India travel support under the guidelines currently used for travel support for Council inter-sessional meetings ICANN will pay for upgradeable coach class airfare. - Counselors will be asked to contact ICANN¹s American Express travel desk to arrange for ICANN¹s purchase of their tickets (contact information will be provided soon), and - During the meeting in India, staff will suggest a policy going forward to address GNSO Council travel support (and other group travel support) for all ICANN meetings. Please let me know if you have any questions and would like to discuss this. Again, I'm happy to join a GNSO call if that would be useful. Thanks, Doug -- Doug Brent Chief Operating Officer ICANN Voice: +1 310.301.3871 Mobile: +1 650.996.4447 Fax: +1 310.823.8649