Hello All, Below is the agenda for the Board meeting in New Delhi. Key topics of relevance to the GNSO are new gTLDs and IDNs. My understanding so far is that the Board is probably not going to approve the new gTLD recommendations in New Delhi, but will be considering some of the work done by staff on implementation. One thing worth noting is that while the GNSO struggles to meet the PDP timetable in the bylaws due to the complexity of the issues - it is also the case that the Board also struggles to take action on GNSO recommendations within a timeframe that was envisaged in the bylaws for the same reason :-) Having said that I do know that the staff has been doing extensive work on the new gTLD recommendations, and I will continue to encourage staff to discuss this work with the GNSO. The other topic for the GNSO to consider is the budget for the 1 July 08 to 30 June 08 year. Some of the areas of discussion include the proposal to charge registrars transaction fees during the 5 day add-grace period, and an appropriate travel policy for the many volunteers that contribute to ICANN policy development. When considering travel budgets - it is important to think in terms of relative priority of expenditure (e.g what expenditure could we give up to support more meeting participation, or could we invest in better audio/video conferencing techniques?), rather than simply adding more expenses to ICANN as an organisation. The proposed budget already raises expenses from $42 million in this financial year, to $57 million in 1 Jul 08 to 30 Jun 09 financial year (about a 35% increase). We need to consider this cost in the context of the tasks (allocation of IP addresses and domain names), and the context of the industry size. The travel and meeting budget is currently proposed to be around $10 million (or around 17% of total expenditure) to provide some context. Regards, Bruce Tonkin From: http://www.icann.org/minutes/ 15 February 2008 Regular Board Meeting Agenda (As set by the Executive Committee of the ICANN Board of Directors) 1) Approval of Minutes of January 2008 Board Meeting 2) Approval of ICANN Accountability and Transparency Frameworks 3) Review of Board Governance Committee Recommendations Possible BGC Actions (Ombudsman Framework) (Bylaws Mandated Reviews Update) 4) Review of Board Finance Committee Recommendations Possible BFC Actions (Funds Disbursement and Approvals Policy) (Budget Next Steps) 5) Review of Board Audit Committee Recommendations Possible Audit Committee Actions (Approval of Auditor) 6) New gTLDs - Next Steps 7) Acknowledging Receipt of DNSSEC Recommendations from SSAC 8) ICANN Bylaws Change Request from ALAC 9) IDNs (update on IDNc discussions and technical test) 10) Other Business