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Olivier Crepin-Leblond: So good morning, good afternoon and good evening everybody and welcome to the At-Large Advisory Committee Executive Committee conference call on the 22nd of December, 2011. The time is 15:05 UTC and we don't have a particularly packed agenda. I have a hard stop in exactly one hour so I think we'll go swiftly through the agenda. I have a few things to discuss. And first thing we'll have a quick roll call and apologies.
Gisella Gruber: Yes welcome everyone to today's call on Tuesday, 22nd of December. We have Olivier Crepin-Leblond, Rinalia Abdul Rahim, Tijani Ben Jemaa, Evan Leibovitch, Carlton Samuels, Cheryl Langdon-Orr. From staff we have Heidi Ullrich, Silvia Vivanco, and myself Gisella Gruber. No apologies noted. But also please to remind everyone to state their names when speaking for transcript purposes. Thank you, over to you Olivier.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you very much Gisella. It's great to see that we have a full house today. So we'll immediately go to the action items from the executive committee meeting of the 14th of November, 2011 meeting, that's last month. And well as per usual we'll only go through the number of them that are still open. So I would imagine let's see we have closed, I can invite you all to just look at open action items.
Such and there are the in progress long-term goals are ones which we will actually see in the ALAC action items and we'll move them also to long-term goals. But first the open action items, number 1, staff to update list of cross-constituency working groups on the ALAC wiki page. Ongoing in fact for those of you who were on the ALAC call two days ago same action item as this one so it is ongoing. You can go to number 2, Cheryl to manage winding up and archiving working groups to be closed. Matt to schedule time to work with Cheryl on this.
That's ongoing as well and in fact what I did say on the ALAC call yesterday, was it yesterday or the day before yesterday, it just feels like a long tunnel, a while ago let's say was that, the while being a few hours maybe that we're also, Matt is also working to getting the actual [inaudible 0:02:35] I think we'll all be happy about that. Number 3, Evan to follow up with [inaudible 0:02:42] on the sharing and the reprioritization of the At-Large Registrant Rights and Responsibilities Working Group.
Evan yesterday you said you were going to follow up. I know that we actually sent an email, Matt sent an email to Beau. I'm not sure whether, I certainly haven't received a copy of an answer. Have we had anything from Beau?
Evan Leibovitch: I did have an answer about a week ago that sort of said yeah alright I'll do it sort of in that tone. I mean it's an important issue. We need to get back involved. And so I mean if Beau doesn't step up we'll have to get somebody else but I mean as of right now the answer I have on the table is that he's interested in doing it but he hasn't moved it yet.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay thank you Evan. Matt you had sent, just keep reminding me that on Monday or Tuesday that you sent a note to Beau?
Heidi Ullrich: Hi Olivier this is Heidi, Matt's not on the call yet. I believe that is the case and staff were CC'd and I've not seen any reply.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: No particular reply, okay thank you. I'm sorry I didn't note it that Matt wasn't there. Okay fantastic. Well not that fantastic, it would be better to have an answer but fantastic that we've actually followed up on this. So number 3 is ongoing. Number 4, Alan to send a message to Xavier Calvez regarding the pooling of budgets for the [inaudible 0:04:15] events.
He's done that fantastic message, thank you very much Alan and this can be marked as being done. Number 5, Olivier to follow up with ASO chair Louie Lee on further cross-constituency work. I have sent Louie an email. I have not had a reply from him. Let's keep this as ongoing. I will follow up on that. Number 6, staff to work with Cheryl in preparation of the rules of procedure working group. There is going to be a call for membership as was mentioned on the ALAC call. That's going to start in January. Is that correct? And I see Heidi has raised her hand.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: That's correct.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: It's correct says Cheryl but Heidi you wish to add something.
Heidi Ullrich: Just to let everyone know that Silvia Vivanco given her legal background will be assisting Cheryl with that working group and she stands ready, Cheryl whenever you wish to do the call for membership, etc. I mean we actually already announced it on the [inaudible 0:05:22] call this past week. As this is an ALAC action item I believe [inaudible 0:05:29]. Yeah, so we've already done that.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Yes.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Perfect so.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: [Inaudible 0:05:36].
