Hello All, For the purpose of budget discussions I suggest we look at the budget from three points of view: (1) The relative percentages of funds allocated to particular areas (ie look at the distribution of funds) - this should be able to be set roughly within discussing the magnitude of the budget (2) The overall magnitude of the budget - this should be looked at in the context of the available revenue (e.g from cctlds, RIRs, registrars) and the overall value of the industry (ie how much the private sector can afford) - it is easy to create a wish list assuming no limits on funds available - but we need to work out what is a reasonable magnitude for the budget (e.g as a percentage of the overall revenue of the registries). (3) Of the revenue to be provided by registrars - how to calculate the per registrar fee. Many in the community believe that it is registrants that provide the revenue for ICANN. I argue that this is not the case because ICANN does not invoice registrants, nor have any contractual agreement with registrants. With respect to gtlds, it is the registrars that have a contract with ICANN and who pay the fees. Alternatively ICANN has a contract with registries, for registries to pay a fee (which due to their monopoly status can easily pass onto registrars) - this is effectively the same thing as registrars paying the fees. So in terms of gtld revenue structure ICANN has a choice: - (1) under the existing model charge registrars. This requires no contractual changes. - (2) create new model, where ICANN directly has an agreement with registrants and invoices registrants. Registrars could collect a fee on behalf of ICANN. This second model would require contractual changes. Regards, Bruce Tonkin