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<p><font size="+1"><font face="Lucida Grande">I agree with Ayden,
and in particular I would identify research and preparing
briefing papers in order to bring our new people up to speed,
as key activities we could use help on. Some of us are happy
to mentor, but the folks who want mentoring need materials to
read, questions and answers, prior to discussing issues with
potential mentors. We can't just throw them at the ICANN PDP
websites and wikis, it is overwhelming to scan through the
amount of material and resource documents one has to read.
That kind of help from a research firm would be useful, and I
agree with Ayden that we may want to hire a different kind of
resource than the one the RySG is using, which should be
permissible. Although, there are certainly firms like that
who work with NGOS of all kinds.</font></font></p>
<p><font size="+1"><font face="Lucida Grande">Stephanie Perrin</font></font><br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2017-12-08 20:14, Ayden Férdeline
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:3ZZcMSzHYgH8vPjQ71Ro3teomH5h7DjH2NaNuf6oUdTASB1nard2oZhCES9V5eLJRS6ONN8jIZHDuwBtX8HgHHy33E6nBa7D3SBuW2dkDhA=@ferdeline.com">
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<div>Farzaneh, thanks-<br>
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<div><br>
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<div>I have two suggestions.<br>
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<div><br>
</div>
<div>1) As the NCSG and its constituencies scale and mature, we
may want to become more independent than we are today from
ICANN. Is it possible to request a budget for professional
services so that we can receive advice on whether becoming our
own legal entity is a possibility - and desirable?<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>2) Another suggestion - and one which I appreciate will not
have support from all our members - is to explore the
possibility of hiring external consultants to aid us in our
policy work. Other ICANN communities receive support from WBC
Global in writing first drafts of their public comments. I am
aware that the Business Constituency, Intellectual Property
Constituency, Internet Service Providers and Connectivity
Providers Constituency, and the Registries Stakeholder Group
accept this assistance. They receive support from WBC advisers
for up to 20 public comments per year. We refuse this assistance
and I continue to maintain that this is a mistake. <a
rel="nofollow"
title="http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/comments-fy18-budget-08mar17/attachments/20170330/8e8238e7/RySGcommentonDocumentDevelopmentandDraftingProgram-0001.pdf"
href="http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/comments-fy18-budget-08mar17/attachments/20170330/8e8238e7/RySGcommentonDocumentDevelopmentandDraftingProgram-0001.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">According to a document</a> that I
found on the ICANN website from the RySG:<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><i>"Our Document Development and Drafting Research Assistant,
Wim Degezelle, made a significant contribution in his role of
drafting comments to complex public comments. His ability to
research a topic, communicate with those in the RySG who may
have some more in-depth knowledge of the issues/topics at
hand, and then prepare and present salient observations and
suggested comments has been of incredible benefit to the RySG.
Wim’s role facilitated participation by RySG members who don’t
use English as their first language, and better enabled
engagement by smaller (or new) registry operators who have
limited bandwidth, resources and/or knowledge that restrict
their participation in issues that may have a direct impact on
their operations. In fact, we saw a notable increase in
participation by volunteers to partner (or even take a lead
role) in developing and/or contributing to critical issues
requiring formal comments by the RySG."</i><i><br>
</i></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>When communities with more resources than us are accepting
assistance in drafting their comments, and we do not (for a
number of very valid reasons), I worry that we exacerbate our
disadvantages.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I understand that one of the concerns regarding WBC Global
was that they describe themselves as a "Leading international
trade government relations consulting firm serving multinational
clients ... offer[ing] public policy, political and strategic
business advice to Fortune 500 and other companies". There are
concerns, rightfully so, that they may not be best positioned to
write comments through a civil society lens. But can we instead
request our own budget, and work with ICANN [I am not entirely
familiar with their procurement processes] to choose our own
consulting firm? We're swamped. We need help.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
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<div>Best wishes,<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div class="protonmail_signature_block">
<div class="protonmail_signature_block-user">
<div>Ayden Férdeline<br>
</div>
<div><a title="http://www.linkedin.com/in/ferdeline"
rel="nofollow" href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/ferdeline"
moz-do-not-send="true">linkedin.com/in/ferdeline</a><br>
</div>
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protonmail_signature_block-empty"><br>
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<div><br>
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<blockquote type="cite" class="protonmail_quote">
<div>-------- Original Message --------<br>
</div>
<div>Subject: Additional Budget Requests: What activities do we
want ICANN to fund<br>
</div>
<div>Local Time: 7 December 2017 3:52 PM<br>
</div>
<div>UTC Time: 7 December 2017 15:52<br>
</div>
<div>From: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:farzaneh.badii@GMAIL.COM">farzaneh.badii@GMAIL.COM</a><br>
</div>
<div>To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU">NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a><br>
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<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">We can submit
additional budget requests to ICANN to fund certain
activities. This year we got our NCSG policy course
approved. What do you think the need of our stakeholder
group is for next year? What should ICANN fund for us? <br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Please send your
ideas my way, and remember that there are many
restrictions to the sort of funding we get. For example, we
probably won't be able to get funding to support travelers
for ICANN meetings we could try but it might be turned
down. Here is the link to additional budget request
announcement: <a
href="https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-12-05-en"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-12-05-en</a><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Note that we will
discuss the ideas with NCSG Executive Committee, select
some, develop them and submit the requests on behalf of
NCSG. I advise against submitting additional funding
request on your own. <br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br>
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<div class="gmail_default"
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<div class="gmail_default"
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<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Best<br>
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<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br>
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<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Farzaneh<br>
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