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay thank you Cheryl.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: [inaudible 0:05:43].
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: May I just ask if there was [inaudible 0:05:50] for membership?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: [inaudible 0:05:54] till January.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Ah okay.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: It's a formal [inaudible 0:05:57] till January but they need to start, every one of these regional meetings needs to have it on the agenda so people are prepped and ready.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay so then Cheryl we can leave this as being ongoing I guess so we'll review it in January.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: [inaudible 0:06:16].
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Number 7, Olivier to ask the regions for input on the framework of interpretation working group interim report. There was, a question was sent out, we didn't get anything back. I don't believe that we've actually written anything as a result. Cheryl.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: [inaudible 0:06:39] off the transcript record. I have in fact received an email from Beau saying would I pass on something but not to the [inaudible 0:06:48] in my capacity as liaison there but the SLI workgroup I responded saying send me a clean copy of whatever it is you wish to send because the only copy I have was the [inaudible 0:07:04] call draft or discussion and I will ensure that it gets to the SLI workgroup and the leadership team thereof. I yet to have that supplied to me but when I get that I will do as is necessary with it in terms of passing it on.
Just to point out again that we are just closing or about to close the end of this month the public comment from the SLI workgroup on the term consent, just term consent, and in the January period a new public comment will start for significantly interested parties. So each one of these terminologies are going to be worked on separately and there will be public comments for every single terminology that is dealt with. So we've moved on to the next one but the rest of the world will be waiting for public comments for significantly interested parties and they'll run probably 45 days or so in January. Thank you.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you very much for this update Cheryl. And so 7 can be marked as being done. Number 8, Olivier to write to Steve Crocker, chair of the ICANN board starting discussions for templates for statement and share reports. That I have not done yet I must admit although I did have tea with Steve a few weeks ago. There were more [inaudible 0:08:41]. Number 9, Olivier helped by At-Large staff to email new ALAC members and ask that they repopulate the working groups, a standing requirement for new members. And on this I'm glad to say that several members are now populating the groups.
We haven't done an audit of who of the ALAC members is not populated any group yet. Perhaps could I ask staff to if they can when they have time because I know bandwidth is of particular concern at the moment but perhaps something that could be done in there, actually will staff be manning ICANN between the Christmas and New Year period or is everyone on holiday?
Heidi Ullrich: Well everyone is officially on holiday but we will be monitoring emails I suppose.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: [inaudible 0:09:46].
Heidi Ullrich: But also I do note that there is the ‘thick’ WHOIS that is due on the 30th so I'm sure Matt will need to follow up with that.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay thank you Heidi. I was asking this question because I didn't want to lumber some more work such as going through the various lists and finding out what ALAC members are not actually populating working groups at the moment and then chasing them up. But this I guess could probably be done in January when we're all back and the New Year has started. Cheryl you've put your hand up?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Yes I have thank you. I think this is to some extent almost part of the January/February work on the wiki's that Matt will be doing and is not [inaudible 0:10:35] wrap-up work as well as the reorganizational work. In the wrap-up work we've developed a template which still needs a bit of tweaking but that template in itself has a more effective and efficient way of listing members past and current and of course linked to each of those names will be the new bios. So there's a whole lot threads coming together. I continue on it but I wouldn't push for a shortened date that's all.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay, thank you Cheryl. And so we'll move to the next section item number 10, Olivier to write to the chair of the new gTLD and [inaudible 0:11:26] working group regarding [inaudible 0:11:28] request for a JAS implementation follow up. That's been done. In fact there's been a lot of progress on this and we will probably be speaking about this a little bit later in our call if I can check our agenda quickly. Yeah we'll do a follow up from the [inaudible 0:11:49] meeting of the 20th of December and we'll have a quick discussion on this.
