Comment Close Date	Statement Name	Status	Assignee(s)	Call for Comments Open	Call for Comments Close	Vote Announcement	Vote Open	Vote  Reminder	Vote Close	Date of Submission	Staff Contact and Email	Statement Number
01.07.2014	FY15 Operating Plan & Budget	15Y, 0N, 0A	Tijani Ben Jemaa	04.07.2014	10.07.2014 23:59 UTC	11.07.2014 23:59 UTC	11.07.2014 23:59 UTC	17.07.2014	18.07.2014 23:59 UTC	11.07.2014	Xavier Calvez controller@icann.org	AL-ALAC-ST-0714-01-01-EN

FINAL VERSION TO BE SUBMITTED IF RATIFIED

Please click here to download a copy of the pdf below. 

FINAL DRAFT VERSION TO BE VOTED UPON BY THE ALAC

ALAC Statement on the Draft FY15 Operating Plan and Budget

The ALAC finds the Draft FY15 Operating Plan and Budget well designed and presented in a comprehensive way. 

Nevertheless, the ALAC wishes to express the following observations and questions:

1.1.2 Revenue assumptions

• New Registries assumption: The 33 million registrations in FY15 seem optimistic; how was this figure calculated?

1.4  Statement of Activities

• "Depreciation expenses” in the Operating Expenses are explained as the “impact of FY14 capital investments (Salesforce.com, Digital Platform, website, etc.)”. Please be so kind to clarify how these can be depreciation expenses?

1.6  Resource Utilization

• In the “support & revenue”, the increase in “GSE/Gov.Eng./Public Resp” is $3.7M. Please be so kind to clarify how this can represent 117.2%? 

• The YOY operating expenses growth appears to be taking neither the USG transition (B) nor the other priority areas (C) into consideration. 

1.7  Risks and Opportunities to the FY15 Budget

• After more than a full year of experience, predicting the number of new registries for FY15 is a simple exercise. Thus, the risk of a slower ramp up of registries could not be high; however, if the number of registrations is absolutely unknown, it will lead to a higher risk.

3.1  New gTLD financial summary

• The increase of the expenses is explained inter alia by the additional ICANN staff allocation (+$11.6M for the whole program). However, ICANN staff costs appear to be also counted in the normal ICANN budget, under the new gTLD section. If this is not duplication, and those staff expenses were subtracted from the normal ICANN budget, it should be clearly mentioned.

3.1  New gTLD financial summary / 3.4. New gTLD Program – Operating Expenses Variance Analysis

• For FY13, there should not be any difference between the April 2014 and the June 2013 estimations since June 2013 is the end of FY13 with figures that are not estimations but actual values.
  

The ALAC hopes that the planning process will be improved for FY16, as ICANN now has a strategic plan. After this year's again shortened cycle, the interaction with the community should be significantly improved so that the remarks of the community may impact the final plan and budget.

FIRST DRAFT SUBMITTED

ALAC Statement on the Draft FY15 Operating plan and Budget

The At-Large Advisory Committee finds the draft operating plan and budget well designed and presented in a comprehensive way. 

Nevertheless, the ALAC wants to highlight the following points:

1.1.2 Revenue assumptions

• New Registries assumption: 33 million registrations in FY15 seem optimistic; how was it calculated?

1.4  Statement of Activities

• What you call “depreciation expenses” in the Operating Expenses is explained on the same page by “Impact of FY14 capital investments (Salesforce.com, Digital Platform, website, etc.)”. How can these be depreciation expenses?

1.6  Resource Utilization

• In the “support & revenue”, the increase in “GSE/Gov.Eng./Public Resp” is 3.7 M$. how can this represent 117.2%? 

• The YOY operating expenses growth doesn’t take into consideration the USG transition (B) nor the other priority areas (C) 

1.7  Risks and Opportunities to the FY15 Budget

• After more than a full year of experience, It’s easy to predict the number of new registry for FY15. Thus, the risk of a slower ramp up of registries couldn’t be high, while the number of registrations is absolutely unknown, leading to a higher risk.

3.1  New gTLD financial summary

• The increase of the expenses is explained inter alias by the ICANN staff allocation (+$11.6M for the whole program). But the ICANN staff expenses are counted in the normal ICANN budget out of the new gTLD part. If it is not a duplication, and those staff expenses were subtracted from the normal ICANN budget, it should be clearly mentioned.

3.1  New gTLD financial summary / 3.4. New gTLD Program – Operating Expenses Variance Analysis

• For FY13, there should not be any difference between the April 2014 and the June 2013 estimations since June 2013 is the end of FY13 and the figures are not estimation but actual value 

The At-Large Advisory Committee hopes that the planning process will be improved for FY16, now that we have a strategic plan. The interaction with the community should be drastically improved so that the remarks of the community may impact the final plan and budget.