[soac-newgtldapsup-wg] JAS WG Meeting August 9

[Karla Valente <karla.valente@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Carlton and Rafik,

Please note Seth is still working on the updates regarding terminology as well 
as the comments received on pages 12 to 17. You will not see the new 
terminology and update to the August 5th discussions yet.

Tomorrow, according to schedule, we are to discuss the "proposed support to 
eligible applicants" (pages 17 to 19 of the report posted on the wiki: 
https://community.icann.org/display/jaswg/SO-AC+New+gTLD+Applicant+Support+Working+Group+%28JAS-WG%29).
 I also copied and pasted the content below as well as on the notes section of 
Adobe.

Housekeeping updates:

*         I sent Eric's question to Kurt.

*         Please confirm the content of the e-mail Krista drafted on behalf of 
the WG. Does it reflect the WG's thoughts?

*         Can we officially augment one of the meeting we have per week to 1:30 
minutes to give us more time to review? As soon as Seth is up to speed with the 
drafting, ideally we would recommend the WG to validate the changes made during 
the previous meeting. Please let us know when would you like to start.

*         I will not be able to support the WG during the following days: 
August 12, 16 and 30. Wendy, Seth, Gisella and Glen will be there from staff 
helping you and each other.


Kind regards,

Karla

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Proposed Support to Eligible Applicants
The WG recommends a number of different kinds of support to be made available 
for eligible applicants. The support can be either financial or in-kind. Here 
are the categories proposed.

Financial Support/Relief from ICANN
Cost Reductions
The WG recommends the following fee reductions to be made available to all 
applicants who are determined as meeting the criteria established for support:

*             Waive (consensus for this in the Milestone report) the Program 
Development Costs (US$26,000);
*             Lower risk/contingency cost (US$60,000);
*             Review Base cost (US$100,000) to see if reduction can be made;
*             Cost reductions to encourage the build out of IDNs in small or 
underserved languages;
*             Lower registry Fixed Fees;
*             Exemption or deferment of IPv6 implementation requirements, as 
possible.
Further reductions recommended:
*             Reduction of the Financial Continued Operation Instrument 
Obligation to 6-12 months

Staggered Fees
Instead of paying the entire fee upon acceptance of the applications, 
applicants meeting the criteria established for support could pay the fees 
incrementally. Staggered fees payment enables an applicant to compete for 
strings that might otherwise have gone to the first and/or only group with 
enough money to apply.

Partial Refund from Any Auction Proceeds
Eligible applicants receive a partial refund from any auction proceeds  - for 
which they can repay any loans or invest into their registry. It could be used 
to refill the disadvantaged applicant's foundation fund  for subsequent rounds.
Note: On-going support will be limited to five years
Financial support distributed by an ICANN originated (Development) "fund"
For any funding provided through ICANN by a benefactor  that does not wish to 
administer that funding itself, these funds would be allocated by a especially 
dedicated committee .
The WG recommends the creation of a development fund directed at new gTLD 
applicants who were determined as meeting the criteria established for support.

Support Program Development function
The WG recommends that ICANN establishes a Support Program Development function 
with an initial goal of securing a targeted commitment for an ICANN based 
development fund.

Financial support Distributed by External Funding Agencies
There is consensus in the WG that external funding agencies would make grants 
according to their own requirements and goals. ICANN would only provide those 
agencies with applicant information of those who met the criteria established 
for support.