[NCUC-EC] Minutes of the NCUC EC meeting in Singapore

[Pranesh Prakash]

Dear all,
My sincere apologies for this having taken this long.  It slipped my 
mind until Bill reminded me a few minutes back.

I've attached draft minutes from the NCUC EC meetings.  Please indicate 
if you believe any changes are to be made.  I believe 2 days should be 
sufficient to gather make all the necessary changes.  Then, I could 
circulate it to the NCUC Discuss mailing list.

Regards,
Pranesh

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society
T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
-------------------
Access to Knowledge Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
M: +1 520 314 7147 | W: http://yaleisp.org
PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: https://twitter.com/pranesh_prakash
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Meeting called to order at 14:26.

* Bill Drake provided background on the NCUC work cycle, on GNSO council terms.
* First point of business is second quarter work and annual cycle
* Bylaws
	* It was explained by ICANN staff that it takes around 1/2 a year to get bylaws approved.
		* Biggest problem probably is we have no formal mechanism to adopt policy statements
			* We don't have a policy committee which is called for in the bylaws. Our bylaws have not been changed since NCSG (which too has a policy committee) was created.
		* This should be done by June.

* Internal Working Methods
	* We need to ensure more effective communications within the EC.
	* Grace Githaiga: Perhaps, if someone volunteers, we could form a beginner's guide to NCUC EC, etc.

* Division of labour
	* e-Platforms Team
		* Working well enough for now, but we need to look at what else we can do.
		* We should work on having blog posts.

	* Events team
		* Didn't work well.  It was mostly Bill Drake who ended up shouldering the burdens of organizing the Singapore NCUC event.

	* Membership team
		* Should this be rebooted, or possibly be done as it currently is, but in a decentralised fashion?  
		* Currently no one is stepping up to this.  Even if the person(s) leading this is not from the EC, this would be fine.

* Travel requests
	* Updates on EC's travel funding position
		* ICANN 50: 22-27th June in London. 
			* Carlos won't need funding.
			* Pranesh promised to apply for other sources of funding and update the EC on his funding position, indicating funding might not be required.

* CROPP Funding Program
	* This gives each constituency up to five travel grants within their region. It is on a rolling basis.
	* Pranesh is helping coordinate this within the NCUC.

* FY 15 Budget
	* Milton Mueller is our treasurer, and opened and operates the NCUC bank account with Solvay Bank in Syracuse.  
	* As of February 1, 2014, our bank balance is USD 78,729.  We have USD 5000 receivable from ISOC, and Pranesh needs to follow up on this.
	* The deadline for budget proposals to ICANN for this year ended earlier in March.
	* Bill Drake has already put in budgetary support proposals for the IGF, but the IGF proposals are due by April 15.
									
* Approval of budgetary expenses
	* The EC approved stay and an extra night of hotels at the Swissotel The Stamford, or less, for:
		* Avri Doria
		* Marilia Maciel
		* Joana Varon
		* Satish Babu
		* David Cake
	* For Robin Gross, the EC in principle approves reimbursements up to USD 3000 plus one night of hotel, pending submission of bills and appropriate reimburesement claims.
	* Given the amount of work that Bill Drake put into the organizing of the Singapore meeting, and the past precedent of NCUC paying organizers of meetings, the EC resolved to check with the community if Bill could be paid an honorarium.

* Important consensus: We need to have a procedure for how we deal with financial matters since the by-laws are not clear about this currently.
	* If the work is resource-heavy, then we can pay money accordingly.
	* We need to evolve a policy for how, for example:
		* Pressing is happening at a meeting
		* Is the person engaged?
		* Does the person have alternative sources of funding?

* There is a possibility of a staff support.
	* If we get staff support, our top priority: Database management and elections.
	* But other things, like administrative support for compiling list of policy WGs, deadlines, etc., are a possibility too.

Board Meeting ended at 16:30.


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