[gnso-ppsc-pdp] FW: Request for F2F Meeting

[GNSO Secretariat <GNSO.Secretariat@xxxxxxxxx>]

Forwarded On Behalf Of Gomes, Chuck ? GNSO Council chair



 

Jeff and all PDP WT members,

 

I am sorry to report that the Council did not act on your request for a F2F
meeting today.  The GNSO Council Operating Procedures require the following:
"Reports and motions should be submitted to the GNSO Council for inclusion
on the agenda as soon as possible, but no later than 8 business days before
the GNSO Council meeting."  The request was received late on 10 December (7
days before the 17 Dec Council meeting) and sent to the Council on 11
December. As a result, it was necessary for the Council to approve an
exception to the procedure requirement.  I asked if there were any
objections to granting an exception for this issue and one constituency
objected.  Over the last several years, Council practice has been to delay
any action in cases where a constituency requests more time.  Therefore no
vote was taken.

 

The discussion on this issue provided some insight that I will try to
communicate to you:

*       There are no defined GNSO procedures for processing requests like
this; several Councilors definitely felt like the Council should be involved
in any such use of funds.
*       Staff informed the Council that funds for supporting the request
would come from GNSO Improvement Funds that were included in the ICANN FY10
budget; a little over half of those funds have already been spent; after
subtracting known GNSO Improvement estimated expenses through the end of the
fiscal year (mostly for professional services), it was estimated that there
would be in the range of $30,000 to $40,000 left for other GNSO Improvement
costs between now and June 30.  That would include your F2F meeting request,
any other GNSO Improvement F2F meeting requests that might be submitted by
other WTs, and cost for implementing GNSO improvements such as the Toolkit
of Services Recommendations approved today and others that will likely be
approved in the next few months (e.g., GNSO website improvements).  Some of
those costs will come out the GNSO Improvement budgeted amount and some will
come out of other budgets.
*       The estimated costs for your request was estimated by Staff to range
from about $8,000 to $18,000; Staff thought it would come in at the lower
range.  You can see for yourself that using the low estimate of F2F meeting
cost and the high estimate of available funds would only allow for a maximum
of 5 F2F meetings assuming they all cost no more than $8,000 and then that
would leave nothing for other GNSO Improvement implementation needs.
*       Several Councilors felt that any funds used for GNSO Improvement F2F
meetings should be distributed equally across all GNSO Improvement WTs.
*       Some Councilors expressed the opinion that they thought this request
was a high priority; others thought other GNSO tasks were a higher priority.
*       Some representatives said that their groups did not have sufficient
time to consider the request.
*       There was a mix of supporters and opponents of the request, so it is
not clear how it would fare if a vote were taken.

Jeff requested the following: if the request was not approved, that a tool
be made available to facilitate remote collaboration more effectively than
the current Adobe Connect product.  Denise Michel said that Staff would
explore this and keep the Council updated.

 

>From a personal point of view, I consider the work you are doing as a very
high priority because it is fundamental to everything we do and the current
PDP in the Bylaws is in desperate need of revision.  So I sincerely hope
that the Council lack of action today will not discourage you in your
ongoing efforts.  There is nothing to prevent you from submitting another
request for a F2F meeting but, if you do so, I strongly suggest that you
allow plenty of lead time for PPSC review before it is sent to the Council
and that the members of your team vet the request with their stakeholder
groups and constituencies in advance.

 

If I can be of any assistance as you continue your work, please let me know.

 

Chuck Gomes

GNSO Council Chair