[NCUC-DISCUSS] Announcement: New NCUC Travel Support Policy

[William Drake]

Hello,

The NCUC EC met in Istanbul at the IGF, minutes forthcoming.  One of the things we did was approve a new policy designed to help active NCUC members attend ICANN meetings.  The language was finalized yesterday and will soon be posted to the website for future reference, but below is the text.

It is hoped that this will help us to get more members to meetings and engaged in our work, while living within the means of our resources and volunteers’ time.  Sorry we can’t offer more deluxe treatment, but hopefully it will be enough to facilitate some increased participation nonetheless.  I know of no other civil society coalition working on Internet governance issues that is doing this, and I’m very happy that our fundraising (support principally from PIR and CGI.br, sometimes other contributions) has enabled us to take this step.

It is unfortunately too late to do this for the Los Angeles meeting.  However, if there are any members who would meet the criteria below and who’ve already made plans to attend on their own steam but are struggling to cover their costs, we could consider a request or two on an ad hoc basis, probably at a lower level of support.  

Best,

Bill

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Starting with the February 2015 ICANN meeting in Marrakech, the NCUC will make available from its own raised funds up to USD $4,000 per ICANN meeting in order to facilitate the in-person attendance of one to two NCUC members.

At least two months prior to each ICANN meeting, the NCUC Executive Committee (EC) will send a call for proposals to the ncuc-discuss list inviting applications.

To receive NCUC travel support, applicants must be NCUC members in good standing who:

1.  Voted in the previous year’s NCUC election, if eligible at the time;

2.  Are actively and verifiably engaged in NCUC's work, for example constituency governance, NCUC/NCSG policy discussions, or GNSO Working Groups;

3.  Need to be at a given meeting because the above mentioned work will be advanced there;

4.  Agree to participate in the NCUC, NCSG and GNSO meetings to be held during the meeting;

5.  Agree to write a brief post-trip report for the NCUC website reflecting on the meeting’s main developments of relevance to NCUC;

6.  Did not receive NCUC funding to attend the immediately previous ICANN meeting, unless exceptional circumstances require their presence at two consecutive meetings. 

Applications should address each of the above points and are to be submitted via email to the NCUC Chair.  The EC will review the applications and strive to announce its decisions no later than six weeks prior to the meeting in question in order to facilitate travel planning.  
 
Successful applicants will be eligible for support of USD $2,000 per person.  They will be solely responsible for making their own travel, accommodation, visa, and other arrangements.  If the total cost of their trip will be in excess of USD $2,000, the applicants will be solely responsible for obtaining any supplementary financing that is needed.  If the cost of their travel and accommodation is less than USD $2,000, they may apply the remaining funds to incidental expenses.

Normally the funding will be provided by wire transfer after the trip upon submission of travel and accommodation receipts to the NCUC Treasurer.  In exceptional circumstances (i.e. involving otherwise unmanageable financial hardship) it may be possible to provide the transfer in advance upon submission of a paid airline ticket receipt and confirmed hotel booking.



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William J. Drake
International Fellow & Lecturer
  Media Change & Innovation Division, IPMZ
  University of Zurich, Switzerland
Chair, Noncommercial Users Constituency, 
  ICANN, www.ncuc.org
william.drake at uzh.ch (direct), wjdrake at gmail.com (lists),
  www.williamdrake.org
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