[NCUC-EC] Fwd: Funding civil society day before IGF

[Michael Karanicolas]

Thanks for your responses Farzi. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as
simple as you imply. If it were, people wouldn't be constantly
expressing confusion about how this works, and how much money is
available. The operating procedures only deal with these issues in the
most general terms and, of course, they don't provide information
about our current financial situation, as has been requested. I drew
up a Google doc which we can use to track these allocations going
forward (would appreciate any help if I'm missing entries under "ICANN
related mission support"):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lYh6heUH20a6wKiN8yFjb9AtnR5SEt11UkiOfXKA7tA/edit?usp=sharing

The information you've provided here is very helpful, but I'm still a
bit confused as to how this relates to the original budget request for
IGF. I guess in the absence of an allocated budget, this means funds
for outreach would come out of our general reserves?

On Mon, Nov 27, 2017 at 12:05 PM, farzaneh badii
<farzaneh.badii at gmail.com> wrote:
> I believe we have discussed and responded to these questions, but I will
> repeat this for the new members of EC.  I do urge you to read the operating
> procedures, and do a bit of research on how ICANN functions and read our
> travel policy, now back to the questions:
>
>  What level of funding do we have available to disburse now, and in
> what baskets (CROP, general support, etc.)
>
> As I said, and as is in the operating procedures each year NCUC receives
> CROP (there has to be a request submitted). This CROP comes as either CROP
> for event and Crop for outreach travel. This year we will have 5 slots for
> travel. nothing been assigned The rules about CROP has been distributed by
> me and Renata on this list. It is also clear how many is available. These
> rules are set by ICANN staff.
>
>
> - What commitments of funding have we approved going forward, if any?
>
> NCUC each year provides funding for traveling for up to 4000 USD each
> meeting. Sometimes we do not use our own funding because an ICANN travel
> slot might become available if a funded traveler cannot make it or has
> access to other source of funding.  For outreach, as will be explained
> below, there is no set budget.
>
> Also please read this part of the travel policy:
>
> ICANN-Related Meetings
>
> At times it may be in NCUC’s interest to be represented at other meetings
> where important GNSO/ICANN matters will be discussed. Generally, such
> meetings would be held by GNSO or cross-community working groups, but on an
> exceptional basis, they could be organizationally separate events.
>
> NCUC can make available up to US $5,000 per calendar year to facilitate
> participation in such meetings. A member may receive support of up to US
> $1,000. Covered travel costs include conference-related airfare, visas or
> related fees, lodging, and airport taxis. If the actual cost of these items
> is greater than $1,000 the member will be responsible for the difference.
> NCUC cannot provide a per diem or cover other expenses.
>
>
> - What is our fiscal year - when will these funds be replenished, and
> to what level?
>
> For travel, as you see from the travel policy, we have a per calendar year
> budget. As to NCUC funds for outreach and activities similar to that, we
> don't really have allocated budget, we decide case by case. And each year we
> get certain amount of money from PIR (treasurer reports on that). We decided
> not to allocate a certain budget that makes us spend it nor restrict action
> (this was discussed with the previous EC and agreed upon) if an opportunity
> comes a long that is in favor of NCUC to use its funds. But we did put a
> cautious, voluntary cap for EC to consider (500 USD or less). All this said,
> approving a set budget for outreach  is possible if the EC decides to take
> such actions.
>
> I would also call your attention to operating procedures section VII:
>
> VII. Funding
> 1. NCUC funds its activities through two sources: ICANN funds and NCUC
> funds.
> ICANN funds are typically available on a pilot and/or ad hoc basis. It is
> not
> clear if each year a support program will continue or not. As of July 2017,
> the
> ICANN sourced funding opportunities available for the NCUC are: Community
> Regional Outreach Program, funding through the Global Stakeholder
> Engagement team, as well as approved funding of supplementary budget
> requests. NCUC funding opportunities include travel support for ICANN
> meetings, as well as funding for external related meetings.
> 2. Funding Transparency: The NCUC does not have a set budget for outreach.
> Requests will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis, and the EC
> shall provide a rationale as to why it funds or does not fund any portion of
> a
> request.
>
>
> Farzaneh
>
> On Mon, Nov 27, 2017 at 9:51 AM, Michael Karanicolas
> <mkaranicolas at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I strongly agree with Elsa on this. It's been a subject of confusion
>> for me since I joined the EC. I believe we discussed this briefly back
>> in Abu Dhabi, which helped to clear up my understanding of the money
>> we have access to (to a certain degree...), but it's very difficult to
>> process these requests without a proper understanding of the budget we
>> have remaining, and the timeline under which we need to spend it.
>>
>> As a solution, I'd suggest a shared Google doc listing what we have
>> available, that we can just update with each funding approval. I'd be
>> happy to draw that up, if someone can provide me the following
>> information:
>>
>> - What level of funding do we have available to disburse now, and in
>> what baskets (CROP, general support, etc.)
>> - What commitments of funding have we approved going forward, if any?
>> - What is our fiscal year - when will these funds be replenished, and
>> to what level?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Michael
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 27, 2017 at 7:44 AM, Elsa S <elsa.saade at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > On a more general note, does NCUC have a tracing of the money spent
>> > throughout the year and how much budget we still have, and for how long?
>> > I'm
>> > asking because It would be hasty to give feedback without having had a
>> > general idea of where we stand at the moment in terms of our budget as
>> > NCUC.
>> > If anyone has more info on this or where I could find this information,
>> > sharing would be very much appreciated.
>> _______________________________________________
>> NCUC-EC mailing list
>> NCUC-EC at lists.ncuc.org
>> https://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-ec
>
>