Comment/Reply Periods (*) | Important Information Links |
Comment Open: | 1 May 2012 |
Comment Close: | 24 May 2012 |
Close Time (UTC): | 23:59 UTC |
Reply Open: | 25 May 2012 |
Reply Close: | 15 June 2012 |
Close Time (UTC): | 23:59 UTC |
Brief Overview |
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Originating Organization: | ICANN Finance |
Categories/Tags: |
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Purpose (Brief): | ICANN is now opening a public comment forum for the draft Operating Plan and Budget for fiscal year 2013[PDF, 3.28 MB]. Community members are kindly asked to provide feedback on the various aspects of the proposed budget and implementation of ICANN resources for the coming fiscal year, including operational growth tied to carry-over and new projects and the core functions of ICANN. |
Current Status: | The Framework of the FY13 Budget was posted on 17 January 2012 for community feedback through online public comment and during sessions held in Costa Rica this past March. The comments received and the summary analysis, and proposed responses to those comments, can be found here:http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/op-budget-fy2013-17jan12-en.htm. This FY13 draft Operating Plan and Budget has incorporated the previous public comments, as well as input from ICANNStaff and Board. |
Next Steps: | The FY13 draft Operating Plan and Budget will be modified as a result of feedback from the community,ICANN's staff and Board during this comment period, and will be presented to the ICANN Board for final approval at ICANN 44 in Prague, 24-29 June 2012. |
Staff Contact: | Xavier Calvez, CFO |
Email: | |
Detailed Information |
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Section I: Description, Explanation, and Purpose | The budget process and its outcome formalized in this document aims at establishing a detailed, documented description of the operational activities of the coming fiscal year and their financial impacts. The budget needs to be built with sufficient details to allow an adequate monitoring of activities during the year, while understanding the flexibility that is required to handle a reality that is always different than what was anticipated. Consistent with our multi-stakeholder model, this budget is the result of input fromICANN constituency groups, stakeholders, the Board of Directors and the ICANN Staff. The involvement of the various ICANNstakeholders in the operating plan and budget building process is a corner stone to the success of the multi-stakeholder model. |
Section II: Background | The Framework for the FY13 Operating Plan and Budget was posted 17 January 2012 for initial input into the FY13 Budget planning process. Community consultations were held via webinars and face to face meetings in Costa Rica, March 2012. |
Section III: Document and Resource Links | |
Section IV: Additional Information | None |
1st Draft Statement on Wiki page: 24-May-2012
Call for Comments: 24-May-2012 (both to ALAC & to Finance & Budget sub-committee)
Call for comments closing time: 31-May-2012
2nd Draft (final) Statement to be designed: 31-May-2012 until 4-June-2012.
ALAC Vote starts: 5-June-2012
Vote reminder on: 8-June-2012
ALAC Vote ends: 11-June-2012
Statement to be submitted: 4-June-2012
ALAC Statement on the draft FY13 Operational Plan and Budget
(First draft)
The ALAC recognizes the continuous improvement in the Operating Plan and Budget establishment with more consultation with the community and a new evaluation model for the community additional request for funding.
The ALAC further recognizes that the level of detail in the budget presentation is now enhanced, and the explanations given allow its deep analysis and discussion. The separation of the stakeholder projects from the new gTLD readiness, the policy support, the community support and the global engagement activities represents one example of the so-called enhancement.
Regarding the IDN program, the ALAC find it important to make use as much as possible of the community members’ expertise that brings the linguistic source knowledge, which would minimize hiring external experts. The variant studies done by the 6 voluntary community member groups showed how useful the contribution of the community members can be. Besides, it may decrease drastically the program cost.
The ALAC believes that being part of the new gTLD application process, the TAS, the Digital Archery and the other system security of the new gTLD shouldn’t be counted in the core operation and project component of the budget, but in the new gTLD budget.
The ALAC welcomes the improvement in the interaction with the constituencies regarding the community additional requests. Nevertheless, the rejection of the projects planned in a non-ICANN event seems to be arbitrary, and yet, it could be considered as an outreach and communication operation since it would showcase the ICANN community work in the Internet ecosystem.
The ALAC notices with great satisfaction that ICANN will participate in the upcoming IGF differently, making use of its community initiatives. The coordination between ICANN management and the concerned constituencies for the preparation of the ICANN participation in such an event seems to the ALAC of great importance. The community workshops during the IGF, as substantive contribution gives to ICANN a significant visibility that has a great impact on its image.
Building on the successful experiences of AFRALO and LACRALO capacity building programs held in Dakar and San José respectively, the planned programs for Toronto and Asia Pacific (TBD) in FY 2013 show the receptivity and reactivity of the ICANN management to those fruitful activities lead by the At-Large community. ALAC expresses its satisfaction and its commitment to make the budgeted programs successful and fruitful for the community and for ICANN as well.
On the other hand, the ALAC finds it abnormal that the global revenue of the Ombudsman increases by more than 28% because of an additional administrative cost for renting an office and the associated expenses.
The ALAC reiterates its concern about the huge disparity in the registry fees. They do not follow any rule and show an arbitrary way of charging the 18 existing gTLDs registries: some do not pay the fixed fees, others do not pay the per transaction fees, and the value of the fixed and the per transaction fees changes from a registry to another. We can notice that dot com does not pay the per transaction fees while the dot cat (community TLD) pays the per transaction fees at one of the highest rate ($ 1 per transaction) as well as the fixed fees.
Now that new gTLDs will be accredited, the ALAC does think that the community not for profit TLDs should be charged at a minimum rate while the rest of all TLDs should be charged uniformly according to well-defined rules
As for the ICANN offices, the ALAC notices that they are mainly located in North America. ALAC believes that if a Regional Office network is required to effectively serve a global community and the strategic objectives and activities of ICANN, then a plan for such (inclusive of a review of and rationalization for location and operation /staffing of existing offices and requirements such as outreach and the work of Global Partnership and the ACs and SOs), should be undertaken to ensure an effective, efficient, appropriate, regionally balanced and properly resourced and coasted global offices network and we assume supported by the ICANN community and stakeholders
1st Draft Statement on Wiki page: 24-May-2012 Call for Comments: 24-May-2012 (both to ALAC & to Finance & Budget sub-committee) Call for comments closing time: 31-May-2012 2nd Draft (final) Statement to be designed: 31-May-2012 until 4-June-2012. ALAC Vote starts: 5-June-2012 Vote reminder on: 8-June-2012 ALAC Vote ends: 11-June-2012 Statement to be submitted: 4-June-2012
