Finance Committee List

[Avri Doria]

Hi,

At today's meeting, I was reminded that I was remiss in not having set up the Financial committee (FC) list yet.

Well, it turns out that I had, I just never took the next step of inviting members of the NCSG to join.  One thing that slowed me down was one complaint that I was starting yet another list.  In the end, I started yet another list since the issues about fundraising, and financial administration did not seem like everyones cup of tea.  This list, will, as with all NCSG committee lists,  has an open archive and allows for moderated sending to the list by others who are not members of the list.

So now, it is time for me to bootstrap the FC.

At some point, the committee, as defined in the proposed charter (relevant parts included below) will be composed of one representative from each constituency with others as invited.  At this point, that would make for a rather meager finance committee.  My recommendation at this point is to look for volunteers for an interim FC on the following basis:

- no more than one person from any organizational member
- request volunteers  who have some clue about fund raising and financial administration of a constituency
- request members who are wiling to dig in and work on getting the NCSG on a proper financial footing.
- request that the current NCUC treasurer serve as the FC's chair

I recommend that the interim FC be disbanded one year after the charter has been approved and we have a few more constituencies allowing us to create an FC as defined in the then, hopefully, fully approved charter.

I have copied the Executive Committee on this.  If they feel I have overstepped, I hope they will step in and slap my wrist and tell me what I should do instead.  At this point, I am so far behind on this, and I know NCSG is running low on money and needs to start applying for grants, that I just want to get the effort going.  I know a bunch of you volunteered in the past, but I lost track of who volunteered.

Please, if you are one of the people who meets the description above, please let me know so I can add you to the list.    At the moment I am the only one on the list - and that is not much of an FC.

Thanks.

a.


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from: https://st.icann.org/ncsg-ec/index.cgi?ncsg_charter_board_issue_resolution

2.6 The Financial Committee
The NCSG Finance Committee is responsible for the following:

	• Elect a chair who will also serve as NCSG Treasurer;
	• Determine rates for voluntary contributions from members;
	• Develop and deploy a fund-raising plan for the NCSG;
	• Work with the ICANN staff to determine levels of support available to the NCSG;
	• Work with ICANN finance officers to insure the the NCSG and its Constituencies receive fair and equivalent financial support from ICANN;
	• Accounting for any funds received by the NCSG from any source. this accounting will include the following:
		• All funds raised by voluntary membership fees or otherwise must be held in a separate NCSG account.
		• Proper controls must be implemented.
		• Regarding Expenditures
			• All expenditures under 500 Euro may be made on the authority of the NCSG Treasurer
			• All expenditures over 500 Euro must be approved by the NCSG-FC
		• Financial reports must be prepared annually and be made public.
	• Provide internal conflict resolution process regarding funds.
	• Provide the oversight of the Treasurer function.
	• Fulfill any other accounting, auditing or other prescribed financial requirements as set by the ICANN Board of Directors for organizations within the ICANN structure.
	• Document methods and procedures used for accounting, reporting and budget creation. Such documentation is subject to review by the NCSG-EC.

2.6.1. NCSG-FC Composition.
The NCSG Finance Committee (FC) shall be comprised of one representative from each Full Status NCSG Constituencies. Each Candidate Constituency is entitled to appoint an observer. The NCSG Chair will participate as an ex-officio member of the NCSG-FC and will be included in consensus process and votes. The FC may invite other members as needed to meet its goals and responsibilities.

2.6.2. NCSG-FC Decision making
By default NCSG-FC decisions are made by rough consensus of its members. Rough consensus means that while all members do not need to agree and that no single member can veto a decision, all views must be heard and considered. Any minority views must be recorded along with the decisions.

2.6.3. NCSG-FC Leadership
A chair from among the members of the NCSG-FC will be elected by a 2/3 vote of the NCSG-FC membership. The chair will be responsible for filling any necessary Treasurer functions for the NCSG.
The NCSG Chair may not serve in this role.
One or more vice chairs may be chosen by the NCSG-FC on a yearly basis.

2.6.4. NCSG-FC Work Process
As much as possible, all work will be done using Internet tools, including, inter alia,
email;
wiki usage (Note such a wiki will be publicly viewable though editing may be restricted to members of the NCSG-FC);
online document collaboration tools, for example Google Document, Google Wave and other available network cloud based tools.
When necessary teleconferences will be scheduled. A scheduling tool will be used to attempt to find a time when all members can attend. Unless all members can attend the teleconference, any decisions made at a teleconference will be provisional until full consensus is determined.
When possible, as enabled for example by an ICANN meeting, a face to face meeting of the NCSG-FC will be held. As with teleconferences, if all members cannot attend, any decisions made will need to be verified before being considered final.

2.6.5. NCSG-FC Mailing List
All NCSG-FC full members and observers will be subscribed to the NCSG-FC mailing list;
The NCSG-FC list will maintain an open archive;
For non-subscribers the list will be moderated. Comments from NCSG members relevant to ongoing discussions will be forwarded to the NCSG-FC list by list moderator.

2.6.6. NCSG-FC Observers
Any observer to the NCSG-FC will have full participation rights except will not be counted in any consensus process or vote.
Elected or appointed representatives of NCSG Candidate Constituencies will be given observer status.