Important Information Links

Comment Open:

17 January 2012

Comment Close:

23 February 2012

Close Time (UTC):

23:59

Reply Open:

24 February 2012

Reply Close:

26 March 2012

Close Time (UTC):

23:59

Brief Overview

 

Originating Organization:

ICANN Finance

Categories/Tags:

Operations-Finances

Purpose (Brief):

The release of the Framework for the FY 13 Budget kicks off the operational planning process for ICANN, providing the community with their first look at the current and planned work, along with estimated financial resources required for FY13.

Current Status:

The Framework for the FY 13 Budget has been posted for public comment.

Next Steps:

Comment will be received both in this forum and in continued interaction with the community and staff until the draft Operating Plan and Budget is posted on 1 May 2012.

Staff Contact:

Xavier Calvez

Email:

controller@icann.org

Detailed Information

 

Section I: Description, Explanation, and Purpose

The feedback and involvement of the ICANN community in the evolution from Framework to Operating Plan is critical in making this a workable and implementable budget, and we now encourage the community to comment on this set of identified fiscal year priorities, core activities, and projects and how they should fit into the FY 13 plan. The Framework will be discussed with members of the ICANN community at the Costa Rica meeting this March, with feedback received through both the online public comment process as well as through individual meetings and conference calls with ICANN Supporting Organizations (SO), Advisory Committees (AC) and Stakeholder Groups (SG). A more detailed draft FY 13 Operating Plan and Budget will be posted by 1 May 2012. After additional public comment and feedback is received and synthesized, the budget will be sent to the ICANN Board for adoption at ICANN Public Meeting 44 in June 2012.

Section II: Background

The building and posting of a Framework for the ICANN Operating Plan and Budget began in FY 10, as a method to provide budget assumptions and forecasts earlier, as well as to allow more time for community input and consultation, with the goal being a more robust Operating Plan that reflects the priorities of the community.

Section III: Document and Resource Links

Framework for the FY13 Operating Plan and Budget [PDF, 2.92 MB]

Section IV: Additional Information

None

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A FINAL COPY OF THIS STATEMENT IN PDF FORMAT.

BigPulse Vote Schedule: 23-Feb-2012 23:59 UTC to 01-Mar-2012 23:59 UTC. 

Click here to download a copy of the draft Statement in PDF format.

ALAC statement on the ICANN FY13 budget framework

.

The ALAC welcomes several improvements in the FY13 Operating plan and budget framework development, especially its timing, allowing its publication for comments sufficiently early to give the community enough time to comment on it and provide its input.

The ALAC also appreciates very much the framework presentation undertaken by the CFO himself, which allowed a better dialog with the community. We fully support the process of early engagement and agree that it will enhance accountability and transparency.

Nevertheless, the FY13 operational plan and budget framework is presented at too high a level, similarly as FY12 was done, and in our view, does not go into sufficient detail at this stage. The ALAC notes that the FY11 framework provided more information which was useful for analysis.

As presented, the current document can be commented on in a general manner only. For the future operational plan and budget framework, the ALAC recommends that the format returns to a full text format (with at least as much detail as the FY11 document and preferably more) rather than Powerpoint presentation . Only then would it be possible to analyze the framework keeping in mind the interest of Internet users.

 We appreciated that without consideration of the new gTLD program, the expenses for the FY13 will exceed the revenues by $113,000 (0.15%) only, which means that the deficit decreased significantly compared to the FY12’s one.

However, the ALAC notices with regret that the funds allocated to the community additional requests for activities and services have been reduced for FY13 by around 20% over FY12, while one of the ICANN priorities for FY13 is to effectively support increased activities from Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees (SO/ACs). The ALAC was instead expecting a growth in these funds to allow our community to implement its projects for a better participation of the Internet end-users.

The ALAC wishes that for its additional request for activities and services, ICANN Finance Staff interact with the applicants before submitting the final budget to the Board for adoption.

The ALAC re-iterates that several of the ALAC requests are considered crucial for the At-Large work and development, and that most of them have been submitted in the previous fiscal years.  

Looking at the IDN Variant Management, the ALAC expresses its concern that the Framework shows a massive surge in the predicted Cost of the related further studies and implementation phase. The already done IDN Variants studies were undertaken by 6 groups composed of voluntary community members. We find the $2.8m figure overestimated and are concerned that some of the work might duplicate work already undertaken by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). We are also concerned about the reduced levels of transparency associated with contracting out services that might be better served by staff. External growth based on consultants needs to be kept in check and under control especially given the anticipated deficit situation.

Finally, the ALAC welcomes the provision made for intersessional meetings to be held by non-contracted community members. Since we find the amount currently allocated to this item rudimentary, we believe that it should be increased to satisfy the need of all the non-contracted community members and we believe that the intersessional meetings match perfectly with our need for regional gatherings out of ICANN meetings for in-reach, outreach and learning purposes that we expressed several times over the few previous years. It is only through such involvement outside of ICANN meetings that the overall ICANN Profile would be increased globally as being a key party in the Global Internet Ecosystem with a highly evolved and inclusive Multi-Stakeholder model. Currently, this is an area that is severely lacking.

  • No labels

2 Comments

  1. 2 Minor  points:- on  the last paragraph  the inclusion of language  that ensures our view of these activities is to the benefit of a wide range of ICANN Stakeholders ( not just ALAC and At-large) and also  in keeping with the much needed opportunity to increase the ICANN Profile globally as being a key party in the Global Internet Ecosystem with a highly evolved and inclusive MSM  etc., etc.,  would be useful to ensure we (ALAC and At-Large)  are not seen as being narrow focussed into our own  AC's needs in my opinion...

    Also re the IDN Variant Management Studies we may need to modify this paragraph based on the information, rationale and budget specifics outlined here in the recently released report out for PC http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/idn-vip-proposed-project-plan-20feb12-en.pdf  Which outlines what we did NOT have details of, when this text was written (and which IMO adds considerably to our understanding of and the  point out  that the timing and proper integration of this essential information  needs to be better and MORE professionally managed  by ICANN so we as Community have access to a well co-ordinated instead of apparently DIS/MIS-Co-ordinated set of data points  to assist our deliberations and discussion...

    1. Thanks for your comments Cheryl. The final draft reflects your input. Changes can be seen by clicking on the "modifications" tab.