Board Finance Committee Minutes | 13 January 2009

13 January 2009, 15:30 UTC

BFC members present: Raimundo Beca, Steve Crocker, Dennis Jennings, and Rajasekhar Ramaraj (Chair).

Staff members present: Doug Brent, Kevin Wilson, Kurt Pritz, Diane Schroeder, and Dan Halloran.

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

• Approved previous BFC meeting minutes
• Reviewed comments from community on financial considerations of the new gTLD applicant guidebook (RFP) and responses
  • General theme of financial-related comments was a desire to lower the evaluation fee and annual registry fee
  • Proposed staff response is to recognize the complexity of the evaluation process and to take a very conservative approach for the first round of applications, with a review of the fees for the second round.  Staff recommend to hold steady on the US$185k evaluation fee.  In relation to the annual registry fees, staff suggests that, if a standard contract is agreed, the recurring annual registry fees can be lowered to $25k plus $0.25 per transaction if over 50k transactions per annum.
  • Majority of committee in favor of proposed staff approach, but Raimundo Beca disagrees – thinks that the evaluation fee should be reduced to exclude recovery of historical costs, and that the evaluation fees should be collected on a pay as you go basis instead of an up-front with refunds available basis
• Reviewed budget status and FY10 Operating Plan
  • Transaction revenues are still anticipated to be in line with budget estimates
  • Staff will prepare scenarios related to global financial downturn
    
• Discussed Foreign Exchange Policy; recommend that the Board adopt after reviewing, and amending as needed, the policy to ensure fraud prevention procedures are robust.
• Acknowledged that staff received, from At-Large as requested, a cost estimate of the plan for the At Large Summit in Mexico City, and that the estimate is less than the originally approved budget of US$500k.
• Reviewed BFC Project list and requested staff to suggest priorities and timelines for these project and other items involving the BFC.
  • New gTLD financial parameters (including setting of fees)
  • New gTLD impact on ICANN’s multi-year operating plan and budget
  • FY10 Operating Plan and Budget Framework
  • Functional reporting on dashboard
  • Staff will prepare scenarios related to global financial downturn for both FY09 and FY10
  • Complete FY08 Form 990 and post
  • Director’s travel expense policy
  • ICANN procurement policy (including recurring vendors)
  • FX policy implementation
  • Clarify ombudsman budget processes
  • Revenue projections
  • Investment policy and performance
  • Meetings/At Large Summit budget follow up