Stuart,
ICANN budget preparation for
2002
You will recall that previously in 2001 we asked ICANN to
finance the costs of DNSO secretariat support and that the Finance Committee
declined as the budget had been set for the year 2001.
In order to be in time for the budget 2002 I would like to
make the request again and provide further information.
1. The request follows an earlier NC
resolution.
2. There is support in the ALSC 2001 report for central
funding.
3. Constituencies waste considerable time on fund raising
activities, taking away time from DNSO policy advise to the
Board.
4. Fees cause division in the DNSO (eg the non comm
constituency is on a time line to have its votes withdrawn) and this division
is counterproductive to achieving policy consensus.
5. The DNSO is a central part of the ICANN process and
the most political/ media exposed of the SOs.
6. The ICANN secretariat is about to issue contracts for the
provision of professional DNSO secretariat support, so this service is already
under ICANN staff control.
7. I believe there is sufficient DNSO funds to cover this
service until the next ICANN budget round.
8. Based on these contracts and an estimate on
travel/overtime costs we envisage an annual cost of some USD
75,000.
Stuart,
this is a relatively small sum as a proportion of the
ICANN budget but causes relatively large acrimony to raise it in the DNSO
and wastes a relatively large amount of volunteer time. Could I ask you to
introduce this idea positively in the 2002 budget proposals?