[NCUC-EC] Another ad hoc travel request coming

[William Drake]

Hi

Robin had to drop out of flying to Istanbul for the accountability CCWG due to flight cancelation.  As we really needed to have a body there, we had to make a rapid (same day) replacement.  James Gannon, a new member who was on the last NCSG call and is a ‘participant’ in the CCWG, answered the urgent call and ran to the airport and flew from Dublin on Monday. Since he was going to miss the first day of CCWG and traveling for just one day seemed a bit much to ask of him when he’s helping us like this, I told him we would certainly consider reimbursing him for three nights of cheap hotel if he wanted to stay for the IANA CWG on Thursday Friday.  With that assurance, he bought a plane ticket, and we’re working with ICANN to get him reimbursed for the flight etc.

He just wrote to say he managed to get a hotel in Istanbul for 237 Euros for the rest of the week by spending some hotel points that he had.  This is beyond the call of duty methinks.  When he submits the request for reimbursement I hope we can spare a couple hundred dollars for his service.

These kinds of circumstances, where fairly small amounts gets us representation at key meetings, make me wonder whether it’s wise to fix in print a particular limit on the number of ad hoc trips we’d support.  It might be better to leave it loose and just exercise fiscal responsibility.  The EC ought to be able to say, we’ve spent xxx this year, that’s enough.  The only potential downside to that is we tell some no applicants we’ve reached our limit for the year and they think we’re being unfair etc.  But members need to understand we’re not rich or a travel agency, too…

Maybe we should just set an annual ceiling for overall support for both ICANN and non-meetings and then leave ourselves flexibility under that. Up to 3 x $4k for ICANN and up to 5 x $1k for other would be potentially $17k, already quite a lot given our assets and replacement rate.

Bill