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You must read the CROP Procedures and Guidelines before applying
What Does CROP Provide?
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I. Goals:
Community leaders have outlined several key benefits that could be achieved through a programmed approach to global outreach:
- Building local/regional awareness and recruitment of new community members;
- More effectively engaging with current members and/or "reactivating” previously engaged ICANN community members; and
- Communicating ICANN’s mission and objectives to new audiences.
Based on community comments received to the draft FY19 ICANN Budget and further consideration of the question of how to provide support to the community’s outreach efforts while remaining within appropriate budget limits, a sum of US$50,000 was allocated in the FY19 Budget for CROP. To ensure consistency with other community travel and outreach requests made under other ICANN programs, ICANN staff were tasked with reviewing the current CROP guidelines and developing improved and additional criteria that can meet the program goals in a cost-effective manner as well as facilitate the community’s FY19 outreach efforts that are directly and demonstrably related to ongoing ICANN policy, technical and advisory activities.
This document sets out the proposed scope of CROP for FY19, including eligibility, applicable deadlines, number and types of permitted regional trips, and principles by which trip proposals are to be submitted and reports provided.
II. Scope of CROP (Who is Eligible, What Principles Apply to Determine Funding Approvals):
1. Regional At Large Organization (RALO) allocations (i.e.
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AFRALO, APRALO, EURALO, LACRALO, and NARALO
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):
- Each RALO is allocated up to three (3) individual regional trips, to be utilized for the following events occurring in that respective RALO’s region in a financial year (FY):
(a) an ICANN Public Meeting; or
(b) an official meeting organized by the ICANN Organization (e.g. the GDD Summit); or
(c) if there is no Public Meeting or official ICANN meeting occurring in that RALO’s region in that FY, a meeting in that region that is assessed by the relevant regional Global Stakeholder Engagement (GSE) regional vice-president as being directly and demonstrably related to ongoing ICANN policy, advisory or technical activities (e.g. a Regional Internet Registry meeting). - A RALO may choose to use more than one (1) trip to the same meeting in its region, which will count as part of its overall three (3) allocations.
- Where a RALO has used at least one (1) trip to an ICANN Public Meeting or official ICANN-organized meeting occurring in its region, it may use its remaining allocation(s) for a meeting occurring in its region that is assessed by the relevant regional Global Stakeholder Engagement (GSE) regional vice-president as being directly and demonstrably related to ongoing ICANN policy, advisory or technical activities (e.g. a Regional Internet Registry meeting).
- An “official meeting organized by the ICANN Organization” means a meeting where the programming, logistics and other arrangements are solely or primarily the responsibility of the ICANN Organization. By way of example, this will include the GDD Summit but not any other conference or event where ICANN’s involvement is in the form of minor sponsorship in kind (e.g. providing small gifts for inclusion in conference bags or permitting the ICANN logo to be used on a brochure), sending delegates (whether staff or community members funded via other means), or is as an invited speaker.
2. GNSO Eligible Community Group allocations (i.e. the Business, Intellectual Property, Internet Service & Internet Connectivity Providers, Non-Commercial Users, and Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns
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Constituencies):
- Each eligible GNSO community group is allocated up to three (3) individual regional trips, to be utilized to support its members who are located in the applicable region to ICANN Public Meetings or official meetings organized by the ICANN Organization (e.g. the GDD Summit).
- Where an eligible GNSO community group has used at least one (1) trip to an ICANN Public Meeting or official ICANN-organized meeting occurring in the region where supported travelers are located, it may use its remaining allocation(s) for a meeting occurring in its region that is assessed by the relevant regional Global Stakeholder Engagement (GSE) regional vice-president as being directly and demonstrably related to ongoing ICANN policy, advisory or technical activities (e.g. a Regional Internet Registry meeting).
Travel Funding:
- Transportation (most economical routing in economy class only
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- ), lodging, and per diem (4 days, 3
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- nights maximum), booked through the ICANN Constituency Travel team.
Visa Fees
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:
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- Travelers will be reimbursed for visa fees (actual cost or up to $200 USD
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- , whichever is less).
NOTE:
All travel must be
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booked via ICANN Constituency Travel to ensure consistency, proper accounting, recordation, and tracking against budget.
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Travel may not be booked individually. Any itinerary changes that occur after travel bookings are made shall be at the traveler’s own expense. ICANN Constituency Travel will manage all travel bookings and ensure that any financial outlays are optimized to the maximum extent possible.
III. Rules & Conditions for CROP Funding:
A. General
- For FY2019, all trips must be completed before the end of ICANN's 2019 fiscal year. Specifically, travelers must have returned to their originating destination on or before 30 June 2019.
