At-Large Workspace: ICANN Draft FY19 Operating Plan and Budget and Five-Year Operating Plan Update
Public Comment Close | Statement | Status | Assignee(s) | Call for | Call for | Vote Open | Vote Close | Date of Submission | Staff Contact and Email | Statement Number |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
Hide the information below, please click here
FINAL VERSION TO BE SUBMITTED IF RATIFIED
The final version to be submitted, if the draft is ratified, will be placed here by upon completion of the vote.
FINAL DRAFT VERSION TO BE VOTED UPON BY THE ALAC
The final draft version to be voted upon by the ALAC will be placed here before the vote is to begin.
FIRST DRAFT SUBMITTED
The first draft submitted will be placed here before the call for comments begins.
Comments
A few things to consider:
We need to mention ATLAS III. We were originally hoping that it would occur in FY19, but that is clearly not the case. So FY20 is our target. It is reasonably clear that although the GA/ATLAS concept is now in the five year operational plan, it has NOT been considered in budgets. Specifically, our hope was that it could logically be funded over several years, but to date there is no evidence of money being put aside. So we need to
serve notice that we will be planning for it in FY20 and budget consideration should be given to it now (implying but not saying that they should put some money away for it)
in the era of the Empowered Community, we need to give a discreet heads-up that it wil be coming.
The document says that the Additional Budget Request (ABR) envelope in FY18 was envelope has been cut by "more than 50%" (document #2, page 22). The ABR funding for FY18 was $646,800 (https://icann-community.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/106630108/FY18%20SO-AC%20Additional%20Budget%20Requests%20Explanations%20Adopted%20Final.pdf, For FY19 the placeholder is $212,735 (document #4, page 21). If those two figures are for the same item - they seem to be but the budget documents change from year to year, that seems to be a cut of 2/3! When you then add the complete cutting of CROP, they have ripped out the vast bulk of "discretionary" spending for the SO/ACs.Have similar cuts been made elsewhere in ICANN?
We need to review budget with some care, looking for places where ther eare clear opportunities to reduce costs, or places which have not been at all impacted by the funding "crisis". Once example I found is the Technical Experts Group (TEG). The TEG was created wghen the Board abolished the Liaison from the Technical Liaison Group which consisted of members from several standards organizations. Instead the TEG meets with the Board for 90 minutes at every ICANN meeting. They are allocated six members for each ICANN meeting and they all travel in business class. The budget shows (document # 4, page 21) that if they only were provided with economy travel (like most volunteers, the savings in FY19 would be $75,000 - 50% more than the cost of CROP for At-Large.
Alan, Great suggestion. I never knew why the TEG travels in business class while all others travel in economy
As for the ABR, if that is the case thanyou are correct, the ABR was cut by 2/3.
At the same time the documents show that staff continue to increase when all else is being cut.
The NCSG have intersessionals every year that are funded but yet we cannot get an ATLAS funded?
Whether we can fund ATLAS remains to be seen. There will no doubt be obstacles, but let's not PRESUME it will not be funded...
To be precise, I do not beleive that NCSG has an intersessional meeting, but the Non-Contracted Party House does, of which NCSG is a part.
During our recent call, I have heard rumours of CROP being slashed in FY19. I had to check this out myself, and could not find it in any of the Budget documents, nor was there a mention about CROP on any budget summaries, nor any announcement of CROP being slashed.
I compared FY18 and FY19 master budget documents, along with project numbers and although this was a bit time consuming, I think I have found the answer:
In the overall budget Excel Master Document - Section 1.2 for FY18 had projects 151053, 151157, 151171, 151172, 151173, 151177, 151180, 151187, 151188, 151190, etc.
In FY19, there is 151055 to replace 151053, then 151157, 151171, 151173, 151177, 151180, 151189, 151190, 151191 etc.
Thus missing from the list are 151172, 151187, 151188
151172 = FY18 Ongoing ccNSO Council Support
This was a budget item that appears to have been folded into 151171 the ongoing ccNSO General Support.
151187 = FY18 Ongoing SO-AC, GNSO Secretariat Support Program
That was probably folded into 151206 - Recurring Activity - GNSO PDP Support & Activities. In FY18 this line used to be more restricted to just policy support with 7.7FTE & $1.2M. In FY18 151206 is 9.6FTE & $1.7M
And that leaves 151188 missing from FY19. Budget Item 151188 is: CROP.
Thus is appears that CROP has been discontinued, unless it is covered by another budget elsewhere, but I have gone through the whole account with a fine tooth-comb and not found any mention of CROP or its various denominations.