[Euro-board] Review of the EURALO CROPP Program

[Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond]

Dear EURALO Board,

one of our Action Items of the last EURALO call, recorded on
https://community.icann.org/x/BwabAw , reads:

/3.   CROPP to be the main topic for next monthly call, advantages and
disadvantages of CROPP to be discussed to come up with recommendations
on the best way to use this resource./

CROPP is the "Community Regional Outreach Pilot Program". It provides
the ability to have 5 ICANN-funded 2 day & 2 nights trips to a meeting
which will advance EURALO Outreach. The explanation of CROPP is given
on: https://community.icann.org/x/P400Aw

Our two CROPP Review Team Representatives are Yuliya Morenets and Wolf
Ludwig.

EURALO needs to review the current CROPP strategy. This is to be laid
out on the Fiscal Year 17 EURALO Outreach Strategic Plan, which we need
to draft in line with the Regional Strategic Plan elaborated with the
ICANN Global Stakeholder Engagement department for Europe (including
Russia & Eastern Europe).
Work on this needs to start as soon as possible. May I propose that our
Task Force on ALS engagement, plus our EURALO Board work on this? Or
should it be preferable if we discuss this on our main EURALO discuss list?

Our CROPP Strategy in past years was to send 5 people to the European
Dialogue in Internet Governance (EURODIG). These were usually
responsible for potential prospective ALSes, but we have also funded
people from recent ALSes. The aim was to give a taste of Internet
Governance and ICANN related topics to people who might file an
application for At-Large Structure, or, if an already existing At-Large
Structure, might get more engaged in EURALO, At-Large and ICANN working
groups.
Other RALOs use CROPP funding in a different way, which is to send
trusted and active community representatives to various meetings for
them to recruit new ALSes and explain what At-Large is. They have never
used all 5 slots for the same meeting.

The first task is to look at past CROPP reports. Please read them:

FY16: https://community.icann.org/x/0500Aw
FY15: https://community.icann.org/x/kJ7hAg
FY14: https://community.icann.org/x/YwefAg

The current Strategy has yielded some real successes but not 100% of the
time.
Is it time to change this strategy? Or should we mix the strategy,
sending fewer people to EuroDIG every year but also a trusted RALO
representative to another meeting, for example a RIPE meeting, or ICANN
Studienkreis, or a meeting of Civil Society, or something else?

I am sending this email first to the EURALO Board, to collect your
initial feedback before I send it to the EURALO Discuss mailing list. Or
should the explanation be amended? As per the Action Item, the next
EURALO call will include some time to discuss CROPP, so please read
through the above and get the conversation going before the call takes
place.

A lot of questions here - I am looking forward to your kind reply.

Olivier