- All eligible groups are responsible for ensuring that trip proposals and approvals fulfill any and all criteria that the group may have developed for the program (including ensuring that all necessary information is provided in sufficient detail to allow for a reasonably informed decision to be made as to whether or not to approve the proposal), tracking the number of trips that were proposed, taken and remain in any fiscal year as well as which community members have been allocated travel under the program, and submitting all required trip reports within the prescribed time frame. While ICANN staff can and will assist with logging trip proposals, assessments and reports in a timely fashion, it is not ICANN staff’s responsibility to remind an eligible group of any remaining trip allocations, deadlines or events or to liaise on a group’s behalf with the relevant GSE teams.
- A trip that has been allocated, but not taken, will not carry over to the next fiscal year.
- Trips must originate and conclude within the same region and must be taken by someone located in the region where the meeting is taking place. No out-of-region travel will be permitted.
- Multiple persons may attend one meeting; however, each traveler is counted as utilizing one of the allocated trips for that community structure and must submit an individual, separate trip request to facilitate recordation and tracking.
B. Eligibility & Process Requirements
- To participate in CROP, each eligible community group must develop an Outreach Strategic Plan for that fiscal year. The Plan (to be developed based on the template provided by CROP staff) must include details of the group’s outreach goals, strategies, and expected activities and outcomes for that fiscal year in sufficient detail to permit coordination of the group’s specific activities with the appropriate ICANN regional stakeholder engagement teams.
- All Plans must be reviewed by the group's leadership and the appropriate regional GSE vice-president(s). The group’s appointed Program
Travel Policies
- For any ICANN supported travel, it is the traveler’s responsibility to comply with all local laws and legislation of the country or countries to which he or she will travel (including but not limited to laws pertaining to immigration, taxation, customs, employment and foreign exchange control).
- It is the traveler’s responsibility to comply with all regulations (including those dealing with visas and required vaccinations) of any country visited.
- ICANN is not responsible for obtaining visas for the traveler; that is the responsibility of the traveler. Travelers will be reimbursed for any visa fees (up to $200 USD).
- ICANN will not support/approve any claim for work permits or any other costs relating to compliance with the national legislation of any country in the world from a fellow or any third party.
- ICANN is a California non-profit public benefit corporation incorporated in the United States and must therefore comply with all the laws and regulations of California and the United States.
- Travelers will be reimbursed for conference registration fees where applicable (up to $800 USD).
Outreach Strategic Plans
- To be eligible for the CROP Program, each participating ICANN Structure must produce a clear Outreach Strategic Plan explaining its FY19 outreach goals, strategies, and planned expectations so that the specific activities can be coordinated with the appropriate ICANN Regional Engagement teams.
- Your organization must have an approved Outreach Strategic Plan BEFORE your individual trip proposal can be processed.
- As part of the approval process, each plan must be reviewed by the structure's leadership as well as the appropriate regional Stakeholder Engagement Vice-President(s). The Community Program Coordinator (PC) will certify, within the formtemplate, when these reviews have taken place and communicate those results to the CROP Program Administrators (Staff)staff.
General Procedures
- All trips and outreach activities must be completed before the end of ICANN's 2019 fiscal year. Traveling participants must have returned to their originating destination on or before 30 June 2019.
- Any trip allocated, but not taken, will not carry over to the next fiscal year.
- All trip requests must be submitted for the requisite concurrence by the relevant regional GSE Vice-President as well as approval by the traveler’s community group (in accordance with any criteria it may have developed for the program) no less than five (5) working days before the first day of the 6-week travel deadline. No exceptions will be allowed. By way of illustration, if the requested travel date begins on Monday 22 October 2018, the first day of the 6-week travel deadline (and thus the last day for obtaining the necessary concurrences and approvals) will be Monday 10 September 2018 and the last day for submitting the concurrence/approval request will be Friday 7 September 2018.
- All necessary concurrences and approvals under the Procedures for Trip Requests and Approvals must, at a minimum, be obtained six (6) weeks before the date of originating travel for the trip being requested (i.e. by the first day of the 6-week travel deadline). No exceptions will be allowed - this Minimum timeframes: An individual trip must be approved within the participant's organization/structure, including coordination with the applicable regional Stakeholder Engagement V.P. team a minimum of 6-weeks prior to the proposed travel date. This 6-week period is the absolute minimum time and should is not to be considered a "best practice". Notice to and planning with regional teams should the appropriate regional ICANN staff (e.g. members of the relevant GSE team) should therefore take place as early as possible. Hence, when planning a CROP funded trip, please consider how much time you anticipate needing to obtain internal organization approvals, regional Stakeholder Engagement concurrence, and Staff review for completeness, as the proposal MUST meet ICANN Constituency Travel's 6-weeks minimal requirement from the date all approvals/confirmations have been obtained.
- Travel may not be booked individually or through the event organizers. ICANN's Constituency Travel department will manage all travel booking and ensure that any financial outlays are optimized to the maximum extent possible
- much in advance of the trip as possible.
