Date: 2001.11.26
Committee: Executive Committee of BoT
Document: excom-01-011
Revision:
Supersedes:
Status:
Maintainer: Minutes taken by Christian Huitema.
Access: Unconfirmed
Attendees: Brian Carpenter, Mike Conn, Rosa Delgado, Christian Huitema, Latif Latid, Lynn Saint-Amour, Bob Vaughan
Unavailable: Kees Neggers
II. Financial review
We finished September with 1.5 week of cash in the bank. The situation got better in October, as org members renewed. We received good news from several org members, including Worldcom and Nortel, which were pleased with our Internet reviews. We are finalizing INET 2001 settlement with Exponova. We are stabilizing the standard pillars. We are on target to finish the year with approximately $200K in available cash.
III. INET 2002
We most probably have to cancel the conference. It’s a heart breaking decision, since Mike and Richard did a very good job with the program, but the budget requires raising $500K from sponsors, which is completely unrealistic in the 6 months left to the conference. We polled past sponsors, who either said no or only agreed for 50% of previous contribution; even counting a possible grant from IBM, our most likely expectation is about $200K. Delaying until November or December would not be terribly useful, since we will not be able to get a lot of fundraising in the middle of the summer. In truth, we have to revisit the conference format; we knew that in 1999; we could make it through 2000 and 2001 with the help of the Japanese and Swede organizers, but there is no way that we can go back in 2002 to the model that almost bankrupted ISOC in 1999.
An alternative would be to have a series of roundtables over two days in Washington DC, attracting about 300 people, possibly complemented with a set of evening events. In any case, we need a fast decision so that the chapters have the opportunity to organize local events, possibly networked together.
Lynn will first give notice to Mike and Richard and thank them for their efforts, and then compose a note to the board, explaining the decision to place the conference in sabbatical, and leaving a possibility open to have a smaller scale workshop in 2002, if we find a suitable organizer.
IV. Board meeting preparations
A. Quick review of Board agenda
We have kept most of the current discussions private to the board. It is time now to involve at least the officers, the chapters and the advisory council, and possibly the membership at large. The governance proposal will be placed on the web site.
The second agenda item after the president’s report will be the debate of the by-laws changes. We need to ensure that the trustees who are not physically present can participate by telephone conference.
The third agenda item is the budget. The 2002 budget will emphasize the need to build a cash reserve of at least 6 month and preferably 1 year, as in fact was planned for the last years. Brian points out that the situation of recognized revenues is a serious one; in fact, the trustees are personally responsible.
The actual vote of the budget will probably take place after discussion of the new governance model, the fourth item, which will be complemented by a report on ICANN’s experience with at large membership.
The last item will be a discussion on what to do with the ISTF, based on Christine’s memo and George’s advice. It is important that the ISSG be informed of Christine’s proposal, in order to reconcile the ongoing ISSG election with the proposed dismantling of the ISTF. There is a high potential of disruption with the current make up of the ISTF, so any decision to terminate it will have to be extremely clear.
B. Budget proposal
Lynn has prepared several budget scenarios, taking into account the better than expected organizational revenue. We have to address the growing gap between the source of revenues and the destination of expenses, which is very lopsided in the case of individual members.
For clarity, the board documents should include a presentation of the actual cost of individual membership.
The budget plan includes an RFC-editor cost of $550K, but we have not finished discussions with ISI, and the contract may run as high as $630K; the current guess is in line with the observed running rate of ISI.
C. Review of new governance model
The proposal has been submitted to the board, and outlined to the chapters. The chapters seem to support the free membership proposal.
V. Miscellaneous items
A. ACM/ISOC Joint Stds. publication
Discussions with ACM continued. The Internet Report does not seem to be an adequate basis for an ACM publication, since there is no editorial content.
ACM and ISOC agree to hire an editor for the publication; we need to start nominating editors.
B. IPv6 Education Proposal
On November 23, the commission asked for the proposal to be revised, and to be more specific on IPv6, rather than on a broad next generation Internet.
The proposal is currently being revised, and will be reevaluated, probably in mid December or early January.
There is a demand for IPv6 training from other parts of the world, which means that ISOC could well make this part of an extended education pillar. Latif will present the revised proposal to the board.
C. Next meeting
We may want to have a new phone conference next Monday, at the same time.
All Board Executive Committee Meeting Minutes