Thanks very much for the update, Jonathan. I'm especially happy that we are focusing on the 'day job' and that ATRT2 is a priority. Implementing it properly will be critical. Maria On 19 February 2014 10:28, Jonathan Robinson <jrobinson@afilias.info> wrote:
All,
Yesterday, ICANN senior staff held a second CEO / Community Leaders Conference Call. As I understand it, this is intended to be a regular briefing and interaction session which assists in bridging the (significant) time gap between ICANN meetings. Especially in the context of such significant activity.
A recording of the call will be circulated shortly but I thought it may be helpful if I shared a couple of highlights that I picked up personally.
In particular 3 key areas were raised by Fadi Chehade as follows:
1. Introduction of major themes for the ICANN Singapore Meeting
2. Encourage feedback and comments on Strategic Panel suggestions/recommendations
3. An update on the Recent Board Workshop
Singapore Themes:
a. Carry strategic planning through to final stages. N.B. The issuing of strategic panels reports will occur prior to the meeting. All will be out by this weekend. It is very important that ICANN hears from us. N.B. These are recommendations for discussion & debate.
b. Recognise and ATRT2 outputs. We need to embrace these and recognise how they need to be acted on.
c. ICANN globalisation area. There is broad momentum gathering behind this and we will shortly see an ICANN board resolution from 18 February regarding ICANN globalisation
My personal take on this is positive i.e. that ICANN Singapore will not be dominated solely by the Internet Governance agenda. Important as this topic is, we have plenty to think about and do as we get on with the "day job" at ICANN. Encouragingly, this balance is also consistent with the weighting that the GNSO Council has been placing on these areas (where appropriate to our remit) i.e. with a relatively even balance between a, b & c above.
Fadi also touched on budgeting and expenses before handing over to Xavier (ICANN's CFO) to discuss these in more detail. A key point Fadi made was his intention to:
A. Manage operations within the budget and
B. Recognise that the rate of expenditure *growth* needs to slow down from circa 20% per annum to a growth rate of high teens next year and then low teens the following year.
Fadi & Xavier's input were followed by Q&A through both audio and chat and for those of you who would like to know and understand more, this should all be public soon.
I trust that this is helpful and/or insightful.
Jonathan