Re: [gnso-travel-dt] Chair Travel Funding

[Avri Doria <avri@xxxxxxx>]

Hi,

My questions: 

- has the GNSO ever gained funding for anyone to travel for anything other than 
an ICANN meeting?

- is there any budgeted source of funding from which this could come?

a.



On 15 Mar 2010, at 17:18, Gomes, Chuck wrote:

> Olga
> 
> I want to request guidance from the GNSO Travel DT regarding a special travel 
> funding issue before bringing it to the Council.
> 
> I have been invited to participate in the Russia IGF in my capacity as GNSO 
> Council Chair.  It is scheduled for May 13-14.  Because I will be doing this 
> not as a representative of VeriSign, there is not a reasonable business case 
> to request VeriSign to fund my travel, so I would like to get feedback from 
> the members of the Travel DT with regard to this.
> 
> First of all, let me say that I have never used ICANN provided travel funding 
> to attend ICANN meetings and I do not plan to do that for any of the 
> scheduled ICANN in-person meeting scheduled this year.  The reasons for this 
> are: 1) I do not want there to be even a perception of conflict at those 
> meetings when I wear my multiple hats of Council Chair, RySG representative 
> and VeriSign representative; 2) the RySG consistently took a position that it 
> opposed ICANN travel funding except in cases of demonstrated need.
> 
> Second, let me say that I understand that the Travel Funding practice to date 
> has been for ICANN sponsored events and that the Russia IGF is not in that 
> category.  So one of the problems would be the possibility of setting 
> precedents for other travel needs in similar situations.  For example, Other 
> countries or geographical regions also hold their own IGF meetings, so what 
> would happen if I am invited to those as well, to represent the GNSO?  I 
> think this is a legitimate concern.  All I can say is that I was first 
> contacted about the Russia IGF over six months in advance of the meeting and 
> I have not been invited to any other country/regional IGF meetings for 2010 
> or after.  Clearly, if ICANN funding is considered for this, it would need to 
> be done with the limitation that travel funds are available and that this 
> instance would be a one-time consideration; any similar requests in my role 
> as chair would have to be vetted independently and would have to have similar 
> advance notice like was given with the Russia IGF.
> 
> I also recognize that ICANN has had to trim expenses and I would not want to 
> negatively impact the ability of any GNSO members to receive travel funding 
> to the Brussels meeting as a result of my request.
> 
> Any thoughts that any members of the Travel DT, including negative ones, 
> would be appreciated.  I promised both Theresa Swinehart and Kevin Wilson 
> that I would get back to them on this but have waiting raising it because of 
> the huge number of issues that we have been dealing with in the GNSO.
> 
> Chuck