Dear all, The notes, recordings and transcripts for the DT-O Meeting on 17 March 2016 will be available here: https://community.icann.org/x/cblYAw A copy of the notes may be found below. Kind regards, Brenda Action Items * Action item #1: Staff to add clarifying points to main objectives of financial stability and operational excellence and circulate these to the DT for review prior to next week's meeting. * Action item #2: All to share ideas on how to have multi-year guarantee of funding ahead of next week's meeting. * Action item #3: Staff to pull from the CWG-Stewardship and CCWG-Accountability proposals those items that specifically relate to IANA Services Funding Notes 4. Cooption of DT-O into a bigger group that is also dealing with CCWG matters? a. Who would the bigger group include that are not in DT-O? (Jordan Carter) b. Discussion c. Next steps * What are the possible implications? What issues does the CCWG have to deal with in relation with Budget? Does CCWG already have a group in place? First meeting of informal CCWG group was held in Marrakesh - those same people would likely be interested to join this effort (see minutes of that meeting). Primary issue for CCWG is defining a framework for a caretaker budget for the overall ICANN budget. Outstanding questions from that meeting was Xavier's suggestion to incorprate in that budget a caretaker budget for PTI or does that needs to be separate. In FY17 draft budget open question how much is spent and how these expenses will be funded - not decided yet whether this would come from the reserve fund. Assuming in the budget that CWG-Stewardship implementation moves forward and as such PTI operation costs are included in the FY17 draft budget. What is not included at the moment is any costs related to the implementation / further work on any other transition related work such as WS2 or implementation of other aspects. * Not clear yet how PTI will be implemented which is being worked on by a CWG-Stewardship Task Force. Need to ensure co-ordination between all these different streams of activity. * Make sure that focus is not lost by widening the scope of this effort. * CCWG-Accountability mechanisms also cover PTI. * Need to confirm who is covering IANA care-taker budget if two groups decide to work separately * Proposed approach: CCWG members are welcome to participate in DT-O meetings, but will recommend to the CCWG-Accountability the formation of a separate group to focus on the CCWG Budget related elements. DT-O to cover IANA Services / PTI care-taker budget, which would include all IANA services (with PTI being a sub-set). * Consider taking similar approaches with regards to care-taker budget through regular communication / co-ordination. * Question is whether IANA services care-taker budget would be part of the overall care-taker budget or not. Both groups to check in with each other in a couple of weeks to discuss further. * From ICANN Finance perspective it would make more sense to tackle both in one approach and then solicit input from the different groups. Consider setting up email distribution list that would combine both groups. 1. Define the financial objective(s) for PTI a. Please note Olivier's message on this topic: i. Primary objective: "financial sustainability for IANA" ii. Two main components: a) Financial stability ("The IANA budget must be set well in advance and must therefore be predictable. Any sudden change in circumstances, whether internal or external to IANA, which may trigger an increase in the IANA budget, must be covered to a certain extent. (which we might need to define)." b) Financial independence from ICANN b. Discussion c. Agree on next steps for finalizing the financial objectives * What do we want to achieve? Stability in light of lack of financial independence (immunity of the IANA operations budget from ICANN's), operational excellence (ensure there are sufficient funds to guarantee operational excellence), operational financial independence. Financial stability and operational excellence would cover all the points made. Consider adding some clarifying notes to explain these in further detail. Action item #1: Staff to add clarifying points to main objectives of financial stability and operational excellence and circulate these to the DT for review prior to next week's meeting. 2. Develop a recommendation for ensuring multi-year continuity of IANA Services funding a. Brainstorm ideas b. Discuss pros & cons of ideas c. Agree on a process for determining a DT-O recommendations * Have to make sure that current operational budget is in PTI's control. Money has to be transferred to PTI in the beginning of the year. PTI should be isolated from any financial issues that ICANN may encounter. Need to segregate money from ICANN budget so it is available for PTI to spend. * Possible options to ensure multi-year guarantee to be further considered: hold year's budget in escrow, would an insurance be an option or bank cash deposit * Minimize complexity but also factor in what could happen in case of bankruptcy. See also Sidley memo: A parent entity bankruptcy filing does not result in a subsidiary entity also becoming a debtor in a bankruptcy proceeding, regardless of whether the subsidiary is a non-profit corporation or LLC. Thus, a wholly owned subsidiary is not also a "debtor" in bankruptcy unless its governing body specifically determines that it should file for bankruptcy or there is some basis to substantively consolidate the subsidiary with the parent (which is unlikely in this circumstance. * Clarification by what is meant with budget - a budget is not a bucket in which there is money, a budget is the quantification of a perspective action plan in monetary terms (resources required to deliver onthat action plan). Avoid confusing budget and bank account. * If there is anything that needs to go into Bylaws would need to be identified as soon as possible as that process has started. * Which issue is early approval of PTI budget solving? Financial stability issue - community felt there needs to be an approved budget sooner than the ICANN budget factoring in the critical nature of the IANA Functions. What seems to be the point is that the funding of IANA/PTI is secured, this is quite a different point than having the budget approved early/late. Other reason was to ensure that any concerns with IANA Budget could be dealt with at an early stage. * Xavier / Finance Team will be responsible for drafting the process for the development and approval of the PTI budget in consultation with DT-O (as such, no need to reach out to Elise which was identified earlier as an action item). Action item #2: All to share ideas on how to have multi-year guarantee of funding ahead of next week's meeting. Action item #3: Staff to pull from the CWG-Stewardship and CCWG-Accountability proposals those items that specifically relate to IANA Services Funding
