Post ATLAS II Implementation - Finance and Budget

Actions: 

• 16 Sep 2015 
  
  • During ICANN 54 in Dublin, the ALAC to meet with Xavier Calvez to discuss FY17 Special Budget Request, with a focus on core activities/programs such as the Leadership Training Program
  • During ICANN 54 in Dublin, the ALAC to meet with Nora Abusitta to discuss this recommendation and the Next Gen Program, ICANN Fellowship, and Auction Proceeds
• 28 Sep 2015 (O&E SC): 
  
  • O&E SC co-chairs to review the appropriate O&E programs and come up with key ideas for those programs. This can be a preparatory work for the conversation with Xavier. 
  • Staff to invite the O&E SC co-chairs to the RALO secretariat session that will review the FY17 special budget request (Tue 29 Sep, 18:00 UTC); to add this as an agenda item 
• 30 Sep 2015: 
  
  • During ICANN 54 in Dublin, the ALAC to meet with GSE Staff and discuss the lack of communications/collaboration/synergy between GSE and some RALOs in outreach & engagement activities (exception: AFRALO has a very good synergy with AFRICANN). 
  • Outreach & Engagement SC to review the list of programs identified and see which ones are the most beneficial with great ROIs that need to be kept
• 05 Oct 2015: 
  
  • Capacity Building WG to report on this recommendation 

Notes: 

• Define 'programmes' that brought value members to the community.
• Need to think of ways to optimize budget.
• Outreach Sub-Committee to identify the so-called programs
• Finance & Budget Sub-Committee to evaluate the resources used so far and understand whether any additional funds is needed 
• 30 Sep 2015: 
  
  • Need to identify which programs that are most relevant to this recommendation and most valuable. We need to have examples, metrics, RoIs to demonstrate their value. 
  • Re the programs/activities that don't have great ROIs, we shouldn't simply give up but should figure out ways to make them more effective. 
  • The revenue stream of ICANN is uncertain and potential hard decisions in terms of cutting programs/activities may need to be made.  
  • GSE has done events/outreach activities in North America region without contacting or informing NARALO. It would be better to form RALOs-GSE collaboration and improve communication. 
  • We should also recognize the benefits that stem from the great synergy between RALOs and ICANN departments (e.g. AFRALO - AFRICANN) 
• 05 Oct 2015: 
  
  • Dev Anand Teelucksingh has shared the outreach calendar with GSE VPs and encouraged them to include events in the calendar
  • Communications between GSE and At-Large need to be improved, and this can be a point of discussion during ALAC Meeting with the VPs 
  • FSBC may not be able to meet before Dublin, but has been looking at the questions that Carlton asked (Question: What is the real practical outcome from all the budget work?  Is the At-Large better funded?  How much of the At-Large budgetary requests are satisfied? Which ones make our priority list?) and will discuss this with ICANN Finance Dept
• 18 Oct 2015 (ALAC & Regional Leaders Work Part I) 
  • Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Related to Rec 1, several of ALSes have admitted the concern that there might have been some programs done by the GSE, and local ALSes were not informed of the events taking place, and therefore they didn’t manage to get anything out of it. It didn’t appear to have local ALS engagement at all. 
• 30 Apr 2016
  
  • The Proposal for Multi-Year Planning of At-Large RALO Face-to-Face Meetings has been submitted to the ICANN public comment on the Draft ICANN FY17 Operating Plan & Budget and Five-Year Operating Plan Update; the Proposal has been reviewed by ICANN Finance. 
    

Input from Outreach & Engagement Sub-committee: 

• Define 'programmes' that brought valuable members to the community.
  • Leadership Training
  • Next Gen
  • Fellowship
  • CROPP
  • Regional Strategic Plans
  • Language Services
  • Online courses
  • ATLAS
  • RALO Face-to-Face General Assembly
  • Synergy between certain RALOs and GSE (e.g. AFRALO - AFRICANN) 
• Continue & increase support for the aforementioned programs 
• Identify the appropriate staff members as recipients
• Continue to provide support for people to follow ICANN activities remotely:
  • Cameras (more rooms, not just the ALAC ones)
  • Remote Hubs
• 28 Sep 2015 (O&E SC): 
  
  • EURALO will organize a networking and outreach event after the GA (coordinated with Jean-Jacques Sahel); it is an open event and is also an opportunity for other RALO members to participate. The event will invite ISOC Europe that will circulate a special invitation to encourage European chapters to participate.  
  • Re support issues for the outreach & engagement programs – if specific programs are identified, they can be submitted as part of the budget request for FY17. O&E SC can help identify appropriate programs. O&E SC with discuss with Xavier Calvez in ICANN 54 to understand how this can be done. 

