Dear At Large RALO and GNSO Constituency Leaders:

Following up on my recent 12 May email, I am pleased to report that the FY15 Community Regional Outreach Pilot Program (CROPP) Wiki Space is now open and ready for business. We look forward to partnering with you in delivering CROPP resources effectively to your communities in FY15. 

Overview

As was true last year, CROPP provides a framework in which each of the At-Large RALOs and GNSO Non-Contract Constituencies will be allocated 5 regional (3-day) outreach trips. The specific processes and guidelines for how these resources are to be made available are set forth on a redesigned CROPP Program Elements page.

Three key components of the FY15 program have not changed and include:

1)      Specific pre-trip approval standards flexibly administered by your community leadership and ICANN Stakeholder Engagement Vice-Presidents;

2)      Post-trip reviews and assessments; and

3)      An overall spirit of transparency by which all ICANN community members can observe the implementation of the program.

FY15 Improvements

Based upon community feedback and our learning from the initial pilot implementation, we have made the following improvements for FY15:

1)      Revised policies and procedures

• Support for certain fees that were not considered in FY14 (e.g., conference registration).
• A new decision-making protocol for requests that are outside of the defined program parameters. In FY15, if a proposal includes elements that are outside the program’s parameters, the designated Pilot Program Coordinator (PPC) will simply notify one of the Staff Program Administrators and request that the circumstances be reviewed. The Staff Program Administrators, Community Leaders, and the appropriate ICANN Stakeholder Engagement VP(s) will consider the situation and render advice on how to resolve the matter.
• Although not technically a program change, in FY15 CROPP travelers will be reimbursed for any Visa fees (up to $200 USD) consistent with the most current ICANN Travel Summary (see for example London Travel Summary - May 2014).

2)      New Community Workspaces

• Multiple DRAFT templates for both Trip Proposals and Trip Assessments may now be created and vetted by community leadership within the Wiki environment.
• Once a DRAFT Trip Proposal is approved by the organization's leadership, the PPC will notify a Staff Program Administrator. The proposal will then be transferred to an Official CROPP Forms location for continued processing and tracking.
• Templates have been redesigned to be more flexible and easier to complete.
• Forms can now be completed by anyone in each eligible ICANN structure (Note: Wiki login credentials are required). There is no longer a requirement that PPCs must enter information on behalf of trip proponents (although they may).

3)      Altered roles for the Pilot Program Coordinators (PPCs):

• In FY15 PPCs will supervise form completion, ensure process integrity, and communicate with Staff on behalf of each eligible ICANN community (see updated Process Flow Chart).

4)      New Translation Capability:

• The Community Wiki now has a global software-based translation feature, supported by the Microsoft Bing engine, which enables any of its pages to be rendered into one of 35 languages. (Note: These translations are computer-generated and, as such, may not be technically correct in all instances).

Briefing Opportunities

Since CROPP is being extended into FY15, we are not planning to organize any formal community introductory sessions. If any of you would like us to conduct an overview of the program (including the new Wiki implementation) by telephone or in-person at the upcoming ICANN Public Meeting in London please contact us via email and we will be pleased to accommodate such requests.

Please Confirm PPC Info

The current list of Pilot Program Coordinators can be found on the CROPP Contacts page. If any of these designations need to change for FY15, please let us know ASAP. Our working assumption is that the PPCs will continue in their roles unless otherwise amended. 

Your continued feedback now and throughout the course of the pilot program will help us identify areas of improvement, flag issues we may not have anticipated, and demonstrate that this type of program can meet its objectives and, perhaps, merit a longer-term budget commitment. We invite you to browse through the Wiki space and email us (at Robert.hoggarth@icann.org and Janice.lange@icann.org) with any of your thoughts, comments or questions on specific aspects of the FY15 program. Provisions have also been made to capture your input on our CROPP Feedback page. 

We are looking forward to collaborating with all of you over the next year!

Best regards,

Rob Hoggarth
Janice Douma-Lange