Date: 2002.02.25
Committee: Executive Committee of BoT
Document: excom-02-002
Revision:
Supersedes:
Status:
Maintainer: Minutes taken by Christian Huitema.
Access: Unconfirmed
Attendees: Kees Neggers, Latif Latid, Rosa Delgado, Lynn St.Amour, Christian Huitema, Bob Vaughan, Mike Conn
Unavailable: Brian Carpenter
II. 2002 budget update
Lynn and Bob are preparing a status update.
We are concerned about a stream of warning by organizations that are “short of cash” and have to reduce their engagements. On a related note, Thinkquest is planning to review its process, may either cancel or redesign their program.
Last year was the best ISOC year from a P&L point of view, yet the cash situation was always tense, and we had to play with account payable. We managed last year because the arrival of Platinum renewals in October bailed us out; there is a big risk that in 2002 we will start running out of cash in May, and will not be able to sustain operation until the arrival of Platinum revenues in October. Given ISOC’s history, Bob doubts very much that we could convince a bank to provide us with bridge loan in May to get enough cash to operate until the fall.
We supported the IETF by combined grants of $750K last year; despite significant push, we did not get a lot of support from the IETF members.
We are very short on staff, which prevents us from getting new projects going.
III. Governance process update
The vote will terminate tomorrow. Assuming there is no veto, we will immediately start operating with the new regime.
IV. Association management system
We are waiting a proposal by a contractor to operate the “association management system” for ISOC. This would allow us to get a full fledge system in less than 30 days; the cost is in line with the existing budget, albeit there is a doubt on the effect on our cash situation.
V. INET 2002 and IPv6 Forum
The conference is now being operated by Foretec. The INET sponsorship drive is very tight; some of the initially committed sponsors in fact retracted; on the other hand, the IPv6 part of the conference is proceeding finely; we hope that it will close the gap. So far, we have booked about 20% of our objective, and we have “almost sure” prospects for another 30%.
VI. Reconciliation of INET 2001
Lynn would like to reach an adequate settlement and avoid further costs and staff distractions, even if that means an arrangement in which we get less than what we believe is our due revenue. The executive committee supports this direction, reaching a settlement.
VII. .ORG registry proposal
We are evaluating the .ORG opportunity, which some board members could bring a lot of revenues to ISOC. We were expecting a detailed proposal before any decision, and have not yet received it. The proposal would most likely not require any significant upfront support from ISOC, and would also not provide any short term funding to ISOC; the amount of downstream support to ISOC is unclear.
VIII. Approval of IAB nominations
The executive committee sense is that we should proceed with the confirmation.
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