And then the newly assigned action items, there are three of them; improvements task force members to create a glossary of commonly used nomenclature, Louie Lee to be consulted, that's of course an improvement task force item. That will have to be just passed on to the improvements task force. I don't think it should remain in the ALAC action items. Then Alan Greenberg to lead a small group including the whole executive committee to produce a response to the JAS implementation proposal.
In fact response was led by the chair of the new gTLD At-Large work group and that was [inaudible 0:12:38] and the response was sent. And that's of course related to the writing to the chair of the new gTLD At-Large working group. And then Olivier to write to Beau Brendler and ask him to follow up on the issue of registrant rights to get this issue to move forward and to place it within [inaudible 0:12:59] IRA reports as we've heard earlier that's ongoing. I now invite you all if there are no comments about these action items I invite you to look at the 20th of December ALAC action items.
And so here we will again look at the open action items and may I ask that a number of them will actually be moved to the long-term open action items such as well staff to update list of cross-constituency working group such as Cheryl to manage winding up and archiving working groups to be closed. Well I hope that go to chair and repopulate the At-Large registrant rights and responsibilities working group is not going to be an ongoing long-term action item.
Hopefully that will be short-term. [Inaudible 0:13:56] to synchronize At-Large's calendar of events with global partnerships calendar. Perhaps that can be said as being in progress and a long-term thing as well. ALAC to try to develop specific long-term strategic plan for outreach. Well that actually has the word long-term strategic plan and this again is a long-term item that can be moved to long-term. In fact we have in the other, on the other, on the ex-com action items.
And then At-Large staff we're looking at number 6, At-Large staff to conduct a vote on the SOI and COI question. Question to be do you agree that ALAC members, ex-com members, regional leadership and liaisons should have an SOI publish on the ICANN website. Any comments on this? I believe that Gisella has put on the chat that staff is preparing that vote regarding action item number 6. Now newly assigned action items at the bottom of the page. Staff to set up a call on the new gTLD statement proposed by Evan Leibovitch. [Inaudible 0:15:09] is to be sent after the 1st of January, 2012 I think probably because 2011 has already past.
The intent of having the call the second week of January, staff could change 2011 to 2012 that would be great. Matt Ashtiani to conduct a vote on the JIG workgroup motion by the 27th of December, 2011. Heidi any update on this?
Heidi Ullrich: I'm sorry could you please repeat that?
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Newly assigned action items number 2 Matt Ashtiani to conduct a vote on the JIG workgroup motion by the 27th of December, 2011.
Heidi Ullrich: Matt you're on the call now correct?
Matt Ashtiani: Yeah the vote [inaudible 0:16:02].
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Perfect, thank you. And finally staff to send Olivier a [inaudible 0:16:13] of the ALAC statement on the preliminary support implementation program. Olivier to forward the statement along with a note to current and other relevant recipients and that was done. And in fact that is an answer to our earlier question that we had or earlier action item that we had on the ex-com action items. The follow up on the joint applicant support implementation, so for the record what's happened is [inaudible 0:16:45] chair of the gTLD working group worked with the, sorry the ALAC At-Large new gTLD working group worked with the members of the working group to produce a statement on the preliminary support implementation program.
That landed on my desk and a vote was conducted during the ALAC call and the statement was ratified, the statement was therefore sent by me to [inaudible 0:17:15] so [inaudible 0:17:17] but also to Steve Crocker, a copy to Sebastian Bachollet a copy to Chris Dispain who is the chair of the working group on the board that is dealing specifically with the support program and a copy also to staff. I hope I haven't missed anyone in there.
Okay and comment on these otherwise we can move on to the next parts of our call which is the parts about items for discussion and decision and there we have the open policy issues which we did discuss on the ALAC call to quite an extent and I'm actually quite pleased we've made much progress on. Some of them have already passed. The first one and first [inaudible 0:18:14] that's interesting three age shows us three different locations. Let's look at B first then. Three B [inaudible 0:18:22] one and two character allocation proposal [inaudible 0:18:26].
