NCSG Travel Policy Lacks Inclusivity Please

[Stephanie Perrin]

Remmy, in my experience committees are only as strong as the work they 
do. That depends on people getting organized, developing a plan, and 
coming together to achieve their goals.  As Rafik said a moment 
ago....our job as a GNSO stakeholder group is to develop policy, and we 
have a pile of it ahead of us this year.  The Finance committee has been 
around since at least 2013, but it is not clear what work they have 
engaged in , or how you are engaging since you joined.  As I said, an 
update at the monthly policy meetings would be very helpful to keep us 
all informed.   We are now in a declining revenues environment where 
ICANN may decrease our funding in order to manage the budget, so it 
would be good if the committee could get organized and first of all 
examine the ICANN expenditures and budget, as well as ensuring our own 
fiscal management. Metrics for value resulting from travel requests 
(e.g. CROP, outside meetings etc.) ought to be developed, in my view.

The point in getting speedy notice of lapsing travel spots, is so that 
we can reallocate the funds to other candidates, and ensure that 
leadership roles have well informed back up people who are ready and 
able to fly in at short notice and at reasonable cost.  While we are not 
allocated a travel budget to manage ourselves (it is all managed and 
approved by Constituency Travel), our travel costs are all publicly 
displayed and criticised by other stakeholder groups when excessive (due 
to last minute requests, extra demands etc.).  Accountability starts at 
home.

Believe me, we need all 6 councilors to be there and be on their toes at 
the three major public meetings, especially with Rafik as Vice-Chair, he 
is already working overtime on Council management.  I am of course 
interested in hearing your rationale as to why travel slots should be 
allocated to Finance Committee members, but until there is tangible work 
in progress, I would think it is a lower priority.  As anyone who is 
staffing the PDPs, the Review teams, and the Council will tell you, we 
cannot keep up with the work and need all the help we can get when 
meeting face to face.

