Board Finance Committee (BFC) Minutes 18 June 2011

BFC Attendees: Sébastien Bachollet; Cherine Chalaby; Rajasekhar Ramaraj – Chair; George Sadowsky; Bruce Tonkin (Observer)

Other Board Attendees: Steve Crocker, Gonzalo Navarro

Invited Attendees: Chris Disspain

Staff Members Present: Akram Atallah – Chief Operating Officer; Elise Gerich – Vice President, IANA, Juan Ojeda, Mike Salazar, Diane Schroeder, Ken Shiu, Amy Stathos and Nick Tomasso.

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The following is a summary of discussions, actions taken and actions identified:

1. Minutes: Reviewed and approved minutes from prior BFC meeting.

2. FY11Workplan: Staff provided the BFC with a brief overview on the status of FY11 workplan activities and noted the main focus on development of the FY12 budget and the ATRT implementation budget.

3. Form 990: Staff provided a report to the BFC on the completion of the 990 filing. The BFC briefly discussed the 990 disclosure requirements.

4. FY12 Budget: Staff provided BFC with an update on community review and public comment feedback to date on the draft FY12 Operating Plan and Budget. Staff also discussed SO and AC budget requests received, the prioritization given to requests, ensuring alignment of the proposed activity with ICANN’s Strategic Plan and generally noted the uniform request for funds for travel and outreach activity. The BFC further discussed: (i) exploring developing a three year view for future workplans; (ii) specific community requests for funding; (iii) the need to develop a process to handle and prioritize these requests; and (iv) an update of the budget estimate for implementing ATRT recommendations. The BFC approved (with the abstention of one BFC member) the FY12 budget for submission for Board approval.

   • Actions:

     • BFC to try to schedule a meeting with community ALAC during the Singapore meeting to understand their request for a second General Assembly.

     • Staff to provide BFC with Budget FAQs and a summary report of the SO/AC budget request process for BFC consideration at the next Board workshop.

     • Staff to develop a draft three-year view for FY12 workplan for BFC consideration.

5. Investment Manager: The staff updated the BFC on the progress of the RFI process to select and recommend an investment manager for the reserve fund. BFC received presentation of potential investment manager(s) experience, capabilities and investment management proposal to the BFC.

   • Actions:

     • Staff to draft BFC recommendation for the Board to endorse selection of the investment manager for the reserve fund.

     • BFC to schedule review of the investment policy at the next Board workshop.

6. .NET Contract: Staff updated the BFC on the status of the .NET contract renewal proposal with VeriSign Inc.

7. Latin America and European ICANN 2012 meeting budgets: Staff provided the BFC with an overview of estimated budget costs for the Latin American and European candidate locations for ICANN meetings in 2012. Staff discussed preferred locations for Latin America and Europe and further noted the additional cost impact of increased travel support numbers for ICANN meetings and the variability of travel fare costs depending on commercial air routes and available competitive airfares. The BFC discussed the cost scenarios for a hosted and non-hosted venue and the major cost implications under each scenario. The BFC further discussed the need to keep event costs consistent with the costs of geographically comparable recent meetings. The BFC approved the Latin American meeting budget and requested Staff to revert with a refined budget for the European meeting in June 2012.

   • Action:

     • Staff to develop revised budget for 2012 European ICANN meeting for BFC consideration during the Singapore meeting.

8. New gTLD Budget: Staff provided an update of changes to the new gTLD budget since the last briefing to the BFC and a brief overview of cashflow analysis assumptions. Staff informed the BFC of revisions to certain application processing costs.

   • Action:

     • Staff to compile community feedback for the BFC in relation to the application of any surplus funds derived from string contention under the new gTLD program.