That one we had a statement that was written by Rinalia, thank you very much Rinalia. It was voted on. I believe it's adopted so that's gone well. The next one, the At-Large geographic regions review, a statement was written drafted by Tijani Ben Jemaa and currently it's out for, the ALAC is currently voting. Third one At-Large preliminary issue report on ‘thick’ WHOIS workspace and so there's been a lot of discussion going on the list actually but we had to have an actual official comment period so that's open until the 30th of December. Is that correct?
Heidi Ullrich: Yes that's correct the 30th is the deadline.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay thank you Heidi. Wow I'm surprised, I thought it was not that long. I thought it was until the 25th or 26th and then we had a vote taking place until the 30th. [Inaudible 0:19:44].
Heidi Ullrich: Sorry, that's what I thought you said, sorry. I think the 27th is the comment period for the end of the comment period for this.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay thank you. Which just proves I'm just not only dumbly reading the agenda I'm actually trying to think of what this actually means at some point. The preliminary GNSO issue reports of the registrar of accreditation agreement amendment workspace, the RAA and Carlton has very kindly after much debate and discussion already going on on the ALAC call Carlton has said he will take a stab with other people to prepare a draft statement. Have you already started on this Carlton?
Carlton Samuels: Yes sir, I have actually starting writing the statement. I started a couple of days ago but looking and seeing actually what I should add. I don’t think we should write a long extensive statement so I’m trying to distill these issues so that we can get at least minimum two pages, maximum two pages rather.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay thank you, Carlton. And may I just remind everyone – or in fact remind you and perhaps staff could help on this – to link up to our previous statements because we have made pre-statements on this specific subject. I was in my bedtime reading when I go to bed bored, reading some of the previous statements that we had released and that was quite well. It sort of made a number of points already in the past.
Carlton Samuels: Yeah, that is a fabulous thing. We’ve made a lot of these statements so my approach is not to rouse the rubble but to affirm and then if there’s anything new, especially in what we think were points, anything that is left out of them, then we might have something to say. But that’s the approach I’m taking and that’s why I’m reviewing the statements.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay thank you, Carlton. And I’ll ask staff then to just have a link on that wiki page to the earlier statements that we’ve made. It would be helpful not only for you but for everyone reading that page once the statement is put on there. Now there are a number of comments that were not in our agenda, a number of open public comments that were not listed. I’ve opened the public comments page and as you will notice, for example, the intra-registrar transfer policy part C, policy development process is one where we did not end up having something written – lack of bandwidth and certainly quite a technical field.
Same thing as well with the Intra-Registrar Policy Part B recommendations 8 and 9 part 2, staff proposals, again it becomes a little technical and we just didn’t have the bandwidth to write anything about this. And then finally we have a public comment – well I think we’ve done all the others besides B.
Carlton Samuels: We didn’t have anything to say.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: And that’s probably another reason. Okay, thank you Carlton. So we can now move to the next part of our agenda and that is – if I can switch to the right place – that’s the financial year ’13 budget request and ALAC Finance and Budget Subcommittee next steps. I just wanted to bring you up-to-date about the call that the finance and budget subcommittee had yesterday maybe or the day before yesterday. I lose track of time at the moment. There was a call that took place. We have received a letter from Xavier Calvez, the new ICANN Chief Financial Officer, that was sent to us quite recently in fact.
If I can have the – my thing opens up. Here we go. It was sent on the 5th of December and we were told in that letter that the process actually asks for actual requests for the SO and AC Requests that we had much more time to deal with last year. This year the forms must all be complete and sent to him by the 20th of January 2012, which really puts us in an even harder position bearing in mind that for the Christian and Jewish world this is a place of festive time. For most of Asia January is also a place of festive time. It’s just the wrong time to ask people to work overtime and it’s a very, very short time indeed.
