[nc-budget] REPORT OF BUDGET COMMITTEE TO THE NAMES COUNCIL

["Cochetti, Roger" <RCochetti@verisign.com>]

The Names Council Budget Committee met during December and January to
address several questions, including invoices that had been received from
Glen de St Gery and AFNIC; the structure of a contract between ICANN
(serving as an agent for the DNSO) and  Glen de St Gery; the structure of a
contract between ICANN (again, serving as an agent for the DNSO) and AFNIC;
intellectual property issues associated with the final payment to AFNIC for
services that AFNIC provided to the DNSO during 2000; procedures governing
the allocation of DNSO Constituency dues payments; the partial refund to a
person acting as an agent of the DNSO Registrar Constituency of payments
mistakenly made by ICANN-accredited registrars to ICANN (once again, ICANN
was acting as an agent for the DNSO); and a proposed DNSO budget for 2002.

Two of these are action items for the Names Council.

1.  Partial Refund of Payments Made by Certain Registrars to ICANN (which
was serving as an agent for the DNSO)

ICANN management's accounting report to the Names Council Budget Committee
shows that as of 17 Decembre, the Registrar Constituency had made payments
of $28,107.14 toward  their 2001 dues, compared with an assessment of
$15,371.00.  On 24 October 2001, Bryan Evans, identifying himself as a agent
of the Registrar Constituency, advised the Budget Committee that the
$28,107.14 payment reflected a mistaken overpayment by these paying
registrars and that the paying registrars and the DNSO Registrar
Constituency would like the Council to refund $12,736.14 to Bryan Evans,
acting as an agent for the Registrar Constituency.  B. Evans and other
Registrar Constituency representatives indicate that the $28,107.14 includes
payments from individual registrars intended to go to the DNSO Registrar
Constituency itself along, with the $15,371.00 in Registrar Constituency
dues payments to the DNSO.

The reported overpayment and request for a partial refund payment to an
individual acting as an agent for the Constituency raise quite a few
questions including any potential liability that the Committee, the Council
or ICANN itself might have for the payment of funds to an individual that it
received from registrars presumably for the DNSO.  The Committee examined
the issue carefully and concluded that the representations of unintentional
overpayment made by the Registrar Constituency on behalf of individual
registrars were accurate and that a payment of $12,736.14 should be made to
the following person who acts as an agent of the Registrar Constituency:
Bryan Evans; Director of Technology; Allegiance Telecom;
Bryan.Evans@algx.com; 312-496-4295.

Since this amount exceeds the authority of the Budget Committee to authorize
expenditures, the Committee asks the Council to authorize a payment of
$12,736.14 to Mr. Bryan Evans, an agent of the DNSO Registrar Constituency.




2. Proposed 2002 DNSO Budget

The DNSO budget year begins on January 1st and ends on December 31st (unlike
ICANN's, which begins on July 1st and ends on June 30th) and among the most
important administrative matters the Council addresses each year is to
establish a DNSO budget, which results in Constituency dues assessments and
payments.

The Budget Committee met several times to consider a 2002 budget for the
DNSO and relied heavily on Glen de Saint Gery, our Secretariat for practical
estimates of our administrative/financial needs for 2002.  The Budget
Committee proposes a 2002 DNSO expense budget of U.S. $97,961, broken down
as follows:

Secretariat-Related:			$65,000 (1)

Internet-Access Services		$ 1,400

Travel					$ 8,500 (2)

Telephone					$14,160 (3)

Contingency Funds				$ 8,901 (4)

TOTAL						$97,961

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Notes To Expense Budget

(1) 	AFNIC Contract @ $21,600
	St. Gery Contract @ $38,400 
	St. Gery Overtime @ $5,000

(2) 	St. Gery Travel @ $8,500

(3)	13 DNSO Teleconferences @ $820 each = $10,660
	Telephone Hook Ups for 3 Physical NC Meetings @ $1,500
	St. Gery Telephone Services @ $ 2,000

(4)	Contingency Funds at 10% of Total of $89,060 = $8,901

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Based on this expense level, DNSO Constituency dues for 2002 would be
$13,994 assuming seven paying DNSO Constituencies; or $16,327 assuming six
paying DNSO Constituencies; or $19,592 assuming five paying DNSO
Constituencies.



Roger Cochetti
Chair
Budget Committee
Names Council

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Roger J. Cochetti
Senior Vice President & Chief Policy Officer
VeriSign
rcochetti@verisign.com
202-973-6600