[ALSC-Forum] FYI: Elections not budgeted

[Alexander Svensson]

Dear all,

although this has already been circulating on
various ICANN-related mailing lists, I'm reposting
it here on the At Large Study Committee list,
since it probably didn't reach everyone interested
in the issue:

The proposed ICANN budget for the financial year
2001/2002 contains $0.00 for At Large elections. [1]
Only the Study Committee itself with its $450,000
budget is mentioned in the proposal. In a prior version
of the budget proposal [2], the expenses for "Special
Projects - At Large" was still "tbd" (to be determined).

In the same budget, it says that the completion
of the At Large study and the implementation (!)
of the Study Committee's recommendations adopted by
the Board are among the "Specific Priorities for FY01-02".

As Jonathan Weinberg pointed out on the DNSO GA list,
there is a passage in the ICANN bylaws [3] about the
study which states that
  Any actions taken by the Board as a result of the study
  that require the selection of any "At Large" Directors
  should be implemented on a schedule that will allow any
  new "At Large" Directors to be seated no later than the
  conclusion of the Annual Meeting of the Corporation in 2002.

That Annual Meeting will take place in the end of 2002,
and the budget for the fiscal year 01/02 (1-Jul-2001 to
30-Jun-2002) does not contain any allowance for the
membership registration process, let alone the election
process. (For the first elections, the registration
period began in February, the deadline was in the end
of July, the elections were in October.)

ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf has responded to the criticism
by referring back to the At Large Study Committee final
report "which is supposed to include consideration of
funding among many other things." (The report shall be
finished until the Los Angeles meeting in November 2001.)

So, unless the budget proposal is amended in Stockholm,
there is a budget to study the At Large, but no budget
for the At Large!

Best regards,
/// Alexander

[1] http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/registrars/Arc01/doc00026.doc
[2] http://www.icann.org/financials/preliminary-budget-19feb01.htm
[3] http://www.icann.org/general/bylaws.htm#II

See also
http://www.icannwatch.org/article.php?sid=140