So I see several people having put their hand up. The discussion that we had, just let me bring you up to date on what’s happened at the Finance and Budget subcommittee, we looked at the template, we said okay two things we have to do. One, we have to repopulate part of the subcommittee with ALAC members from the regions that do not currently have an ALAC member on the committee. And then we also have to find out if we have any additional skills that we can tap from in the at-large membership actually, not on the ALAC but also on the region. And on top of that we have to send out a request for the regions to come up with their AC Requests, their regional requests on projects and so on.
What we also have to do is tell everyone that the subcommittee will actually do more work than last year and not only concatenating the requests together but also filtering some of the requests that are incompatible with either the schedule of ICANN meetings, the request has to do with face-to-face meetings and so on. And also if the request does not fit directly with a strategic plan or strategy that we have to pursue.
I see everyone’s pretty much put their hands up now and I’ll take every person’s question and suggestion in order that I received them. So Tijani, Evan and then Carlton. First Tijani.
Tijani Ben Jemaa: Thank you Olivier. I didn’t see the link to the [Inaudible 0:26:59] asking them to express their additional requests because every day is of very high importance since the [Inaudible 0:27:11]. Second point, I’m not feel [Inaudible 0:27:16]. We’ll keep all the requests and we can submit them as they are. We fear there will be a lot larger requests so unless we combine all of them and we try to avoid any replication and any consistency in the requests. That’s all.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you, Tijani, and I note that Heidi has mentioned in the chat that the note will be sent shortly. The staff is currently putting it together. Evan?
Evan Leibovitch: Hi there, this is Evan for the record. At the risk of soundly slightly trite I would just make the comment that although we have a very compressed timeline we also have the added advantage of being able to simple repopulate most of it from last year. So because so little was approved last year and because it’s likely that the RALO [ph] priorities have probably not substantially changed. We already a whole bunch of worthwhile projects ready to submit that have already been done, have already been approved by the RALOs as being significant and necessary and have previously been turned down by ICANN. So although we have a compressed timeline we already have a ready-made list of submissions.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you very much Evan and that was actually echoed during the Finance and Budget subcommittee call. But at the same time, you do have to bear in mind the template has changed – oh yes, it has – which is true of usually all administrations and bureaucratic processes. The template looks better this year than it did last year. It’s got more questions.
But on the other hand, one thing that we had, one concern we had was that because so many requests were not fulfilled last year we are hoping that the regions did not feel – losing the interest in doing this, being so disappointed that they say we’re not going to even bother this year around. Hopefully not but that, as you said, if requests can be taken from last year and transferred to next year then it might be okay. Carlton?
Carlton Samuels: Thank you, Olivier. Well you said pretty much what I wanted to say. The template has changed but the content for most of the regions would not have changed since most of what they had proposed was never acted on. What is more important, and this is something that I want to emphasize, is that ALAC must send one budget request up to the finance people. It has to be a consolidated request, which is in fact a comprehensive ALAC view, which wouldn’t be wonderful but I hope that we are taking that approach. That said, there is a real disinterest – at least I detected in this area – with this budget process.
I know Devin’s been trying very hard to get something going and it’s probably because of the responses to the budget requests that have been made over the years. So it might be useful to just point out to people that it would be important to send one, it requires you to keep faith and put back the same content using the new format, and let us move on with that.
Finally, I am always amazed how I can expect volunteers to work around the clock. It’s amazing that they never make any kind of admission that there are holidays and there are festivals and so on for volunteers. They always want to have these things done in so much time that they don’t think of all of these actual things that occur that will take peoples’ time. It really is quite grating on me now. Thank you.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you very much, Carlton, and it’s widely known that ICANN staff are workaholics and ICANN volunteers are psychotics. There you go.
Carlton Samuels: You got a good one in.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: So coming back to this budget workspace, there’s a couple more things that I need to advise you about. The first is that the Chief Financial Officer has mentioned that an additional requests envelope will be included in the framework for half a million dollars, so that half a million is supposed to cover all of the additional requests. That’s the first thing.