Kind regards

Stephanie

On 2018-07-07 17:49, Remmy Nweke wrote:
> Thanks Stephanie for the comments.
>
> Frankly speaking we are building the Finance Committee from scratch 
> and actually held our first meeting last week as the current NCSG-FC 
> as follow up of ICANN62.
>
> Hence we are surprised that out of two committees statutorily under 
> NCSG and little concern is given in strengthening the other and pray 
> that changes soon.
>
> Also We are in the process of getting some first hand updates to 
> facilitate agenda for future meeting calls within the NCSG-FC specifics.
>
> Regards
> Remmy
>
> On Sat, 7 Jul 2018 9:39 pm Stephanie Perrin, 
> <stephanie.perrin at mail.utoronto.ca 
> <mailto:stephanie.perrin at mail.utoronto.ca>> wrote:
>
>     I am impressed Remmy, I had no idea you folks were doing all that
>     work!  Can you please point us to the meeting transcripts and
>     mailing list archives?  I would like to catch up.  I am on the
>     GNSO Council finance committee, but was unaware all this work was
>     going on within NCSG. Perhaps the Finance Committee should have a
>     regular update agenda item at the monthly NCSG Policy Meeting call?
>
>     Kind regards,
>
>     Stephanie Perrin
>
>     On 2018-07-07 16:08, Remmy Nweke wrote:
>>
>>     Thanks for the response Farzaneh,
>>
>>     I think it would amount to not wanting to make Finance Committee
>>     improve on its working processes and mandate to sound it off as
>>     mere “protecting the interest of members or wanting to score
>>     travel slot” which I think negates the purpose of the Finance
>>     Committee or probably why it has been in comatose lately.
>>
>>     For your information, the role and mandate of Finance Committee
>>     as contained in the NCSG Charter Section 2.6 is very clear and is
>>     not limited to the following:
>>
>>     Develop and deploy a fund raising plan for the NCSG;
>>
>>     Work with the ICANN’s staff to determine levels of support
>>     available to the NCSG;
>>
>>     Work with ICANN finance officers to insure the NCSG and its
>>     Constituencies receive fair and equivalent financial support from
>>     ICANN;
>>
>>     Accounting for any funds received by the NCSG from any source.
>>     This accounting will include the following:
>>
>>     All funds raised by voluntary membership fees or otherwise must
>>     be held in a separate NCSG account.
>>
>>     Proper controls must be implemented.
>>
>>     Regarding Expenditures, FC is to among others see that:
>>
>>
>>     Financial reports must be prepared annually and be made public.
>>
>>     Provide internal conflict resolution process regarding funds.
>>
>>     Provide the oversight of the Treasurer function.
>>
>>     Fulfill any other accounting, auditing or other prescribed
>>     financial requirements as set by the ICANN Board of Directors for
>>     organizations within the ICANN structure.
>>
>>     For now, the present crop of FC are not people who are merely
>>     seeking exposure, but want to contribute its quota, and thus find
>>     it unhealthy that Finance Committee is being relegated.
>>
>>     Looking at most of the responsibilities of the Finance Committee,
>>     its stakeholdersand possible time for most of its functions and
>>     oversights must be dealt with within the ICANN stakeholdes
>>     meeting for proper engagement.
>>
>>     Finally, its in the best interest of *NCSG-EC* that the Finance
>>     Committee work and works well, so as to pave way for more
>>     accountability and transparency in our process and overtly more
>>     funding for our stakeholders.
>>
>>     We cannot be demanding accountability and transparency from other
>>     stakeholders and tactically frustrate the efforts of Finance
>>     Committee thereby making the committee look as irredeemables.
>>
>>
>>     Remmy
>>
>>
>
> On 7 Jul 2018 9:39 pm, "Stephanie Perrin" 
> <stephanie.perrin at mail.utoronto.ca 
> <mailto:stephanie.perrin at mail.utoronto.ca>> wrote:
>
>     I am impressed Remmy, I had no idea you folks were doing all that
>     work!  Can you please point us to the meeting transcripts and
>     mailing list archives?  I would like to catch up.  I am on the
>     GNSO Council finance committee, but was unaware all this work was
>     going on within NCSG. Perhaps the Finance Committee should have a
>     regular update agenda item at the monthly NCSG Policy Meeting call?
>
>     Kind regards,
>
>     Stephanie Perrin
>
>     On 2018-07-07 16:08, Remmy Nweke wrote:
>>
>>     Thanks for the response Farzaneh,
>>
>>     I think it would amount to not wanting to make Finance Committee
>>     improve on its working processes and mandate to sound it off as
>>     mere “protecting the interest of members or wanting to score
>>     travel slot” which I think negates the purpose of the Finance
>>     Committee or probably why it has been in comatose lately.
>>
>>     For your information, the role and mandate of Finance Committee
>>     as contained in the NCSG Charter Section 2.6 is very clear and is
>>     not limited to the following:
>>
>>     Develop and deploy a fund raising plan for the NCSG;
>>
>>     Work with the ICANN’s staff to determine levels of support
>>     available to the NCSG;
>>
>>     Work with ICANN finance officers to insure the NCSG and its
>>     Constituencies receive fair and equivalent financial support from
>>     ICANN;
>>
>>     Accounting for any funds received by the NCSG from any source.
>>     This accounting will include the following:
>>
>>     All funds raised by voluntary membership fees or otherwise must
>>     be held in a separate NCSG account.
>>
>>     Proper controls must be implemented.
>>
>>     Regarding Expenditures, FC is to among others see that:
>>
>>
>>     Financial reports must be prepared annually and be made public.
>>
>>     Provide internal conflict resolution process regarding funds.
>>
>>     Provide the oversight of the Treasurer function.
>>
>>     Fulfill any other accounting, auditing or other prescribed
>>     financial requirements as set by the ICANN Board of Directors for
>>     organizations within the ICANN structure.
>>
>>     For now, the present crop of FC are not people who are merely
>>     seeking exposure, but want to contribute its quota, and thus find
>>     it unhealthy that Finance Committee is being relegated.
>>
>>     Looking at most of the responsibilities of the Finance Committee,
>>     its stakeholdersand possible time for most of its functions and
>>     oversights must be dealt with within the ICANN stakeholdes
>>     meeting for proper engagement.
>>
>>     Finally, its in the best interest of *NCSG-EC* that the Finance
>>     Committee work and works well, so as to pave way for more
>>     accountability and transparency in our process and overtly more
>>     funding for our stakeholders.
>>
>>     We cannot be demanding accountability and transparency from other
>>     stakeholders and tactically frustrate the efforts of Finance
>>     Committee thereby making the committee look as irredeemables.
>>
>>
>>     Remmy
>>
>>
>
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