Notes from NPOC Executive Committee Meeting

Posted by Oreoluwa Lesi

Tuesday, June 25, 2019 (ICANN 65 Policy Forum – Marrakech, Morocco)

PRESENT: Joan Kerr, Raoul Plommer, Oreoluwa Lesi, David Cake, Carlos Gutierrez, Caleb Ogundele, Remmy Nweke, Maryam Bakoshi (ICANN Staff)

ABSENT: Juan Manuel Rojas

ICANN66 MEETING:

  • Canadian visas can be difficult to get, so names for travel need to be submitted well ahead of time.
  • Action Items:
  • Maryam: We need to submit names for travel by July 4 (for NPOC EC)

PUBLIC COMMENTS

  • NomCom Recommendations:
  • Joan contributed to about 4 public comments over the last year, of which the NomCom Recommendations was one.
  • Raoul: We have asked for an NPOC seat on NomCom. If that doesn’t work, we proposed a system of rotating seats within NCSG.
  • Raoul: Suggested taking a GAC seat and give this seat to other constituency
  • Carlos: NPOC needs to be sure that we really want this, because applying and joining the NomCom is a lot of work, which means that the workload is incredibly heavy and we need to make sure that we have people who can competently fill in this role.
  • Dave: NCUC rep is Anriette Esterhuysen and her term is soon up. Finding a replacement within NCUC is proving tough. It isn’t realistic to expect someone to be on the NomCom and hold any other position. Ideally, they are looking for people who have lots of professional experience running big businesses with multi-million dollar budgets.
  • Joan: We should clarify what the criteria to join the NomCom is and start to identify members who might qualify and share these criteria with members of the community, after all amongst our members are organisations with huge budgets.
  • Dave: NomCom doesn’t just appoint board members. It also appoints councillors. So if we know someone who is very active, though not active within ICANN, we can look at bringing them into ICANN (NPOC)
  • Action Item:
  • Look for someone who is very active, though maybe not within ICANN, we can look at bringing them into ICANN (NPOC)
  • Clarify what the criteria for joining the NomCom is and start to identify members who might qualify and let them know.
  • Dot Org Registry Agreement:
  • Joan: NPOC also submitted comments on the Dot Org registry agreements. PIR re-invests the domain fees paid into the Internet community, but nonprofits still need to be able to afford to purchase and renew their dot org domain names.
  • Dave: A GAC member at yesterday’s PC meeting pointed out that the surplus from dot Org domain names go to ISOC and used to fund IETF (so money goes back to the community)

EC INTRODUCTIONS

WEBSITE UPDATE:

  • Caleb made some updates to the website, in response to feedback from EC and community
  • He had shared some recommendations this morning on options of integrating Trello into the websites. These options require paying fees, so we need to think deeply about why we want to integrate Trello into our website.
  • Caleb suggests we purchase a cloud storage plan
    • Joan mention that since that’s a financial decision, we need to decide as an EC if we will go ahead with that first.
    • Ore: Asked for clarity on the earlier plan to use our existing web host as a cloud storage
    • Raoul: We would like to showcase our technology use as a model for other nonprofits of what can be done with a lean budget. However, we has been searching for a plugin to enable us integrate WordPress with our host server, but those have been expensive.
    • Caleb: A more commercial tool such as Google tools / G-Suite can enable us work collaboratively. The web host option would best serve as storage for our website, but not offer the best tools to support collaborative work. Separating the (web) storage and collaborative tools, would also help us build a library of important NPOC documents, which current and future community members can refer to.
    • Carlos: It is important to develop a digital footprint, even at a financial cost. However we also need to keep our website active and keep the ICANN wiki alive.
    • We can store our documents for free in the ICANN Wiki (https://community.icann.org/display/NPOCC/NPOC+Home). Suggest we take as much advantage of free tools provided by ICANN, so we can use our funds more judiciously.
      • Suggested order of priority: Website 1st, Directory 2nd and Storage 3rd (use ICANN resources that are free to us. We can link as many resources as possible from the ICANN wiki).
  • Caleb: Has been coordinating ongoing social media updates from this meeting
  • Raoul: We could ask Mozilla to help vet the website to ensure that it is safe and secure and meets best web practices
  • Carlos: There is an organisation in the Netherlands who helped ISOC Netherlands and other NGOs to build secure websites.
  • Action Item:
  • Raoul and Caleb will review the ICANN Wiki, website and other existing resources so that we can use what we have efficiently to maintain a vibrant online presence.

PUBLICITY MATERIALS:

  • We need to update the booklets with new information. We also need to translate into additional languages
  • Raoul: GSE can work on slide decks for NPOC on the issues that NPOC members are facing e.g. DNS Abuse, Intellectual Property, etc
  • Action Items:
  • Maryam will ask about the deadlines for submitting new materials to be printed and for translation
  • Raoul: Send a request immediately to Jean Jacques and Adam Peake for GSE to work on slide decks to be made

CHARTER:

  • There will be a charter review meeting on Wednesday, June 26 from 1 to 3PM.
  • Carlos will be unable to make it as he has a council meetings

BANK ACCOUNT:

  • Raoul: We can decide if we want to go ahead and decide to open a bank account
  • Carlos: Suggests that we have a mandate of 2 signatures out of at least 3 or 4 people. This gives allowance in case one person is unavailable to sign off on a tranaction.
  • 100 Euro per electronic ID (citizenship)
  • Carlos: What would the name of the registered nonprofit be? He has a lot of experience with ISOC chapters who have opened bank accounts. Suggests we find out from other ISOC chapters on how to proceed.
  • Joan: Thought we might have a foundation e.g. NPOC Foundation
  • Remmy: We need to factor this bank account into the Charter so that the purpose, scope of all issues related to the bank account is clear for the current and future ECs.
  • Carlos: We can say this foundation is established for the sole purpose of supporting NPOC.
  • Previous NPOC leadership had a serious fight over the lack of definition about the scope of NPOC with regards to money.
  • Action Item:
  • We need to define in the nonprofit’s charter the purpose of the nonprofit.

POLICY COMMITTEE:

  • Dave moved the motion that the NPOC representatives to the NCSG Policy Committe are now David Cake and Carlos Gutierrez
  • Carlos agreed.
  • Remmy suggested that we keep non-EC NPOC members in the loop, so that they are apprised of opportunities for them to get involved.
  • Action Item:
  • Joan will write to inform Rafik Dammak of this

Discover more from Not-for-Profit Organizations Constituency (NPOC)

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading