tbarrett wrote:
I have some serious concerns about the recent ICANN budget discussions.
1. The various business models deployed by registrars should not be an issue in determining the appropriate ICANN budget. The registrars should not allow this to be a distraction. The real issue, in my view, is to how to insure fiscal discipline and accountability (to ICANN tax-payers)in the ICANN budgeting process.
2. I'm dismayed to see that ICANN staff has factored registrar business models into their budgeting thinking as well. The ICANN staff and board should not be using various registrar business models as rationale for increased budget fees. Simply put, ICANN should be developing their budget based on their needs and not based on industry business models that may or may not exist in a few months. This is a slippery path. A more business-model-agnostic approach would be to simply add a ICANN transaction tax on the fees paid by the registries to ICANN.
3. As any business person knows, there are never the resources available to do everything on the budget "wish list". The process of prioritizing business needs and conducting "triage" is healthly for the business. Providing a business unlimited funds, to do anything it wants to do, is a recipe for failure. When an organization is not forced to make spending trade-offs, it leads to bloat.
Just as we registrars are forced to make hard choices to how to spend our available funds, so too, ICANN needs to make hard choices in how to spend its funds. This is not bad. This is good and will lead to a lean and efficient ICANN.
What I would like to see is an analysis of the budget document by a third party that can analyse what ICANN is asking for and suggest possible changes. My guess is that there are plenty of items that can be scaled down. I would be willing to pay something toward this effort. How many other registrars are interested in this? Once again I don't think that the answer is to simply take the money they are asking for out of a different pocket. Larry
4. The only way ICANN will be forced to make hard choices, is to deny it the full budget it is asking. There needs to be a fiscal discipline and a growth cap imposed on ICANN funding.
As a quasi-governmental body, ICANN generates funds through taxes from registrars and registries. As tax-payers, we need to push for a cap on the annual growth of taxes that we pay to ICANN. The ICANN staff and board should agree on this growth cap to help enforce fiscal discipline within the ICANN organization. Without this, ICANN will not be truly motivated to pursue other sources of revenue. A growth cap also helps create accountability by ICANN to its tax-payers. Without it, ICANN will simply come back year after year asking for more money.
Sincerely Yours,
Tom Barrett EnCirca, Inc.
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