[NCUC-EC] NCUC Budget Request Approvals

[William Drake]

Hi

A few comments on budget allocations further to the conversation I mentioned with Rob Hoggarth.

As a general matter, we should consider that the amounts I asked for in the proposals or that the staff inserted are not precise.  That is, what will actually be provided for any given activity is whatever is needed to pull it off, rather than the precise figure listed in the approval.  So for example, we're told that $11,100 is allocated for a policy conference in Singapore, but it may be that ICANN's actual costs—the room, equipment, staffing, etc—will come in under or over $11,000.  Similarly, NCUC may get it together to produce written materials that ICANN would publish in a nicely formatted manner, i.e. the proposed issue briefs or 'newsletter' per meeting, and in the process run up a $8,000 tab per the allocation.  Or centrifugal forces and bandwidth exhaustion could result in us not getting it together to make full use of the allocation, in which case we spend less (or, gulp, nothing) and it's not like there'll be a pot of leftover cash sitting there with our name on it that can be repurposed.  Bottom line, don't focus on the numbers, but assume the approved activities will be supported.

A few specifics:

On Aug 28, 2013, at 6:33 PM, William Drake <wjdrake at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello
> 
> So this year past we decided to depart from our past asceticism and submit no less than six requests to ICANN for budgetary support.  This included two "fast track" applications for this fiscal year and four regular cycle requests for the next fiscal year.  I'm very happy to report that the board has approved the budget along with the staff's recommended support for our applications.  (Have a look at budget-requests-fy14-22aug13-en.pdf  …we did better than some other, more demanding constituencies, no names…)  These included:
> 
> I.  Fast Track 
> 
> FY14-A04-01
> 5-NCUC - Print Materials Fast Track
> Deferred to Regular Track Review 
> 
> => funds were made available from extant money pools to print our brochures, and more funds will be available for other print materials going forward, below.
> 
> 
> FY14-A04-02
> 6-NCUC - Workshops & Related Outreach at IGF 2013 Fast Track
> $12,000 Approved
> 
> => These funds provide travel support to the chairs of NCSG, NCUC, and NPOC to participate in the IGF Bali workshop, http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/wks2013/workshop_2013_accomplish_list_view.php?xpsltipq_je=249
> 
> 
> II.  Regular Requests
> 
> 
> FY14-B05-01 
> 39-NCUC FY14 Regular Budget Request (Policy Conference) Regular Track
> $11,100  Approved, but staff comment is, "Staff needs to confirm schedule/space availability for Friday meeting pre-London."  
> 
> => That is a mistake; I revised the request to move the policy conference to Singapore, so as not to conflict with ALAC's ATLAS II summit.  Have followed up, will again.  Count on Singapore 21 March.  When we are over the hump of the bylaws revision we should start planning the Singpore meeting and the Jan/Feb. civil society roundtable with Fadi.

So we are on for a big one day event, and will need to solicit member ideas and reconstitute the events team, probably after Buenos Aires.  Should be fun.
> 
> 
> FY14-B05-03 
> 41-NCUC FY14 Regular Budget Request (New EC Retreat) Regular Track
> $6,950  Approved, staff comment is, "Combining community leadership strategy sessions with an ICANN meeting can be a cost-effective way to leverage the gathering of ICANN community members. Granted for a pre-meeting prior to the ICANN Public Meeting in Singapore."
> 
> => So the new EC we elect in the coming cycle will need to get to Singapore several days early to do this retreat, which will probably be Thursday 30th, followed by the policy conference.

This will happen in Singapore on 20 March.  The 2014 EC will have to decide what can be done about travel support beyond the 3 ICANN provided slots.  NB, of relevance here is something I'll mention in a separate message in a few minutes, the staff's proposed new regional outreach funding, which could allow us to bring the Asian EC member to Singapore on that ICANN budget line.
> 
> 
> FY14-B05-02 
> 40-NCUC FY14 Regular Budget Request (Print Materials) Regular Track
> $8,000  Approved, staff comment is, "Based on positive experiences and feedback in FY13, ICANN staff has made accommodations to continue to provide GNSO non-contract community members with publication support in the form of production and printing resources. The Communications Team has established a process for this resource and will coordinate with the NCUC and other interested non-contract communities. To manage costs, the staff will work with ICANN vendors and suppliers on behalf of the community."
> 
> => So if we wanted to get serious about disseminating noncommercial views we could for example produce prior to each ICANN meeting a shiny doc with nice formatting summarizing our positions on the issues that will be taken up at the meeting, etc.
> 
> 
> FY14-B05-04 
> 42-NCUC FY14 Regular Budget Request (IGF Bali supplemental) Regular Track
> $8,000  Approved, staff comment is "This request was granted as part of the Fast Track process and has been revised to reflect a two additional NCUC travel slots for the IGF meeting."
> 
> => We have inquired whether the funds could also be used more flexibly if need be, e.g split up differently and allocated in a manner to bring more people with partial support, TBD.

Please see separate message sent today.

Any questions or comments, fire away….

Cheers,

Bill

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