Date: 2002.10.21
Committee: Executive Committee of BoT
Document: excom-02-009
Revision:
Supersedes:
Status:
Maintainer: Minutes taken by Christian Huitema.
Access: Unconfirmed
Present to the call:
Fred Baker
Rosa Delgado
Glenn Ricart
Christian Huitema
Lynn St. Amour
Lynn Duval
Excused:
Kees Neggers
Latif Ladid
Toshio Miki
I. Financial Update – L. St.Amour
Cash available is $80K, of which $38K are reserved for the Postel award.
Account payable 455K, includes Exponova payment, and 330K for RFC editor. Lynn contacted ISI to make sure they send invoice as we have not received one to-date. There is a $33K liability to Foretec, corresponding to the additional sponsorships ISOC sourced for INET (above our commitment). There are payroll liabilities related to accrued holiday time as well.
At the end of August, ISOC has incurred a loss of $246K, due to timing of Platinum renewals (expected later in the year).
Many organizations have membership fees dues in the fall, which will enable us to meet the planned expenses.
II. .Org bid update (incl. financial expectations)
Lynn has worked with the new PIR board. At the first board meeting, they elected David Maher as chair, Alan Levin as treasurer and Andy Linton secretary. They are now negotiating contracts with ICANN and Afilias; we expect the contracts to be approved by the end of October.
PIR is working on a business plan. The revenue of PIR are expected to increase over time; PIR is expected to receive about $2.5M net revenue in 2003, with an expense line of about $1.4M. PIR expect to subcontract ISOC for all education services.
Verisign was expected to transfer $5M to ICANN, which they have instead placed in an escrow account. There are ongoing discussions between Verisign and ICANN on the release of these funds. We will not know the results of these discussions before the end of November; we will not assume any of these funds in our 2003 budget.
III. Review of 2003 Budget assumptions
The budget will be very similar to the 2002 budget. The most significant difference will be the support of PIR for educational services for the non-profit community. Expenses are straightforward: staff and RFC editor are the main items. The budget will not have any assumption around INET 2003.
IV. Review of agenda for Nov. 2002 Board meeting
Lynn has already released a draft agenda. Glenn suggests setting time apart for “scenario based planning”, to be conducted in groups of 4-5, each group representing diverse backgrounds, e.g. visionary and pragmatist. The first question would be “where do we want ISOC to be in 3 years”, and then “what is the path to go there.” The executive committee suggests that we engage the group by questioning previous initiatives, much like the “future of INET” committee questioned our conduct of conferences. In general, we need to encourage more contributions from the board. We also need to have committee reports to inform the board, but we should leave a majority of the time open for board discussion.
There will be a PIR review on the 1st day.
The board will have to clarify the issue of trustees elections. We will have to close down on the remaining issues regarding voting.
The AC will meet on the Sunday afternoon, after the board meeting.
V. Fundraising update
Latif provided a provisional report to Lynn. The task force will present a report at the board meeting.
VI. Future Conferences Task Force Update
The task force will present a report at the board meeting. There is a strong opinion to not conduct a new INET in the old form. There is a suggestion to conduct a Conference centered on the management of the .Org domain, and making the Internet friendlier for non-profits. Glenn suggests talking more domain name related issues, e.g. management of registries or internationalization of domain names. The risk of any DNS centered conference is that it may degenerate into a discussion about ICANN; it is necessary to have a good focus on content instead. An example could be, “issue with multi-national usage of the Internet.”
Lynn suggests that the report on conference activities encompasses our participation to non-ISOC conferences.
VII. Publications strategy update
The committee has been chartered, but not established. There have been very few suggestions from the board. Toshio may not be able to participate to the next board meeting. ISOC and ACM are trying to get funding for a joint publication.
All Board Executive Committee Meeting Minutes