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3 18 July 2018

At-Large RALO and GNSO Constituency Leaders: 

2019

Dear community leaders,

I am pleased to announce that the FY20 We are pleased to report that the Community Regional Outreach Program (CROP) FY19 Wiki space is now ready to be used.  Please also refer to Sally Costerton’s and David Olive’s blog post published today on this subject. 

For FY19, US$50,000 was allocated to the final FY19 Budget for CROP. The Board made this decision on the recommendation of ICANN organization, based on community consultations and public comments on the Draft FY19 Operating Plan & Budget as well as further consideration about how to provide support to community outreach efforts while remaining within appropriate budget limits.  

As part of this process, staff was directed to review current guidelines and develop improved, additional criteria. To ensure consistency with other community travel and outreach requests administered under all ICANN programs, the final criteria balances the program goals with the need to ensure cost-effectiveness. 

The general principle governing the updated CROP guidelines is that CROP may be used for FY19 outreach efforts that are directly and demonstrably related to ongoing ICANN policy, technical and advisory activities. CROP allocations will be subject to the new CROP guidelines and specific criteria, with a staff assessment to be conducted at the end of FY19.  

Each RALO & each eligible GNSO Constituency (BC, IPC, ISPCP, NCUC & NPOC) is allocated up to three (3) individual regional trips (4 days and 3 nights maximum per trip). 

Travel allocations are to be used for the following types of events:

• ICANN Public Meetings occurring in the relevant region; or
• Official meetings organized by ICANN Org occurring in the relevant region; or
• If there is no Public Meeting or official ICANN meeting occurring in the relevant region in that FY, a meeting in that region that is assessed by the relevant regional GSE VP as being:
1. Directly and demonstrably related to ongoing ICANN policy, advisory or technical activities (e.g. a Regional Internet Registry meeting), and
2. Consistent with ICANN Org’s outreach plan for that region. 

(For RALOs, “relevant region” means the region applicable to each RALO. For GNSO Constituencies, this means the region where the ICANN Public Meeting, CANN-organized meeting, or an event assessed under the criteria outlined in (ii) above is taking place.) 

• Please note: if a RALO or eligible GNSO group has used at least one allocation for an ICANN meeting (or ICANN-organized meeting), it may use its remaining allocation(s) for meetings that are assessed by the relevant regional GSE VP as being directly and demonstrably related to ongoing ICANN policy, technical or advisory activities (e.g. RIR meetings).  
• No out-of-region travel will be permitted.  

We invite you to browse through the CROP FY19 space and through the CROP Procedures & Guidelines page for details about the program. Please email us (crop-staff@icann.org) if you have questions on specific aspects of the FY19 program.   For a complete list of individuals who have CROP duties, please see our CROP Contacts page. If there are any changes to your community Program Coordinators for CROP, please inform us as soon as possible so the list can be updated accordingly.   

We are looking forward to collaborating with all of you over this fiscal year. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to CROP Staff: crop-staff@icann.org    

Kind regards from your extended CROP Team: 

Benedetta Rossi 

(crop-staff@icann.org)

-- 

Benedetta Rossi | Manager, Policy Support & Community Services

benedetta.rossi@icann.org | +33.610.38.27.02

ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

for your use. The CROP team thanks all community leaders and groups for collaboratively working with our regional Global Stakeholder Engagement (GSE) colleagues to develop the various Outreach Strategic Plans for this fiscal year.

In response to feedback about the FY19 program, staff has re-drafted and re-formatted the Guidelines and Procedures, and we have also added a “What Has Changed” section at the top of the home page for your easy reference.

What has not changed from FY19: The submission and concurrence process, templates and forms remain the same as for FY19. The fundamental concept that CROP trips should be closely linked to current ICANN policy or technical work is also unchanged.

What is changing for FY20: The following aspects of CROP are new for FY20.

• Applicable geographic regions and countries within regions – ICANN Org believes that it will allow for greater clarity as well as community flexibility in many cases to use the GSE list of countries and regions, rather than the less detailed listing of official ICANN meeting regions. The FY20 CROP space therefore contains a link to the current GSE list for your reference.
• Reimbursement for conference registration fees – while the general rule remains that conference registration fees are not part of CROP funding, for FY20 ICANN Org has created alimited exception for cases where senior staff approval has been sought and obtained.
• Using 1 out of 3 trip allocations to an ICANN Public Meeting or ICANN-organized event – for FY20, community groups will no longer be required to FIRST use 1 trip allocation for this purpose. In other words, any 1 out of the 3 trip allocations can be used to an ICANN Public Meeting or ICANN-organized event (if one is taking place in the applicable region). ICANN Org hopes this will provide the community with greater flexibility in planning their FY20 strategic outreach activities.
• Clarifying 7-week deadline for trip requests – we understand that the FY19 requirement of “5 calendar days plus 6 weeks” may have been confusing for some groups. As such, for FY20, we will count the period between the last possible day for submitting a trip request and the commencement date of the trip as seven (7) weeks. This will not substantially alter the actual duration in question (as between FY19 and FY20), but we hope the clarification will provide greater clarity. Please note that this will not alter the requirement that the relevant regional VP’s concurrence must still be obtained a minimum of 6 weeks before travel commences.
• CROP staff lead administrator – for FY20, the staff lead for this program will be Maryam Bakoshi. She will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the applicable deadlines, following up on trip proposals and assessment reports, and to generally assist you with the program. However, please continue to send your queries and reports to the usual email address (crop-staff@icann.org).

On behalf of the CROP staff team, our regional GSE colleagues and ICANN’s Constituency Travel department, I hope that your groups will find the FY20 CROP helpful in conducting your regional strategic outreach activities.

The FY20 CROP space can be found here: https://community.icann.org/display/soacabout/CROP-FY20. Please note that we are launching this space now in the interests of time, and will be continuing to update and correct any errors that we may find. Thank you for your understanding!

Best regards,

Mary, Maryam and the CROP staff team