Actions: 

• Finance & Budget Sub-Committee to check what would be allowed/not allowed re promotional items; if there's anything that will be refused, we will bring this up with the Board
• 09 Sep 2015: 
  • ATLAS IT and Outreach & Engagement Sub-Committee members to review the draft ICANN's Civil Society Engagement proposal (At-Large ICANN Civil Society Engagement in Fiscal Year 2016 Workspace) and to discuss whether this proposal is in line with the recommendation. The groups will report back their review in the ATLAS IT meeting on Sep. 
  • Heidi Ullrich to find out how GSE North America's team has conducted outreach activities in Toronto without notifying NARALO; communications gap like this needs to be avoided in the future. 
  • Judith Hellerstein to discuss her thoughts on the ICANN Civil Society Engagement Plan in the Outreach & Engagement SC meeting. 
  • Outreach & Engagement SC will figure out how At-Large can coordinate with the GSE on local outreach & engagement efforts and guide the creation of appropriate events
  • Finance & Budget SC will review the potential short-lead time funding requests of outreach & engagement events
• 30 Sep 2015: 
  
  • During ICANN 54, the ALAC to follow up with Fadi Chehade re the $10,000 contingency fund 
• 14 Jun 2016: 
  
  • Heidi Ullrich / Alan Greenberg / ALAC to discuss this recommendation with ICANN Finance (Xavier) in ICANN56 

Notes: 

• Communications budget is available in FY15
• ALAC/At-Large to request a fund for promotional items for engagement and outreach (could be within FY16 AC/SO Requests)
• 09 Sep 2015: 
  • There has been some degree of follow-up re this recommendation. During the ICANN 53 ALAC-Board meeting, ICANN CEO proposed a special funding (e.g. 10,000 USD) seemingly to be used to assist community members for visa related matters. While it does not seem to have explicit follow-up re this proposal, some At-Large members were provided funding to obtain visa for ICANN 54. This may indicate that the ICANN Board is receptive to short-lead funding request and the ALAC should be encouraged to advance this recommendation with the Board. 
  • This recommendation is linked to recommendation #21: https://community.icann.org/x/TZZCAw
  • Challenge for CROPP is that it is only used for community members to participate in existing events; it cannot be used to fund or organize events. The only way to fund or organize event is to apply for a special budget request and let the Finance and Budget Sub-Committee decide whether it is viable. FBSC usually reviews the event applications in Jan or Feb. The events have to be really well planned out, especially with good budget estimates, otherwise the applications will be rejected. It is very hard to plan some event that is so far out at the beginning of the year. 
  • At-Large should have the ability to apply for ICANN funding for members to organize events that will happen in a shorter period of time (e.g. 3-month time, 6-moth time). As such, the application for funding will be more well thought out. This funding should be separate from CROPP's funding. 
  • This funding should also cover community-initiated education / capacity building events/activities that are not related to travel. The funding will mainly cover venue, refreshment, and other spending to attract people to attend the events. 
  • LACRALO's proposal can serve as an example for such funding (https://community.icann.org/x/Aa7hAg; https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lXtoi9VNuaR0mA2lli9IAAAMgQHa6wOGeVKbirT_-a8/edit) 
  • The draft ICANN Civil Society Engagement Plan (https://community.icann.org/x/-5FCAw) may also relate to this recommendation. It can create collaboration opportunities between local ALSes, GSE, NPOC, NCUC, and NCSG. For example, the events hosted by GSE and other constituencies may already have venue and refreshments covered, or provide the funding for workshops and panels that ALSes ask for, so that local ALSes can take advantage of the existing resources and avoid reinventing the wheel. 
  • Nonetheless, At-Large members like Sebastien Bachollet disagrees that the proposal is pointing ICANN in the right direction, as civil society is only a subset of the user community. He emphasized that ICANN is not organized via civil society and shouldn't over emphasize the civil society concept. At-Large is the voice of billions of end users, much greater than the civil society; overemphasizing this concept may make At-Large end up like ISOC chapters, etc. All ICANN Staff need to make an effort to meet local ALSes when they are traveling for outreach and engagement related work. Judith Hellerstein thinks that At-Large's work is more in line with NPOC. 
• 30 Sep 2015: 
  
