[NCUC Finance] Finance Team reboot

[William Drake]

Hi

With Beijing Constituency Day now just seven weeks away, it'd be good if we could start to pull together and take necessary steps so we have some movement and even decisions to report at the meeting.  

Just off the top of my head, the following discussion/action items suggest themselves:


1.  FT Role in DM Process:  As per the message just sent about the VPS purchase, we should decide what role the FT plays and hence how things flow. If the FT is focused on fundraising, budget maintenance and requests to ICANN, but with regard to individual expenditure decisions is just doing implementation, that could save us a set of cycles.  If instead the FT is going to independently review each expenditure—thus far this year, the VPS purchase, the video completion, Robin's contract to organize the Beijing policy conference—we then get into bilateral and perhaps trilateral back and forth with the EC and any originating team (like the EPT in the VPS case).  My suggestion would be that we not formally add a cycle of FT consensus building on individual expenditures, although of course if FT members have a perspective the EC needs to take into account they can share it and that'll happen.  

Maybe as we go we'll eventually decide that it'd make sense for the FT and other teams to have one para mini-charters or something, but for now we can presumably get by on list consensus.

2.  Accounts: I don't know what the situation is here, but from the VPS discussion it sounded like maybe there's more than just the checking account maintained by Milton in play.  Would it make sense to have some integrated and multi-person approach to this for reasons similar to what we're doing with the server and e-platforms?  If Milton gets hit by a bus, what happens to NCUC?

3.  Budget Request: Again, ICANN's deadlines are 22 March for early requests (e.g. this calendar year, including IGF), and 19 April for final requests.  In light of prior discussions including at the LA meeting, the FT presumably should be having discussions about our overall budgetary horizon for the next FY, what items we might like to request support for in which tranche, and some beginning of efforts to organize proposals along these lines.  In the case of 22 March, this will require time to negotiate with NPOC on whatever joint bits for IGF, plus designing any independent bits we may want to do.

4.  Facilitator:  We need someone to take the lead in helping each of the teams crawl forward, keeping track of what's been done and what's outstanding, etc.  Maria, you had volunteered to serve as facilitator of this team; assuming that offer is still valid, perhaps you could take over the boot up from here?

5.  Secretary Treasurer: I had also suggested to Maria that the FT facilitator could also wear the dual hat of being our Bylaws-mandated Secretary Treasurer, who would also be a nonvoting EC member.  This seems logical to me, and would enhance the role of the former.  But of course, it doesn't have to be the same person, and since after one week Maria's not responded to my invitation I'm guessing this slot is still open.

Just to review
> 
> 
> 	• The EC shall consist of the Chair, a Secretary-Treasurer and Regional Representatives (one for each of the geographic regions recognized by ICANN). These EC members shall:
> 
> 1. Be elected on an annual basis by Constituency members in an online vote (with the exception of the Secretary-Treasurer, who is appointed by the EC).
> 
> The Secretary-Treasurer
> 
> 1. The EC shall elect a Secretary-Treasurer (ST) to assist in the management of the Constituency. The ST will be nominated to the EC by the Chair, with notification to the membership, and must be approved by a majority vote with at least three members voting. If three EC members fail to vote within two weeks of the nomination, the Chair shall appoint the ST. 
> 
> 2. The ST shall process membership applications, research applicant organizations, and provide an initial recommendation to the Chairman regarding membership eligibility.
> 
> [the first function of saying yes/no is a no brainer given the NCSG charter and can be handled by the Outreach Team; the second and third functions are done by the NCSG EC. So the ST need not do this. ]
> 
> 3. The ST shall be responsible for collecting dues and any other appropriate fees from members, depositing such fee, managing the Constituency's bookkeeping and accounting, and regularly reporting to the Chairman regarding finances and accounts.
> 
> [we do not have fees and never have, no idea what that text is doing there. Managing the accounts and reporting to the EC should be done by the Finance Team; the ST presumably should be a FT member and help coordinate such activities and interact with the EC]
> 
> 4. The ST shall assist the Chairman as needed, including in the coordination of meetings and the timely publication of meeting notes.
> 
> [ICANN Tool Kit provides these services now]
> 
> 5. The ST shall be a nonvoting member of the EC, and shall be expected to participate in all EC meetings.


Obviously, if we keep the ST in the next charter, the description of responsibilities will have to be adjusted to mesh with current realities and needs.  In the meanwhile, having an FT would ensure that one or more persons (depending on whether s/he's also the FT facilitator) will be in positions to keep abreast of financial and budgetary processes and keep the team on track and interfaced with the EC.

And it really would be nice to not be so far out alignment with our own bylaws.

Any thoughts on the above?  Anyone interested in taking on this role?

Best,

Bill
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncuc.org/pipermail/finance/attachments/20130219/4bcc64d8/attachment.html>