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- Communications budget is available in FY15
- ALAC/At-Large to request a fund for promotional items for engagement and outreach (could be within FY16 AC/SO Requests)
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- There has been some degree of follow-up re this recommendation. During the ICANN 53 ALAC-Board meeting, ICANN CEO proposed a special funding (e.g. 10,000 USD) for assisting community members to apply for visas to attend ICANN meetings. While it does not seem to have explicit follow-up re this proposal, some At-Large members were provided funding to obtain visa for ICANN 54. This may indicate that the ICANN Board is receptive to short-lead funding request and the ALAC should be encouraged to advance this recommendation with the Board.
- This recommendation is linked to recommendation #21: https://community.icann.org/x/TZZCAw
- Challenge for CROPP is that it is only used for community members to participate in existing events; it cannot be used to fund or organize events. The only way to fund or organize event is to apply for a special budget request and let the Finance and Budget Sub-Committee decide whether it is viable. FBSC usually reviews the event applications in Jan or Feb. The events have to be really well planned out, especially with good budget estimates, otherwise the applications will be rejected. It is very hard to plan some event that is so far out at the beginning of the year.
- At-Large should have the ability to apply for ICANN funding for members to organize events that will happen in a shorter period of time (e.g. 3-month time, 6-moth time). As such, the application for funding will be more well thought out. This funding should be separate from CROPP's funding.
- This funding should also cover community-initiated education / capacity building events/activities that are not related to travel. The funding will mainly cover venue, refreshment, and other spending to attract people to attend the events.
- LACRALO's proposal can serve as an example for such funding (https://community.icann.org/x/Aa7hAg; https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lXtoi9VNuaR0mA2lli9IAAAMgQHa6wOGeVKbirT_-a8/edit)
- The draft ICANN Civil Society Engagement Plan (https://community.icann.org/x/-5FCAw) may also relate to this recommendation. It can create collaboration opportunities between local ALSes, GSE, NPOC, NCUC, and NCSG. For example, the events hosted by GSE and other constituencies may already have venue and refreshments covered, or provide the funding for workshops and panels that ALSes ask for, so that local ALSes can take advantage of the existing resources and avoid reinventing the wheel.
- Nonetheless, At-Large members like Sebastien Bachollet disagrees that the proposal is pointing ICANN in the right direction, as civil society is only a subset of the user community. He emphasized that ICANN is not organized via civil society and shouldn't over emphasize the civil society concept. At-Large is the voice of billions of end users, much greater than the civil society; overemphasizing this concept may make At-Large end up like ISOC chapters, etc. All ICANN Staff need to make an effort to meet local ALSes when they are traveling for outreach and engagement related work. Judith Hellerstein thinks that At-Large's work is more in line with NPOC. There has been some degree of follow-up re the special funding (as proposed by ICANN CEO in ICANN 53 ALAC-Board meeting) for assisting community members to apply for visas to attend ICANN meetings; some community members were provided funding to obtain visa for ICANN 54