The other thing is that we’ve been asked to prioritize – we as the ALAC and in this respect the Finance and Budget subcommittee of the ALAC – we’ll need to prioritize three projects as being as among all of the projects that we send, which ones are the three that we are most after, that we’re so interested in, the priority ones. The other thing that I need to mention is that, having been also on that call, is the ICANN Academy proposal which will also fall under the financial year ’12.
The question that is currently being asked is whether the ICANN Academy will fall under the ALAC budget envelope for additional requests or whether that will fall outside. I have not had an answer on this yet. So if anyone has an answer, if staff has an answer, could they please tell me because I’m not quite sure? What I will try to play it as is the ICANN Academy, the way that it’s being structured and worked on at the moment, is something that will likely benefit not only at-large but actually all of ICANN. So I would suggest that we submit our three requests – not three request sorry – we submit all of our requests but do not take the ICANN Academy into the 1-2-3 placings. Keep that aside and argue for it to be an entirely separate request from our own requests for at-large.
Any questions? My screen has had people putting their hands up and hands down. It looks like a disco at the moment. Anyone actually ready to stop dancing the Macarena and ask a question? Heidi, please.
Heidi Ullrich: Yeah, just on that point, as you said it might be useful to either ask for it to be an ICANN budget item or the idea of having a joint AC-SO request, which might be 3.2 or something, 2.3, in terms of those requests. So at-large would do three requests but a third while the GNSO would do three and a third. That might be a possibility.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay, we could do that. The only concern I have is starting to speak to other SOs and ACs and do joint requests sounds to me as though it’s going to be an absolute struggle. I would keep it as simple as possible. We’ll do our requests and do this additional one on the side and treat that as a special track. Certainly when I was in Dakar and saw the ICANN finance presentation there was a big box on the screen that actually spanned all of the SOs and ACs and was marked ‘special projects.’ I certainly believe that the ICANN Academy is becoming a special project. Cheryl, you have your hand up.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Thank you Olivier. Cheryl for the [Inaudible 0:36:09] and I was one of those doing the up and down hands. It seems that what I was going to ask or comment on you were covering. The thing that still remains in my mind here is the ability to have someone from the ICANN finance team meet with the Budget and Finance subcommittee just prior to the launch date by teleconference just so we can choose a set, so to speak, on some of these nuances. I think it’s really important that what we intend as to be understood is actually being understood by those that are receiving it.
The other thing that absolutely might be worth noting when you’re talking about cross component or cross constituency special projects is the fifteen or so long standing view on most things budget which is less should be spent across the board on everything and we need to remember that. Their response to most budget is covered.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay, we’ll keep note of this. Thank you Cheryl. Any other? I see no one else, okay.
Heidi Ullrich: This is Heidi again, sorry.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Yeah, Heidi please.
Heidi Ullrich: Just I believe an actual item from the subcommittee on Finance and Budget was that there would be a call with Juan and Xavier the week of the 9th to just review the new approach and then Cheryl having one. Yeah, and then maybe having another one right prior to the 20th or the date would be another way to go.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: A number of discussions took place of course. The horror of the fact that we were looking at the 20th as a target date was the first thing that raised quite a few eyebrows and the question was whether it was possible to delay that date and get an extension on this. The consensus was that we will cross that bridge when we have to cross that bridge. So we’ll push it until next year.
So the next thing was whether it was possible to engage in a dialogue earlier than just reaching the 20th and sending our things along. Certainly Ganesh was particularly surprised about the way processes worked and said that in each one of the organizations he has worked with in the past the discussion started when the project was being put together, at an earlier stage, so to really find out and gage a better idea of what can be done and what cannot be done. Certainly the issue of having people work a lot on something and then just having the door closed on them is something which can happen once, twice, but the third time around you’re not going to get anyone. Evan?
Evan Leibovitch: Hi there. At the risk of asking something that has probably been asked multiple times, including in the working group, is there any conversation ongoing with the ICANN staff about the idea of anticipating summit funding and whether or not that still has to be designated in a single big spend in one year, whether they would consider putting some money aside towards a future event and lowering the financial pain of designating all the money in one year?
