At-Large RALO and GNSO Constituency Leaders:
We are pleased to report that the Community Regional Outreach Program (CROP)-FY18 Home (CROP) Wiki space is now built out, open and ready for your plans and transaction entries.
The Community Regional Outreach Pilot Program (CROPP) has been in place since FY14 - for three and one half fiscal years as a pilot program. In its various pilot phases, the CROPP showed steady growth in community interest and usage for eligible communities. Required community activity reports depicted innovative uses of the program by eligible pilot communities that employed annual outreach and engagement strategies. Following another successful implementation of the CROPP in FY17, the “pilot” program label has been removed and the activity has been moved to the Policy Development Support budget as part of the core activities to be coordinated by that staff in collaboration with the GSE team.
After testing a pilot outreach event capability in FY17, the CROP program will revert to focusing on regional travel for all eligible communities, rather than outreach events. All communities will be able to target five individual regional trips for FY18. GNSO Constituencies will have the option of targeting one out of region trip to maximize outreach opportunities in addition to four individual regional trips for FY18.
FY18 Enhancements & Highlights
- CROP - Core Activity
The pilot program label has been removed, and the CROP program has been moved to the Policy Development Support Team's core activities, coordinated by that staff in collaboration with the Global Stakeholder Engagement Team.
2. Funded Trips Augmented by 1 Full Day
Responding to community requests, all standard FY18 funded outreach trips available to RALOs and Constituencies participating in this aspect of the program will be extended to 4-days and 3-nights.
2. Expanded Options for GNSO Constituencies
CROP options have been reconfigured for GNSO Constituencies to offer additional flexibility in reaching strategic outreach goals, based on community input and on FY18 SO/AC Special Budget Requests for outreach.
For FY18, each GNSO Constituency will be able to choose either:
Four (4) individual CROP travel allocations; or
To host, co-host, or sponsor up to two (2) targeted community outreach/engagement events during the fiscal year (US $7,500 funding limit for each event); or
To host, co-host, or sponsor one (1) targeted community outreach/engagement event during the fiscal year (US $7,500 funding limit) plus two (2) individual CROP travel authorizations.
Each GNSO Constituency will make a selection from the above alternatives within its Outreach Strategic Plan document (available on the Wiki site).
Outreach engagement events may include, and are not limited to: travel allocations for speakers/organizers (maximum of one out of region funded traveler per outreach event), booth, communications materials, catering/receptions, remote participation, etc. Details are to be submitted in the draft event proposal including agendas and all elements for which resources will be required. These changes will allow us to test whether the expanded options provide practical value to the community strategies and programs.
3. Wiki Site Improvements
- For those eager to get started, the CROP-FY18 Home page has been redesigned to include a brief orientation, basic form completion instructions, and site navigation aids.
- The CROP Procedures & Guidelines page has also been redesigned with a table of contents to bookmarked content.
- The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) has been updated to include additional questions and answers.
- The CROP Processing Flow Diagram has been updated to reflect program changes.
We invite you to browse through the CROP-FY18 Home and through the CROP Procedures & Guidelines page and email us (crop-staff@icann.org) with any of your thoughts, comments or questions on specific aspects of the FY18 program. Provisions have also been made to capture your input on our Feedback page. Your continued feedback now and throughout the course of the program will help us identify further areas of improvement, flag issues we may not have anticipated, and demonstrate that this type of program can continue to meet its goals and objectives.
We are looking forward to collaborating with all of you over this fiscal year! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (benedetta.rossi@icann.org) regarding GNSO CROP-related matters, and to Janice Douma Lange (janice.lange@icann.org) for At-Large CROP-related matters for FY18.
Kind regards from your extended CROP Team:
Benedetta Rossi, Janice Douma Lange, Robert Hoggarth, Ariel Liang, and Ozan Sahin.
For a complete list of individuals who have CROP duties, please see our CROP Contacts page.
Benedetta Rossi | Policy & Community Engagement Analyst
benedetta.rossi@icann.org | +33.610.38.27.02
ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
