[FC-NCSG] Thoughts on FC overall and Y13 budget

[Klaus Stoll]

Dear Friends

Greetings and I hope you had a good Christmas and start into the next year. As hard as it is I think we need to get going again and on of the things is that we need to get a planning draft for the Y13 funding together.

Here are my thoughts, please respond until next Friday if possible so that a draft can be created soonest:

1) I think we have to make clear that the NCSG has a serving and not a policy making function. Basically the FC should be an enabler of the NCSG PC and EC. We need to make this clear that in future the PC and EC should develop their policies and decisions and the FC committee needs to see how they financially underpin these decisions and policies. In the current situation and given the time constraint the FC will have to make some assumptions based on what it thinks the PC and EC want to go but in future we need a process for this. Otherwise the finance committee would be able to bend the wishes of the NCSG members simply by what is financed and what not. 

2) From the NCSG charter it is clear that we urgently need to appoint the one representatives from each constituency to the FC and have a election of a FC chair. I think that should be item 1 on the next official FC meeting.

3) Before we can spend any money, we first need to have it. Here the charter again is helpful:

a) we can request a limited amount of funding from ICANN directly and the ICANN leadership has indicated more or less clearly what they would like to fund and what not. ( enabling participation and structured outreach).

b) the Charter also suggests a voluntary membership fee. I think that might be not such a bad way to go if the right rules are applied. My proposal is: voluntary membership fee of USD 50 for individuals and small organizations,(as defined by the Charter Chapter 2.2.3, (less then 50 employees and less then 500 individual members, less then 10 organizational members), USD 500 mandatory membership fee for ?large organizations?. They can afford it and won?t feel it whilst for us it can make a big difference.

c) we should engage with registrars that are making their cash with the selling of domain names to not for profit organizations such as PIR.org and given the new gTLDs coming in their will be more candidates in the future.

d) we should create a fundraising campaign and execute it that engages with and requests support from charitable organizations whose Vision/Mission and statues support the area of Internet Governance and not for profit organizations. I think there are a number out there , (like the Ford Foundation), who would support the NCSG?s work if we engage with the in the right way.

4) Now it comes to on what to spend the money, (and that is exactly the discussion that needs to happen in the future in the PC and EC not FC)

a)the old but every popular topic of NCSG representatives being able to participate in the ICANN meetings. I think there should be a simple rule that we need to fund minimum the participation of the Chair plus one person from each constituency, but the general rule should be Chair plus TWO from each constituency. If a representative eligible to go under the constituency terms has other funding to go his place should be passed on.

b) if we want and are expected to do outreach in order to engage with members and funders we need first to have our documentation and materials ready online and in print. We need to have a NCSG brochure that is targeted to new members and one that is targeted to potential sponsors. We can do that ourselves but there are people who do it better then us and we should request funds to engage them and to realize the two products above.

c) we need to create and execute a fundraising strategy. Fundraising today is done in our case face to face through contacts with interested organizations and individuals and we need to have the funds to get the ball rolling. once we have some additional funding above that from ICANN sources, the fundraising initiative will pay for itself.

d) we need to create some outreach initiatives. Here we need to be proactive and not wait that people come to us, we need to go to them. NPOC should be participating and represented, (with good support materials) at key national and international meetings. Some of us participate at these meetings anyway but need support to do so. (BTW, all materials we use should talk 90% about NCSG and 5% each about NCUC and NPOC. Any registration materials should give the choice to either join one of the two constituencies or none of them equally, let the constituency do their own outreach on top of it, that is their job. All NCSG materials need to be neutral).
In my opinion we should have a strategy that mostly targets organizations as members and that we recruit the best individuals through and in the organizations. Fact is, if you do not have your employers support in the first place, you will not be able to participate at all. 

e) Talking about facts, 90% of what we need to do is still informing about what ICANN does and what opportunities the participation in it brings. NCSG should seek to hold webinars, lectures, information events and that needs funding.

f) All the above will not work out well if we are not aware and take care of that we need NCSG community building first and foremost. We need to create engagement and connection points with NCSG, such as interactive www sites and so on. If we engage with the ICANN staff I think we might be able to get a lot of things done with existing resources. I suggest we define this better and explore the possibilities.

In addition to all of the above we need to create a administration for the handling of the funds including invoicing, reporting and audits, all of which costs money and needs to be included. We can also hope here for ICANN support.

I think that is roughly what I have to say. After the points have been discussed, changed and added we can put dollar figures behind each point, but I think that it is imperative that NCSG engages with ICANN finances BEFORE the Costa Rica meeting in order to liberate some limited funds to get some of the above going before 2013. 

Let me know what you think. 

Looking forward to your comments

Klaus
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