AT-LARGE GATEWAY
At-Large Regional Policy Engagement Program (ARPEP)
At-Large Review Implementation Plan Development
Page History
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Independent Examiner’s Final Recommendation | In the interests of transparency, a clear indication of all opportunities for At-Large travel funding support and the beneficiaries thereof, should be published promptly and in one place on the At-Large webpage. |
Issue Identified | Need more systematic RALO participation in regional events. |
Does ALAC Support Recommendation? | Support in principle?? |
If Not, Please Provide Reasoning. | Not Applicable |
If ALAC Does Not Support Recommendation, Does It Suggest an Alternative Recommendation? If so, please provide a suggested alternative Recommendation. | Not Applicable |
Prioritization | |
Additional Working Party Comments | |
ALAC Comments | Status:Accept in principle?? Comment: (Note that this recommendation has morphed over the drafts from a publication of travel funding to a publication of opportunities and recipients.) == The ALAC strongly supports full disclosure of all travel costs, with the understanding that a similar policy is applied for the entire organization including the SOs and the Board and ICANN staff. The ALAC agrees that opportunities for travel and outreach should be well documented and easy to locate, as should reports (both the recipients and more substantive reports of outcomes) . However, the programs themselves are manages by various parts of ICANN and often published on their respective parts of the ICANN web. Having information replicated on the At-Large site is likely to cause information to become dated or out-of-sync. However, the ALAC strongly supports making such information easy to locate.The ALAC also notes that At-Large should not be the only part of ICANN subject to such clear disclosure of who is receiving support. ==Although the decision to make such information available is out of scope for the ALAC, the ALAC strongly supports full disclosure of all travel costs, with the understanding that a similar policy is applied for the entire organization including the SOs and the Board and ICANN staff. ICANN regularly publishes the travel costs for ICANN meetings and events directly associated with them (excluding the Board and staff), but not for other activities. Staff costs are published only to the extent that they are required for senior executives under US tax law. Recently, in order to discover the costs of the annual GNSO Non-Contracted House Intersessional meetings, a formal Documentary Information Disclosure Policy request had to be filed (https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/didp-20160211-1-rrsg-request-2016-03-14-en). While the ALAC does support transparency in travel funding, it also notes that this is not a one-sided relationship. In ICANN parlance, “volunteers” refers to all parts of the ICANN community not paid by ICANN. However, a large part of this community is in fact paid to participate in ICANN on behalf of their employer or by serving their self-interest as part of the domain name ecosystem. At-Large volunteers are in fact volunteers in the true sense of the word. Virtually all of their time at face-to-face meetings and when participating remotely (conference calls, e-mail, document preparation) is personally donated. The cost to them (such as lost revenue, unpaid leave or vacations not spent with families) far exceeds the actual out-of-pocket costs to ICANN. ICANN rarely factors in these contributions and it must do so to properly present the costs AND benefits of volunteer involvement. |
Possible Dependencies | The decision to make such information available is out of scope for the ALAC. ICANN regularly publishes the travel costs for ICANN meetings and events directly associated with them (excluding the Board and staff), but not for other activities. Staff costs are published only to the extent that they are required for senior executives under US tax law. Recently, in order to discover the costs of the annual GNSO Non-Contracted House Intersessional meetings, a formal Documentary Information Disclosure Policy request had to be filed (https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/didp-20160211-1-rrsg-request-2016-03-14-en). The programs themselves are manages by various parts of ICANN and often published on their respective parts of the ICANN web. Having information replicated on the At-Large site is likely to cause information to become dated or out-of-sync. |
Who Will Implement?Resource Requirements | ICANN Staff |
Resource Requirements | Staff resources and technical, development support to publish travel funding information online in a coherent manner across ICANN |
Budget Effects impact? | |
Implementation Timeline | |
Proposed Implementation Steps |
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