Registrar Constituency Position re ICANN Meetings Reform
Registrar Constituency Position re ICANN Meetings Reform
July 1, 2008
BACKGROUND
In June 2008, the Registrar Constituency ("RC") was asked to provide comments
regarding ICANN's Meetings Reform Paper ("Meetings Reform"). During the three
weeks subsequent to ICANN's request for comments the members of the RC shared
their feedback about this matter by e-mail and in person at the Paris ICANN
meeting. Accordingly, this Position Paper captures the overall sentiment
expressed by the RC members who provided feedback about this matter and seems
to reflect the general sense of the RC. However, due to time constraints, no
formal vote regarding this Position Paper was taken.
INTRODUCTION
The RC strongly supports no reduction in the number or frequency of "large"
ICANN meetings held per year. In short, nearly all RC members who weighed in
on this subject support holding no less than three large meetings per year.[i]
DISCUSSION
The RC is concerned that reducing the number of large ICANN meetings from three
per year will strain the community. With three large meetings per year, the RC
already struggles to handle all of its important affairs. Reducing the number
of large meetings to only two per year may cause the time pressures to become
too intense, leading to poor decision making.
Although the RC supports and encourages regional meetings, these smaller
meetings are no substitute for large meetings, particularly in terms of
community interaction. Regional meetings, while important, are designed to
attract only small segments of the community by definition. Because most
issues before ICANN, and the RC in particular, are global in nature, the RC
needs at least three large meetings per year to bring its worldwide membership
together to make decisions.
Although the RC supports utilizing technology to encourage greater
participation and to enable less costly communication, the RC urges ICANN not
to underestimate the value of face-to-face interaction. Conference calls are a
challenge for time-zone distant participants, and a challenge for participants
from less developed voice and data regions. Furthermore, in analyzing the
history of issues over the lifetime of the RC, many of the most important
decisions have been made in person, at live meetings. Should the frequency of
large ICANN meetings be reduced to once every six months it would be more
challenging in terms of timing to schedule decision making of these complex
issues for face-to-face meetings. Because face-to-face meetings generally
offer the most favorable signal-to-noise ratio, the quality of the policy input
from the RC about these complex issues would likely diminish.
In terms of location for the large meetings, the RC members who weighed in on
this related issue prefer that at least one of the three large meetings always
be at the same travel hub location.[ii] By maintaining a "permanent" location
for one meeting per year, efficiencies could be gained; perhaps a partnership
may even be formed with the host city leading to a possible reduction in fees
for the assurance of several years of return visits by the ICANN community.
For the other large ICANN meetings the RC generally supports continent
rotation, which decreases the travel burden on everyone in the community at
least once every few meetings.
CONCLUSION
The RC strongly supports no reduction in the number or frequency of "large"
ICANN meetings held per year. The opinions expressed by the RC in this
Position Paper are the opinions of the RC as a whole, and should not be
interpreted to reflect the individual opinion of any particular RC member
unless clearly stated.
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[i] Only one RC member recommended holding less than three large meetings per
year. This RC member suggested that ICANN hold only two large meetings
annually. Additionally, this RC member also suggested that ICANN charge a
mandatory, but nominal, admission fee to discourage people with no legitimate
interest or relationship with the industry from attending ICANN events.
[ii] An RC member involved in academia, who can only attend one meeting per
year, suggests that one large ICANN meeting be held during Northern hemisphere
summer months, preferably at a travel hub location for easier travel.
Attachment:
RC Position re ICANN Meeting Reform v1-2.pdf |