  • There hasn't been much going on in FBSC. FBSC will hold call soon but schedule is unknown.  
  • Dev Anand Teelucksingh believes that ICANN should provide funding for short-lead budget requests, but Alan Greenberg disagrees with this type of funding. Alan thinks that ICANN won't be very acceptive to short-lead budget requests on unspecified items, and specific requests need to be made in order to get funding. 
  • There is a communications fund bucket for the community to use at our discretion. We need to come up with the specific requests to use that fund. 
  • During the ICANN 53 Board Meeting, Fadi Chehade proposed a $10,000 contingency fund seemingly allocated for visa related matters. Follow-up work needs to be done, as we are unaware or uncertain who have the money, whether it can only cover visa issue, etc. This proposal seems to have made an impact according to Heidi Ullrich, as some community member was able to funded by ICANN to obtain visa. Nevertheless, clarification of Fadi's proposal is needed. 
    
    

Actions: 

• 16 Sep 2015: 
  • Members in the At-Large New Meeting Strategy Working Group to keep the ATLAS II IT updated with the discussion about Meeting B
  • In Dublin, ALAC to discuss this recommendation with the GSE (Sally Costerton and the Regional VPs), the meeting team (Nick Tomasso), and Nora Abusitta (DRPD). 
  • ATLAS II IT to ask Regional VPs to provide brief summaries of activities currently taking place in their respective regions that involve the RALOs, as well as their further engagement plans with the ALSes. Regional VPs to report on this during ICANN 54 Dublin. The Regional VPs to also discuss the Civil Society Engagement Overview and Forward Plan with the ALAC and explain the collaboration opportunities (e.g. regional/local resources and Regional VPs' own budget may potentially provide fundings for outreach activities). 
• 14 Jun 2016: 
  
  • ALAC to follow up with GSE to seek answer to this question – how possible is it for GSE to help the ALAC raise additional sources of funding?
• 07 Oct 2016:
  • At the forthcoming meeting in Hyderabad, the ALAC to ask GSE:

    • about raising external funds and getting sponsors?

  • The ALAC to decide if an At-Large taskforce be established to tackle sponsorship issues, including the development of the sponsor database. This taskforce could bring all RALO leaderships together to give them tools to help them with raising sponsorship for F2F GAs, showcases, etc.

Notes: 

• FBSC engage with various parties that can help raise sponsorship in the future
• 16 Sep 2015: 
  
  • At-Large New Meeting Strategy Working Group (LAC sub-group) has been discussing outreach strategy for Meeting B
    • The Group has raised issues re funding for outreach programs 
    • While the original idea was to contain all the activities within the ICANN meeting, the Working Group has convinced ICANN Staff to also include external outreach activities 
    • At-Large is encouraged to collaborate with ICANN staff on various ICANN initiated outreach programs including Next Gen
    • Check the details of this discussion via the transcript/recording of the Working Group meeting on 11 Sep 2015: https://community.icann.org/x/qYxYAw
  • There seems to be some eagerness from Regional VPs to work with the ALAC and RALOs on regional engagements activities (e.g. newsletters, webinars, LAC strategy, APRALO-APAC Hub); some At-Large members are deeply involved in those activities. 
• 30 Sep 2015:
  • FBSC has been looking into third party sponsorships, but there seems to be no real understanding whether At-Large should ask for such external funding 
  • External funding seems to be required for meetings/outreach activities outside the ICANN meeting
• 18 Oct 2015 (update from the GSE, slides)
  • Olivier Crepin-Leblond: We’re talking here about sponsorship, et cetera, for additional activities outside. So the question here is how possible is it for GSE to help the ALAC raise additional sources of funding?
• 14 Jun 2016: 
  
  • This recommendation concerns with additional sources of fundings external to ICANN.
  • Some At-Large members work with RIRs and other organizations to support their activities 

Actions: 

• ALAC to give the Board a heads-up and push the Board to agree with the AFRALO and EURALO GA this year
• 09 Sep 2015:
  
  • Olivier Crepin-Leblond to develop a timeline for the General Assemblies (how many GAs per year and where the GAs should take place) and ATLAS III prior to ICANN 54. This timeline, once approved by the ALAC and the Finance & Budget SC, should be shared with Rinalia Abdul Rahim, Steve Crocker, and Board Finance Committee and also be discussed with the Board in Dublin. 
    
