Dear GNSO Council,

Please refer to a next steps email below that was sent recently to the SCBO (Standing Committee on ICANN’s Budget and Operations). It provides a quick overview of what the standing committee has accomplished, changes upon us, and a short description of what is ahead of us as ICANN org and ICANN community transition to the next Five-Year Strategic Plan (5YSP) along with the more tactical Fiscal Year 2021 ICANN Budget and Operating plan. As you are aware, the Annual General Meeting in the coming weeks means we will have several new Councilors joining us. We welcome their participation in GNSO Council activities and operation.

As a part of the SCBO Charter, this email acts as a call for volunteers to Councilors that may be interested in the financial and planning aspects within ICANN’s annual budget and operations. If you are not already a member of the SCBO and interested in these topics in general or in collaboration of your groups position on budget and operations in the context of the GNSO Council’s remit as managers of the policy development process, an email should be sent to the GNSO Secretariat at gnso-secs@icann.org. They will enroll you to the group and notify you after doing so.

For those Councilors already established as a member, you do not need to take any action.

Lastly as noted below, we greatly appreciate Ayden for his Chair services over the years as his term ends in Montreal. Therefore, we need to find a new Chair for the SCBO and this role is limited to Council members only. If you are interested, please nominate a candidate or yourself on the SCBO mailing list for the group’s consideration.

Thank you for your attention.

Berry Cobb

@berrycobb

GNSO Policy Consultant

From: Gnso-sc-budget <gnso-sc-budget-bounces@icann.org> On Behalf Of policy@bacinblack.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2019 18:00
To: gnso-sc-budget@icann.org
Subject: [Gnso-sc-budget] SCBO - 2019-2020 Cycle Begins and Next Steps

Dear SCBO Team,

I hope you enjoyed the small break away from activities related to ICANN’s budget and strategic planning in regards to the GNSO Council. The break, though, is now over and this email is intended to restart momentum.

You will have seen a separate email with the announcement that the IANA/PTI FY21 budget cycle has begun. If you look back on the GNSO Council’s Project List (towards the bottom of the PDF), the SCBO has completed a fair amount of work over the past few years, including the earlier days prior to this group being formally chartered by the GNSO Council in early 2018. The “Completed in Prior Period” section of the Project List contains links to prior comments developed in contribution to public comment proceedings.

Below is a summary of activities ahead of the SCBO.

Renewed Call for Volunteers (CfV):

Shortly, staff will send a notice to the GNSO Council asking for current members to confirm their continued participation on the SCBO and to extend an invitation to the new incoming Councilors. The SCBO roster currently shows coverage across the SGs and Cs, although not in true form as defined in the charter.
In parallel, staff will send a CfV notice to the SG/C Leaders asking them to confirm their respective SME’s continued participation or to put forward new persons interested in representing their respective group.
I’m not expecting a large change to our current roster, but this level of confirmation is required as part of the charter and hopefully we find some new interest.
Note: any SME members presently on the roster that are not (re)confirmed by their respective SG/C Leadership a short time after ICANN66 will be converted to “Observer” on the SCBO roster and mailing list.

Need for a new SCBO Chair:

First, staff would like to extend our gratitude and appreciation to Ayden for his Chair leadership over the last two years. As you likely know, his term on the Council will conclude in Montreal and he can no longer serve in this role. If you reviewed any of the past activities from the Project List above, Ayden helped manage each one of them. He should also be considered a foundational member of the SCBO that helped transform this responsibility of the Council from an ad-hoc and reactive nature to one of being proactive and more predictable. We do hope he continues his participation as a SME representing the NCSG.
For those Council members who remain, is there interest in taking over this role?
The role of Chair is limited only to Council members, so those here whose term will continue in the 2019-2020 session should start to consider if they have available bandwidth and interest to take this on. The most active period is typically from now until March of the following year. For this cycle, the SCBO will likely also assist again with the conclusion of the five year strategic plan (5YSP) in addition to the FY21 budget and operating plan. Therefore, we expect it will be a bit more active than what normally transpired in prior fiscal years. That said, we do have a stronger cadence in reviewing financial and operations materials in preparation of drafts for the GNSO Council.

CCNSO Session with SOPC at ICANN66:

You will recall we had a joint session with the CCNSO’s SOPC back in July 2019 where the primary topic focused more on the 5YSP. This was an attempt to increase collaboration between the two SOs as part of larger mormentum to enhance collaboration on other topics of interest between the two Supporting Organizations.
To continue collaboration in the budget and operations arena, the CCNSO has extended an invitation to the SCBO in Montreal; scheduled for Sunday, 3 Novmeber at 13:30 to 16:16. The first half of their session will engage with ICANN’s Finance team and discussion of their budget and strategic planning efforts. I anticipate it to be a more involved session than what the GNSO Council morning session with ICANN Finance will have time for. Unfortunately though, the SOPC time conflicts with the GNSO Council’s draft agenda for Sunday and the SOPC is aware of this conflict. I have committed to be there for the first half of their session and I’m hopeful that we can find at least one Councilor to also make an appearance. Aspirationaly, that someone would be the new SCBO Chair, if we can find interest in the role quickly enough. SCBO SME’s are also encouraged to attend the SOPC session. Further information can be found on the schedule of the meetings page: https://66.schedule.icann.org/meetings/1116949.
Once topic of discussion is that the SOPC’s charter allows it to appoint a liasion for collaboration of budget and oerations topics with other SO/AC groups. The SCBO should consider this option of continued collaborabion in the near future. An excerpt from the SOPC charter, “The Chair of the SOPC may invite other supporting organisations and advisory committees or constituencies to appoint liaisons (maximum two per SO/AC), in accordance with their own rules and procedures. These liaisons participate on an equal footing in the deliberations and sessions of the SOPC. However, if explicitly requested by the Chair, liaisons shall not participate in the process of seeking out and fostering participation and input from ccTLD managers and providing regular feedback to the ccNSO on the strategic and operational planning processes, nor in preparing a relevant Rejection Action Petition.”

Please start to work with your respective leadership groups in preparation for the renewed Call for Volunteers. If you think you are interested in taking on the Chair role, please express intest to the mailing list or sound off with a nomination of an interested candidate.

Thank you.

Berry Cobb

@berrycobb

GNSO Policy Consultant