Hi, Thanks for this reply. The council has decided to take a two track approach on this issue. 1. Ask for urgent help in making plans to fund getting council members to the New Delhi meeting within the current budget. This would include budget for many of the council members (up to 18) who are not already covered by the travel budget. The urgency of this requestis reinforced by the fact tha this travel wil occur during the Chinese new year, which means flights are scarce in Asia. 2. To continue discussing our request regarding long term funding for council member travel support. We will hold off on the letter to the ICANN CEO at least until we have resolved this discussion in the council. We are definitely concerned with making sure that ICANN's budget includes funding for the upcoming budget years. Thank you, a. On 5 dec 2007, at 14.57, Denise Michel wrote:
Here is some information regarding travel funding and budgets to inform your conversation about travel to the ICANN India meeting. (My additional comments are at the end).
History – Initial requests for funding for some of the GNSO’s New gTLD Committee intersessional meetings came from the Council Chair and were treated on an ad-hoc basis. I provided funding on the basis of economy travel for one rep per constituency, plus the Chair and NomCom appointees. Due to the utility of these meetings, and the expectation that more would be needed to complete this work, I incorporated some travel funding in a revised Policy budget I created for the latter part of FY 2006-2007 (ICANN’s fiscal year runs from 1 July to 30 June).
Rationale – The rationale was that it was reasonable for constituencies/employers to pay for attendance at the main ICANN meeting (where there are usually business opportunities to discuss amongst ICANN participants), but not for some of the policy- specific meetings held between the main ICANN meetings.
Current Budget – I included US$140,000 for two intersessional meetings in the Policy budget for FY 2007 – 2008. The Council has not held an intersessional meeting since 1 July 2007.
India Travel – It is estimated that airfare for 21 Council members for this meeting would be US$147,000. Cost for hotel/per diem for 21 Council members for this meeting would be US$205,800.
I would be happy to discuss using the intersessional travel funding to support Council members’ travel to the India ICANN meeting (as a one-off decision) (letters to the CEO not required). If the Council would like to request funding for Council members to receive support to attend all ICANN formal meetings, then this will need to be included in the budget for the FY 2008 – 2009. I will be requesting GNSO input for this budget cycle shortly. As noted, travel funding also has been discussed in the context of “GNSO Improvements” under consideration by the Board Governance Committee.
Regards, Denise
Denise Michel ICANN VP, Policy Development denise.michel@icann.org