Program’s key deliverables
1) Travel Allocations:
- Five (5) individual trips are approved for the following ICANN structures:
- At-Large RALOs including: African, Asian-Australian-Pacific Islands, European, Latin American and Caribbean Islands, and North America.
- GNSO Constituencies1 including: Business, Intellectual Property, Internet Services Provider, Non-Commercial Users, and Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns.
2) Funded Costs/Expenses: includes transportation (economy), lodging, and $50 USD per diem (3 days, 2 nights standard).
3) Booking: all travel booked via ICANN BCD to ensure consistency, proper accounting, recordation, and tracking against budget.
Program Guidelines:
It is important to understand that ICANN's intention with this pilot program is to fund individual trips to specific events for the purposes of conducting outreach. No money is being granted or allocated to any structure or organization, only a fixed number trips within the 2014 fiscal year. The following rules will apply for the duration of this pilot:
- Any single outreach event may be attended by multiple persons; however, each one is considered an individual trip each requiring a separate Travel Request Form.
- If an approved trip is voided or cancelled for some unanticipated and extraordinary reason, a new Travel Request will be issued to the affected organization.
- Travel may not be booked individually or through the event organizers; ICANN's internal travel department will ensure that financial outlays are optimized to the maximum extent possible.
- For this pilot program, it will not be possible to support trip "compounding" or "splitting" of expenses or any other strategy with a goal of increasing the number of trips assigned to an organization. While ICANN appreciates all reasonable efforts on the part of participants to minimize expenses, each individual trip stands on its own and requires separate authorization and tracking.
- All trips must be completed before the end of ICANN's 2014 fiscal year, that is, the participant must have returned to his/her originating destination on or before 30 June 2014. If the program is continued in a succeeding year, at ICANN's discretion, any pilot trip allocated but not taken will not carry over.
- Each organization is responsible for appointing 1-2 Pilot Program Coordinators whose responsibility will be:
- Facilitate and manage travel pre-approvals within the organization and region, if applicable.
- Once approvals have been obtained, complete the online Wiki Travel Request Form for subsequent processing on behalf of each traveler to the event/conference.
- Ensuring that an alternate is identified for each traveler in the event that some unanticipated condition prevents the originally identified person from completing the trip.
Program overview
1) Efficient, Effective, and Timely Process (see Travel Pilot Processing Flow Diagram):
- A streamlined process and template for completing Travel Requests via ICANN Wiki, including documented workflow, timelines and deadlines, to ensure timely trip planning and approvals2
- Straightforward, documented, and uncomplicated approval process
- Primary and back up ICANN Staff contacts (admin and technical)
- A template for completing a Trip Assessment via ICANN Wiki at the conclusion of the event (Note: Assessments should focus on the benefits to the Community, the Region, and ICANN through participation including specific follow-up actions).
- Coordination of each travel request through:
- Traveler’s organization or structure
- Regional Vice-President Strategies and/or ICANN mission
- Travel booking through ICANN
2) Evaluation Criteria: For each proposed trip:
- It must be pre-approved within the traveler’s organization/structure, including coordination within the applicable region (where applicable), before an online Trip Request is filed with ICANN.
- It must originate and conclude within the same region and should, wherever practicable, be taken by someone working in or proximate to that territory.
- Its purpose/goal is consistent with any established regional engagement strategy, where applicable, and/or ICANN's overall mission.
- It is not duplicative of any other scheduled ICANN event with a similar purpose/outcome.
- The proposed outreach participant agrees to the terms and conditions of the pilot program, including:
- Travel arrangements are made only by ICANN Staff consistent with the published ICANN Travel Guidelines, that is, self-booking is not permitted for this program.
- Agreement to providing an accurate and complete post-trip meeting assessment (Trip Assessment) within three weeks of the return date.
3) Transparency:
Information concerning the management and administration of this program will be made publicly available including:
- Applications (completed and accessible via ICANN Community Wiki)
- Completed and accessible via ICANN Community Wiki
- Identifies outreach participants, events, dates, purposes, proposed outcomes, et al.
- Approval Process:
- Occurs within each organization or structure
- Coordinated with the applicable Regional Vice-President for strategy congruence (if applicable)
The primary role of ICANN's Program Administrators (Staff) will be to:
- Confirm that all applications meet the guidelines/criteria and have been properly authorized by the applicable organization;
- Coordinate with other ICANN departments (e.g., Communications, Meeting Planning) as needed; and
- Monitor the pilot implementation and, as needed, provide guidance and interpretation to the community consistent with the principles,
- Manage, track, and report the program's status as requested by ICANN management and/or community leaders.
- Trip Assessments:
- Completed and accessible via Community Wiki
- Includes actual travel dates, accomplished goals/objectives, achieved outcomes, both strategic and tactical
1 This program does not apply to ICANN contracted parties.
2 Due to the coordination, planning, and approvals required, last minute trips cannot be honored.