There is an interest in having a second summit and there’s some lessons learned from the pain we went through in trying to make the first one work. Part of that is that the spend in doing it is so great for a single budgetary year that we want to find out how we reduce those obstacles. Like I said, I apologize if this conversation has already happened with them, but has there been any resolution of it in a way that would make the summit more palatable, or something that we can actually start a real planning process?
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you Evan, and in fact, I see Cheryl has put the actual answer on this on the chat. Yes, the multi-year budget is actually part of the plan said Xavier Calvez, when I met with him with a number of other people in that Dakar. It's just not ready yet. They just haven't---he's just taken on his position. He understands that there is a need for this, and I think part of their understanding is that we have said it a number of times now, and so they just need to get their house in order, so as to be able to allow for something like this to happen.
Fortunately, this year, it's a little premature, but then again, I don't think that we are asking for a general assembly for 2012---sorry, FY13, so…
Evan Leibovitch: Understood, Olivier, I'm just asking whether or not then, we're not even looking at the idea of a multi-year plan until next fiscal year, or at least they thinking about it in consideration of this year?
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: They're thinking about it not for this year, it will probably be the year after. They will not be ready by this year for it to happen. And I understand it's not only an issue of them not wanting to do it, it's more of an issue of them not being ready for it. Their accounting systems don't work like this either, so there is certainly some kind of structural changes that seems to be done, at least that's what I've been told. Cheryl?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: I think not only in---sorry, I didn't…
Evan Leibovitch: Well, I was just going to ask about the practical ramifications of that. So what that means to us, really, is there's no way that we're going to even anticipate being able to think about a summit before 2014.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: [Inaudible 00:42:22] your screen in slices.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Financially year 2014 or 2015. Cheryl.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: I think this is the backing which you've just seen playing for [Inaudible 00:42:37] for their systems and sales will be changing to even be able to deal with a multi-year market, but there's also our thought, some limitations to do with the way, not for profit organization registers in California, has to run its recording and budget so there's some sort of exceptions or tweaking or whatever it is. There's something actually around the edges of the organization that has to be dealt with as well.
Nothing is insurmountable, and it is certainly my understanding having [Inaudible 00:43:14] this through no less than three different Chase financial offices now, is that [Inaudible 00:43:20] certainly has his mind set that [Inaudible 00:43:23] as a very good way forward, he's just got to get his ducks in a row.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you , Cheryl. And I think that we can then move on with just one take away, which is that we basically need to help the finance and budget subcommittee members in finding---in populating the group with a few more people. Certainly there was some confusion from members that used to be part of a committee, whether they were still part of the committee or not, and so we had a pretty low attendance during our recent call. That is unfortunate because in fact, we need more people on there, and it's not a case of having been a member and then being kicked out.
It's a case of yes, you still are a member unless you decide to resign for whatever reason, you wish to resign. The only thing that we do need to have is at least one ALAC member from every region, and right now, due to the circumstances of some members not being elect members anymore, there are some regions that are lacking this. So I ask you to look at the membership of that, and speak to your region and identify the ALAC member that will be on that committee please.
Okay, that's all for this subject, and we can now move on to the next one, which is review and follow-up of the, ALAC meeting of the 20th of December. That was two days ago. We have ten minutes for this, yes, and I'm not quite sure which part we wish to speak about most. The GAS implementation, I gave you a quick update a little earlier, so that doesn't need to be covered. The motion for GIG joint [Inaudible 00:45:20] CCNSO working group regarding single sector IDMTLVs that has actually been set as a statement and it's being voted on at the moment.
That's moot, so number nine, motion for updated ALAC statement on new gTLDs, yes, now that's an interesting one. The weight keepage [ph] has gone up. Evan, I understand, there's been a lot of changes to the motion and I think that it probably will have more changes. There certainly seems to have been a lot of discussion on that. Could you say just a couple of words?
