On Apr 28, 2015, at 5:42 AM, Lars Hoffmann <lars.hoffmann@icann.org> wrote:

Hi Amr,
Thank you for your note. Let me try and answer as best as I can.

On the staffing numbers:
Page 9 of the Budget Plan FY16 you can see that the Policy Staff number
for FY 15 is 25.3 on average. This is because some staff have been hired
throughout the year. As far as I am aware, the current total number of
policy staff is 27 - which is also the number for FY16, meaning that, as
far as I understand, from now until the end of FY 16 no additional policy
staff are budgeted for. And of the 27 it’s eight staff positions, five of
which are full time.
(See:
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/proposed-opplan-budget-fy16-18m
ar15-en.pdf).

Please note that contractors are not part of this staff count. I am not
sure there is such a thing as a separate contractor budget, but they money
for contractors will come essentially from the existing departmental
funds. Currently, there is one full time contractor supporting the GNSO.

In addition, others from the Policy department do of course help with some
of the GNSO work. So there is some overlap of the 27 full time staff
if/when necessary.

—
Items 4.2.1 is also not part of the Policy budget. This is money for the
Global Stakeholder Engagement department.

—
Similarly, 2.2 is not money allocated to the policy department. As far as
I can tell, it is the IANA department but I will have to double check with
the finance department to be sure. Would you like me to do that?



I hope this helps a little, please let me know if you need any further
assistance at this stage.
Very best.
Lars




On 28/04/2015 13:04, "Amr Elsadr" <aelsadr@egyptig.org> wrote:

Hi,

First, I must apologise for the very tardy response to this on my part.
When I first signed up to work for this, I did so knowing I’m already
extremely busy (have a deadline in a couple of weeks that’s keeping my
very occupied). I had first volunteered to help Volker with this task,
but had no intention of leading it. Now we only have a couple of days to
get this done.

Lars, thank you very much for the document. David Olive’s summary on the
last Council meeting was also very helpful. I have to say that I would
have found it impossible to extract this information from the FY16 draft
operating plan and budget.

I have a two questions:

1. You indicated that there are 8 full-time staff members assigned to the
GNSO. This includes 3 staff members who support other SOs/ACs, as well as
others who supplement the GNSO’s work when/if needed. The FY16 draft
budget and operating plan indicates that there is a plan to hire 16 new
staff members in FY16. Are any of those meant to support the GNSO’s work,
or processes that may contribute to increased duties of staff who support
the GNSO? I’m thinking post-EWG PDP, a possible review of the PICS within
FY16, any work associated with the next round of new gTLDs, a possible
effort to define the “public interest” within the ICANN context as part
of ICANN’s strategic plan (Section 4.5 of the draft budget and operating
plan), etc…

In addition, staff support will also continue to be needed on Council
activities like the one mentioned on item 4.2.1 (slide 53) to increase
participation of the GAC in GNSO activities. This initiative is still in
its very early stages, and will require more work and follow up.

These all strike me as examples where more staff support will be required
over the next year, and possibly beyond. As a member of the Council
responsible for managing GNSO processes, I’d like to know if staff has
the support it needs to do the work the community is asking it to do.
This doesn’t seem to be the case right now, and although I can raise the
concern, I am admittedly not in a position to give a very informed
assertion to that effect.

2. Slide 40 of the FY16 draft budget and operating plan indicates the
intent to improve the current WHOIS policy, and in doing so, making it
consistent with applicable data protection and privacy laws. What, if
any, part of the draft budget is allocated to bringing in the required
expertise to provide answers to questions on conflicts between WHOIS
policies and legal jurisdictions with stricter privacy and data
protection laws. This is a question that the GNSO has failed to answer on
more than one occasion.

That’s all I have for now. My instinct is telling me that with the epic
delay in delivering on this, we should probably move this discussion to
the Council list asap. We should think about how to do that.

Thanks, and apologies once again.

Amr

On Apr 24, 2015, at 8:58 PM, Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@icann.org> wrote:

Sent on behalf of Lars Hoffmann


On 24/04/2015 18:28, "Lars Hoffmann" <lars.hoffmann@icann.org> wrote:

Dear all,

As the 1 May deadline for public comments to the draft FY16 Budget is
approaching, I hope you don't mind me reaching out again. You might
recall
that Jonathan Robinson had suggested to complete a document today to
sent
to the GNSO list so that the Council can discuss on list before 1 May.
Of
course, this is a very busy time- and so to facilitate your work, staff
has looked at the FY16 budget and extracted a few items that, for the
purpose of providing comment on the FY16 proposal, could be relevant to
the GNSO Council. A summary document is attached. This is thought as a
starting point for your discussion and might potential serve as the
basis
for a document to be then circulated to the whole Council.

Please let me know if there is anything else you might need at this
point,
such as organising a call for you early next week.


Many thanks and very best wishes,
Lars

PS: Please note that figures appearing in this document are taken
directly
from the proposed FY 16 Budget plan that is open for public comment.
Links
to allrelevant documents are included in the attachment.





On 20/04/2015 15:57, "Lars Hoffmann" <lars.hoffmann@icann.org> wrote:

Dear all,

I just wanted to let you know that in case you need any
help/assistance
in
your work, I would be very happy to assist where I can. As a start, I
could try and get someone from the Finance Department involved so we
have
a contact person for possible questions, as per Carlos¹ suggestion.
Setting up calls and doing some of the initial drafting would also be
a
possibility.

Very best wishes,
Lars




---
Lars Hoffmann
Policy Specialist

ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
6 Rond Point Schuman | 1040 Brussels, Belgium | www.icann.org


lars.hoffmann@icann.org | +32 491 507680

<Budget Background
Information.doc>_______________________________________________
gnso-budgetreview mailing list
gnso-budgetreview@icann.org
https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/gnso-budgetreview

_______________________________________________
gnso-budgetreview mailing list
gnso-budgetreview@icann.org
https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/gnso-budgetreview

_______________________________________________
gnso-budgetreview mailing list
gnso-budgetreview@icann.org
https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/gnso-budgetreview