[ALAC] Preliminary Report of Special Board Meeting

[Sébastien Bachollet]

http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/prelim-report-30sep09.htm

A lot of interesting (as usual) points.

But Two of them deserve attention:

JPA Progress Report

 

>From the Board Finance Committee – Approval of Lease for Palo Alto Office 

The Board received an update from Staff on the lease for the proposed Palo
Alto office space, as required by the presence of ICANN's CEO in Palo Alto.
The Board then took the following action: 
Whereas, ICANN has need for office space in Palo Alto, CA, U.S.A. to meet
needs for current staff, including the CEO; 
Whereas, ICANN, as a technical coordinator of Internet identifiers, has an
organizational benefit in maintaining a geographic presence in one of the
leading technology centers of the world; 
Whereas future ICANN staff growth is likely to be outside of the existing
offices in Marina del Rey, CA, and likely to increase in other parts of the
U.S. and the World; 

Resolved (2009.09.30.14) that the ICANN Board authorize the Chief Financial
Officer to negotiate for and finalize a lease for office space in Palo Alto,
CA on commercially reasonable terms, for approximately 5,000 square feet of
space, not to exceed a ten year term, and for total occupancy costs to start
out at less than $400,000 per year, and not to exceed $600,000 per year
during the lease term. 

One Board member abstained from voting on this resolution. All remaining
Board members in attendance approved of this resolution. The resolution
passed. 

In abstaining Director Subrenat, noted the following: " I wish to make clear
that my abstention is in no way a negative reflection on Rod Beckstrom:
quite on the contrary, I find he is an inspiring Chief Executive. My
abstention is based on a matter of principle." 
"Having been much involved in the President Strategy Committee's ‘improving
institutional confidence' work, I can state that the challenge in the coming
months and years for the Internet, and for ICANN, is to become more global,
through more international involvement." 
"In this context, opening a new office in the US is not in any way a
priority, and would even send a contrary message to the ICANN community
worldwide." 

I do support the JJ Subrenat position and I want to add that the Job
description was very clear:

"LOCATION

The position will be based in Marina del Rey, California, with travel up to
60% of the time."

 

Maybe ICANN needs to open an office in each and every cities where there
employees come from ;)

 

All the best

 

Sébastien Bachollet

Président d'honneur - Isoc France

 <mailto:sebastien.bachollet at isoc.fr> sebastien.bachollet at isoc.fr

 <http://www.egeni.org/> www.egeni.org

 <http://www.isoc.fr/> www.isoc.fr