Evan Leibovitch: No, you said it quite well. I would notice, though, that Cheryl's last comment actually attracted some spam, and I would ask staff just to check to see whether or not there is any kind of spam prevention features. Anyway, just to check.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: There isn't. You just have to manually go in and remove spam. It happens often. While ever comments are open, we get spam, and whoever owns the page needs to go in, needs to be obviously on an e-mail notice for any changes, and you've just got to get in there and clean it up. One comment, I vote to be closed. We can close page comments, and that's the only way we can stop the spam.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay. Thank you. So then the next one, the at large improvements task force next steps. Cheryl, do you have anything else to tell us from what you've told us two days ago?
Cheryl Langdon-Orr: Nope.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you. We can then move to the next one--the proposed ACNSOCU selection group. That's the 360 group of people that Marilyn, Kate and the business constituency have suggested. It's a very informal suggestion for the time being. She has circulated this among SO and AC chairs and asked if we could circulate it around. I have circulated it around at large, and I see that there have been a few comments on the at large workspace, the majority of which are done by people who are currently on-oh, no a few--done by people on this call.
I would just say if you can have a read through the document and just write a few words. What do you think about it? I will probably come back to Marilyn, Kate by early January and provide her with some feedback on her suggestions, and then the rest of the ALAC call were icons for information, including the financial year '13 budget requests. Well that we've already touched on. The rules of procedure working group. That we've already touched on in our action items.
The beginner's guide on participating in at large---anything else to add to this Heidi?
Heidi Ullrich: No, but I would--except that I will be sending Olivia and Charles just a few questions that Lynn and Seth and I are--need to have answers to.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay, I understand Seth is still [Inaudible 00:48:43] on that.
Heidi Ullrich: It's primarily actually now Lynn Lipinski in the communications department at this point.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thank you.
Heidi Ullrich: It's a very good draft already.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Sounds good. We're looking forward to it. It leaves something to look forward to. Then the point 15 RALO events update. The [Inaudible 00:49:10] of Costa Rica events, and yes, I do need to bring you up to date on this one. ALAC RALO, as you will all know, has sent me a proposal for a set of events to take place in Costa Rica. I have forwarded that over to Xavier Calvez recently at the beginning of the---no, at the end of last week, hoping that we would be able to have some kind of answer sometime this week. Heidi, has there been any indication as to whether we would have an indication of an answer, or not yet?
Heidi Ullrich: I know that there's a lot of internal discussion going on, but that's all I can say.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Okay. The request asks for funding in the region of $75,000 or $79,000, which is very similar to the [Inaudible 00:50:02] request. Of course, the complication comes from the fact that ALAC RALO had pooled its resources with [Inaudible 00:50:08] to offer those events, and it's a tough one. The only thing that comes in their favor, is the fact that because the AFRALO events were such a fantastic success, there certainly seems to have been a lot of warming up within ICANN to having such events take place because of the amount of positive feedback that has been received.
So, okay. So basically, apart from this--what else? Any comments on that Bev, or anyone? No? Okay, and then--oh, we're already on the any other business of the ALAC call, so is there any other follow-up from the ALAC meeting that anyone on this call wishes to bring forth to the table? The virtual table. I don't see very much movement, in which case, then, we will move over to any other business.
Ah ha, I see that everyone is typing away. Thank you. Right, well, with no other business, and this probably is going to be one of our shortest calls, we don't need to spend a full hour here. It's 1556 UTC. Thank you very much to everyone for attending, and well, because this is probably our last call of the year, have a great, great---all of you have a good holidays, for those who are able to take the holiday, but of course, don't forget, there's still plenty to read and plenty of documents to write. Have a good time, and well, thanks to everyone. This has been a real hard year, but hopefully next year it will get easier. And then again, pigs might fly, who knows.
Unknown: You are a very hopeful fellow, that's why I like you.
Olivier Crepin-Leblond: Thanks very much everyone. Just one thing, do not forget to vote. Do not forget to vote. There's one---a couple of more statements that still are up for voting, including one where the vote will start on the 27th, I believe, or has just started now, so don't forget to put in your votes. But thanks very much to all of you, and speak to you all soon. Bye bye.
