[atlarge-discuss] The cost of participation

[DannyYounger@cs.com]

Bruce,

Try not to get so quickly excited about liaison positions until you consider 
the practical implications.  In order to be an organizational liaison to the 
GAC, for example, you have to be able to commit to attending three to four 
meetings per year, all over the planet, and at an average cost of $2500 per 
meeting for travel and accommodation costs.  I know.  I've had to do it, and 
mostly out of my own pocket.  

If other folks will be liaisons to the SOs or constituencies, then they too 
will have to commit personal financial resources to the effort.  You can't be 
a liaison by proxy or in a virtual environment... it requires interacting 
face-to-face with people in order to lobby on behalf of your organization.  

It's great building castles in the sky, but take a moment once in a while to 
be realistic.  Organizations like Markle are no longer even providing funding 
for members of the NCDNHC.  Most members on this list have never even been to 
a single ICANN meeting, let alone three or four consecutive meetings.  

Are you willing to commit $10,000 out of your own pocket this year to be a 
liaison?  Probably not.  Will icannatlarge.com ever have $30,000 to $40,000 
in discretionary funds so that it can afford to send 4 representatives as 
liaisons to the ccSO, the GNSO, the GAC, the ALAC?  Probably not for a long, 
long while.

Good ideas are only good if they can be implemented.  Right now you and the 
rest of the membership will need to rely on the elected representatives to 
somehow attend all these meetings.  How many such meetings will you attend 
per year?  Do you expect to be in Shanghai?  How many of the candidates now 
running for office can commit to this level of participation financially?  It 
would be nice to know...

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