• 16 Sep 2015: 
  
  • Cheryl Langdon-Orr to provide Olivier Crepin-Leblond the dates and details of the 2 APRALO GA in the 'prehistorical' days in At-Large (prior to Mexico) 
  • Olivier Crepin-Leblond to send the spreadsheet to the ALAC Finance & Budget Sub-Committee and the ALAC to review before passing on to the ICANN Board 
• 30 Sep 2015: 
  
  • Olivier Crepin-Leblond to include a preamble recognizing that there are other meetings/gatherings of ALSes facilitated/funded by ICANN before or up until when RALOs formally signed the MoU with ICANN (prior to ICANN 34 Mexico); these meetings/gatherings include 1-2 APRALO meetings  
  • Olivier Crepin-Leblond to give a heads up to Rinalia Abdul Rahim on Sunday before approaching the Board Finance Committee re GA matters. Olivier Crepin-Leblond to send the spreadsheet to Rinalia Abdul Rahim and Cherine Chalaby to start the discussion well before the Board meeting. 
  • Staff to note the LACRALO meeting in Puerto Rico in 2007 on the RALO General Assemblies page. 

Notes: 

• 09 Sep 2015: 
  
  • AFRALO, EURALO, and NARALO made the special FY16 budget request to host General Assemblies, only EURALO's request has been approved for FY16. AFRALO's request has been declined because of a high level meeting for Ministers as well as the Next-Gen program that will take place in Marrakech (the number of grants needed are increased as a result). However, AFRALO and NARALO will be given priority to host GA in FY17.
  • ALAC/At-Large shall continue pushing for more RALO GAs and remind ICANN Finance Dept and the Board Finance & Budget Committee on the rotation of RALO General Assemblies; Rinalia Abdul Rahim has been pushing for more RALO GAs. Especially in light of the new meeting strategy, the ALAC shall come up with proposals that clearly indicate how many GAs should be held and where to host the GAs in the next three years at least, otherwise we may end up with one GA per year, which is unacceptable. 
• 16 Sep 2015: 
  • At-Large Funding Roadmap v2.xls
  • Olivier Crepin-Leblond thinks that it is unlikely to hold GA or ATLAS during a B Meeting; Sebastien Bachollet suggests to still keep B Meeting as an option and task ICANN Staff to find out whether it is feasible to have a facility with enough space to hold a GA or ATLAS III. 
  • In 'prehistorical' days, APRALO benefited from ICANN funding and held its first GA during an APNIC (?) meeting in Indonesia (?); it was the founding meeting for APRALO. There was another a small meeting of the APRALO Leadership Team funded by ICANN; that meeting was held in Hong Kong outside ICANN meeting but during a technical meeting dominated by industry players. 
• 30 Sep 2015: 
  • RALO GAs: RALO General Assemblies
  • This recommendation needs to be clarified, as it can be interpreted as At-Large wants to hold general assembly for each RALO every year (i.e. 5 GA / year). 
  • Should we add 'on a rotating, multi-year basis' at the end of the sentence to clarify? 
• 24 Nov 2015:
  
  • The idea is to present a proposal of RALO General Assemblies and At-Large Summits with geographic rotation. However, there has been different understanding with regard to the frequency of GAs and At-Large Summits, as there is concerns with regard to time for preparation, logistics, and costs. 
  • The idea is to remove the special budget request for general assemblies and incorporate the GAs in ICANN's FY budget. The limitation of ad-hoc request is that the number of GAs won't be consistent through years (e.g. FY16 only has 1 GA approved). However, we cannot be overly ambitious to organize too many GAs (e.g. 3 GAs in one FY) due to limitation from Staff resources. 
• 21 Jan 2016:
  
  • General Assemblies and Summit Table: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11e1U8ZzOoqwUVG-VSVw4COnj5MxrD13tWi15gnMTYlc/edit#gid=2081016939
  • Proposal for multi-year budget planning of ALAC and RALO Face to Face meetings
• 09 Mar 2016 (secretariat meeting - ICANN55):
  
  • Recommendation will be put on hold until At-Large receives a green light for having the multi-year budget
• 30 Apr 2016
  
  • The Proposal for Multi-Year Planning of At-Large RALO Face-to-Face Meetings has been submitted to the public comment on the Draft ICANN FY17 Operating Plan & Budget and Five-Year Operating Plan Update. ICANN Finance is reviewing the Proposal. 
    
• 12 May 2016 
  
  • Once the Proposal for Multi-Year Planning of At-Large RALO Face-to-Face Meetings is approved by the ICANN Board this recommendation can be marked completed. Board decision will be made in June 2016. 
  • If the Proposal is approved, there will be no need for RALOs to submit special budget requests for GAs; exception is FY16/17.