Re: [ICANN-EU] [Q&A] the exciting adventures of a nominee

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

Andrew and all,

  Yes, most of us have been ware of ICANN's funding problems.
Most of which have been as a result of their own short comings and
extravagant traveling expenses which have received some notice
and comment in the recent past on the Domain-Policy and DNSO GA
mailing lists (See relevant Archives for further documentation), as
well and in the media.  This along with the shortness of staff
members is not a valid excuse for poor performance as ICANN
has had opportunities to acquire the required funding to which
you elude to in your comments below.  Yet the ICANN Board
has yet to take advantage of those opportunities to date.

  If Esther Dyson, Mike Roberts and some others on the ICANN
Board had not spent so much on extravagant traveling expenses
for "Special Treatment and accommodations", possibly the funding
for the AT-Large and additional staff members would be available
now.

Andrew McLaughlin wrote:

> Giorgio:
>
> The problem is not "allocation" of budget -- the problem is that ICANN is a
> small non-profit which has only about half the funding it needs to conduct a
> full set of normal operations, not including special projects like the At
> Large membership.  The problem is not a willingness to spend -- it's a
> complete lack of funds.  As a technical coordinating body, we have to
> perform day-to-day technical coordination tasks, the funding for which comes
> from the various registries and registrars.  We cannot divert it from the
> fundamental technical responsibilities of the organization.
>
> As of now, ICANN has fewer than 10 employees.  We all work extremely hard to
> keep things going, but you must understand that we have only one person
> working on At Large.  Also, as you can tell, I spend a portion of my time on
> membership, but I have a long list of other responsibilities.  I would
> *love* to hire more staff to work on membership -- the At Large manager
> received something like 6,000 emails last weekend;  obviously most of them
> will go unanswered.
>
> Looking forward, I'm interested in your thoughts on this question:  Why do
> you think that no one in Europe (no government, no foundation, no company,
> etc.) offered so much as US$1 to support the At Large membership program?
>
> Anyway, I think Jeanette's complaint is not a fair one -- the nominations
> period closed late on Friday, and she is unhappy that she must wait until
> Monday morning (California time) to reach a staff assistant in the ICANN
> office, to start using the Q&A Forum (which will be available for 1 month).
> I repeat:  the election is not for Master of the Internet, but for the Board
> of Directors of a small non-profit body in California that is responsible
> for some specific, but important, technical coordination tasks.
>
> These are all matters to keep in mind for the post-election study;  in the
> meantime, it would be helpful for everyone to keep this process in
> perspective.  Like anything that depends upon 1 or 2 human beings, there are
> limitations.
>
> --Andrew
>
> [ -----Original Message-----
> [ From: grunz@box1.tin.it [mailto:grunz@box1.tin.it]On Behalf Of Griffini
> [ Giorgio
> [ Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 1:59 AM
> [ To: mclaughlin@pobox.com
> [ Cc: icann-europe@fitug.de; Jeanette Hofmann
> [ Subject: RE: [ICANN-EU] [Q&A] the exciting adventures of a nominee
> [
> [
> [ Andrew McLaughlin wrote:
> [ > Jeanette:
> [ >
> [ > Please relax!  The ICANN staff does not work 24 hours a day, 7
> [ days a week.
> [ > You'll get your login IDs on Monday, when the staff returns to
> [ work, after
> [ > very long days on Friday and Saturday.
> [ >
> [ > --andrew
> [ >
> [ Yes, we understand the staff is not organized to have a 24x7 coverage but
> [ don't you
> [ think that this maybe considered a miss about a worldwide election ?
> [ Time zones were not invented now, and altough we are quitely used to live
> [ with, dont you think that there is a little bit of 'unequity of
> [ support' if we ,for
> [ example , have to stay up the night to talk to someone and have problems
> [ solved quickly while instead better time zone favoured regions may do it
> [ under the light of the sun ?
> [ This is not a complaint now, but it will easily became on the
> [ next election
> [ run I think.. so please consider this msg just as a hint on
> [ considering also
> [ time zone problems when approaching elections next time.
> [
> [ Best regards
> [ Giorgio Griffini
> [
> [ PS. Ok. There is no budget now.
> [ Hope some will be alloted for next run uh ?
> [
> [

Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman INEGroup (Over 112k members strong!)
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
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