- A Trip Assessment Report must be completed for each trip taken and must be submitted within 3 weeks of the date on which the traveler is noted by Constituency Travel as returning to his/her originating location. The Trip Assessment Report should clearly and specifically include the following details: (1) A Trip Assessment must be completed for each outreach activity attended (within 3 weeks of returning). The assessment should clearly and specifically describe if/how the original purpose(s) and outcome(s) were realized as well as ; (2) details of the event itself (who, what, where, when, and why).
- Trips must originate and conclude within the same region and should, wherever practicable, be taken by someone working in or proximate to that territory. GNSO Constituencies may attend one out of region trip per fiscal year within the five trip allocations.
- the traveler’s attendance and activities at the meeting (including sessions attended, written or oral contributions made to specific sessions, etc.); and (3) specific plans for follow-up activities to enhance and continue the objectives of the trip for the community structure through which the traveler was approved for the trip.
- ICANN staff will log all Trip Assessment Reports, including the dates that they were filed. If a Trip Assessment Report is not filed, or is filed after the due date, this may impact the allocations available to that community structure in future fiscal yearsAny single outreach activity may be attended by multiple persons; however, each traveler is counted as utilizing one of structure's allocated trips.
- If an approved trip is voided or cancelled for some unanticipated and/or extraordinary reason, a replacement trip will may be allocated to the affected organization within FY18.It the same fiscal year, subject to available funding. Where the cancellation involves a trip for which funds have already been disbursed, it will not be possible to support reallocate the trip.
- Trip "compounding" or "splitting" of expenses or any other strategy with a goal of increasing the number of individual trips assigned to an organization. ICANN appreciates all reasonable efforts on the part of participants to minimize expenses; however, to properly manage this unique resource, each individual trip stands on its own and will require separate authorization and tracking
Trip Confirmations/Approvals
Before any proposed trip can be processed:
- It must be approved within the participant's organization/structure, including coordination with the applicable regional Stakeholder Engagement V.P. team a minimum of 6-weeks prior to the proposed date (see General Procedure section above). For further information about advance notice requirement, please refer to the CROP Frequently Asked Questions page (see Policies/Guidelines Questions).
- It must be determined by the applicable regional Stakeholder Engagement V.P. team that the trip purpose/goal is consistent with any established regional engagement strategy, where applicable, and/or ICANN's overall mission.
- It must be determined by the applicable regional Stakeholder Engagement V.P. team that the trip is not duplicative of any other scheduled ICANN event with a similar purpose/outcome.
- The trip must satisfy CROP guidelines and policies as confirmed by the Program Administrators.
- The proposed program participant(s) must agree to the terms and conditions of the program, including:
- Travel arrangements are made only by ICANN Staff, that is, self-booking is not permitted for this program.
- Agreement to provide an accurate and complete post-event Trip Assessment within three weeks of the return date.
Roles & Responsiblities
To see who are your CROP contacts, check out the CROP Contacts page.
Program Administrators (Staff)
The role of ICANN's Program Administrators (Staff) will be to:
- Provide guidance and interpretation to the community consistent with the program's principles;
- Confirm that all applications meet the established principles/guidelines/criteria and have been properly authorized by the applicable parties;
- Coordinate with other ICANN departments (e.g., Global Stakeholder Engagement, Constituency Travel, Communications and Meetings) as needed to maximize outreach effectiveness;
Monitor the program’s implementation for completeness and accuracy; and
- Manage, track, and report the program's status as requested by ICANN management and/or community leaders.
Program Coordinators (PC)
Each structure/organization is responsible for appointing 1-2 Program Coordinators (PC) whose responsibility will be to:
- Consult within the applicable structure/organization and assist members, where needed, in completing an Outreach Strategic Plan and Trip Proposals via the Wiki forms.
- Facilitate and manage trip/event approvals within the organization and with the appropriate regional ICANN Stakeholder Engagement Vice-President(s).
- Within three (3) weeks of the return date:
- Ensure that the participant(s) collect information and collaborate to complete the online Trip Assessment form;
After verifying proper form completion, ensure that the assessment meets the approval of the structure/organization's leadership; and
- Notify the CROP Program Administrators when the form is approved internally.
Stakeholder Engagement Vice-Presidents
- Review each Trip Proposal to ensure that it is congruent with and supportive of applicable regional strategies, plans, goals, and objectives.
- Communicate concurrence to the applicable CROP Program Coordinator (PC) and CROP Program Administrator so that the Trip Proposal's "Confirmation Section" can be updated.
- Collaborate with community representatives and support planning and coordination of outreach activities as applicable based on Trip Proposal requirements.
Contact Information
To find the names of CROP personnels, see CROP Contacts
- If you need specific assistance not found above or elsewhere, send an email to the ICANN Program Administratorsa community structure is strictly not permitted.