gTLD REGISTRIES CONSTITUENCY - COMMENTS/QUESTIONS ON FY2010 OPS PLAN AND BUDGET

[Cherstubbs@xxxxxxx]

Following are the questions as submitted and subsequently discussed with  
Kevin Wilson, Kurt Pritz and Craig Schwartz, ICANN staff, on Wednesday, 18 
March  
2009.
 
Respectfully submitted,
 
Cherie Stubbs
Secretariat
gTLD Registries Constituency
 
**********************************************************
 
General
    *   There is still no breakdown of  costs by functional area: SO's, AC's, 
other.  Without such a breakdown it  is highly likely that SO's and AC's have 
no reasonable idea regarding the  amount of ICANN funds spent in supporting 
their organizations and hence no  concept of how much their organizations are 
subsidized by other ICANN  entities, in particular gTLD registrants via 
registries and  registrars.

Executive  Summary
    *   Under Operational Activities:  1) Does the $1,250,000 for IDN 
implementation include ccTLD and gTLD  implementation of IDNs? 2) Does it 
include the 
IDN ccTLD Fast Track costs and,  if so, how much?

IV FY10 Operating Plan  Framework
    *   In the table on page 9:   1)  How much of the $1,250,000 for IDN 
implementation will be  recouped in new gTLD application and/or ongoing 
registry 
fees?  2) Where  are the costs for supporting the ALAC, GAC, ccNSO and ASO 
included?  3)  Why such a big increase (28.1%) for Administrative improvement?  
 
Considering that significant funds were spent in FY09 on  organizational 
reviews, will more than a 25% increase be needed in  FY10?  (See also Section 
15, 
Administrative Improvement, on page  13.)
    *   Page 11:  1) Under  Constituency Support, what is included in 'active 
participation in the GNSO  policy development process activities' and how 
does it differ from what is  included in the following section (section 8) for 
Policy Development  Support?  2) Is a 2.5% increase enough for full 
implementation of GNSO  Improvements?  (See Section 8, Policy Development  
Support)

V FY10 Budget  Framework
    *   In the Revenue Budget in the  table on page 15, it is clear that 
there is no change projected in FY10 with  regard to subsidization of most of 
ICANN's budget by gTLD registrants via  registrars and registries.  93.2% of 
the 
revenue is projected to come  from registrars (45.6%) and registries 47.5%) 
while others contribute  miniscule amounts: RIR, 1.2%; ccTLD, 3.4%; Other, 
2.2%.  
As noted  many times before, it would be very helpful to be able to compare 
the costs  associated with various ICANN entities with the projected revenue 
from  them.
    *   In the table on page 17 for  'FY10 Proposed Registry Revenue -- 
Transaction & fixed fees', it would be  helpful to show the estimated FY10 
transactions per gTLD and the total  transaction fees.

VI Separate new gTLD  Budget Amendment (page 21)
    *   Will there be a separate budget  for the IDN ccTLD Fast Track process?

Appendix A: Operating  Plan Activities
    *   Page 26, 7. Constituency  Support, 8th bullet: "Registry and 
Registrar departments to coordinate  outreach to constituencies through at 
least 3 
regional gatherings, industry  events, etc "  How much is budgeted for these 
events?  Might make  sense to do a cost benefit analysis.
    *   Page 27, 8. Policy Development  Support, 1st bullet: "Retain 2 
additional staff members: Dept. secretariat and  Policy Director to improved 
support".  In the case of the GNSO, the  Secretariat does a great job but is 
overloaded.  The ICANN Policy  Staff also provide excellent support.  But there 
is no 
administrative  support for the GNSO so high-paid Policy Staff and GNSO 
volunteers end up  spending inordinate amounts of time editing and formatting 
documents that  easily be done by less expensive people.  This need has been 
mentioned  repeatedly for several years but nothing has ever been done about  
it.

Appendix B:   Financials
 
In the 'ICANN Financials for Fiscal Year 2007 thru 2010  ' on page 33, please 
explain the following regarding revenue forecasts for  ccTLDs: 1) Why is the 
FY09 forecast nearly $400,000 less than FY09?  What  reason is there to 
believe that the ccTLDs will contribute $2,300,000 in FY10  when it is only 
expected 
that they will contribute less than $1.2M in  FY09?  Are any IDN ccTLD Fast 
Track fees included in the  estimates?


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