[EURO-Discuss] Notes from Monday’s Geneva Meeting

[Wolf Ludwig]

Dear all,

as promised yesterday, below you find the notes from our meeting on Monday in Geneva for review and comments:

______
Notes / Minutes from EURALOs’ first board meeting
on Monday, 25 February 08, 12h00 – 15h30, at Jade Manotel, Geneva:

Board members foreseen were: Annette, Desirée, Rudi, Sébastien and Wolf. 
Present in Geneva: Annette, Desirée, Wolf.
Sébastien execused by Mail (Monday morning), no answer from Rudi.
Jeanette, Bill and Wolfgang were briefed on the outcome on Tuesday (by Wolf).


Proposed Agenda for this (1st) EURALO board meeting 
-- no supplements were suggested.

(Topic 1) Briefing about ICANN’s New Delhi meeting
As the board members present have all been in Delhi there is no need for a general briefing about the last ICANN conference.

Wolf explained why he insisted on today’s board meeting even if our funding request has not been approved by ICANN staff again. The meeting was already agreed at our last phone conference at 17 January. And as it was said again and again that the EURALO board must have a chance to meet at least once f2f before the first GA in summer in Paris to overcome the “agony” we were accused for during the last months.


(Topic 2) Options for an EURALO summit or PrepCom in Paris
The idea for organising a Users’ Summit came up at ICANN’s LA meeting and Sébastien was strongly involved in the subsequent discussion and draft of a proposal in the Summit-WG. From a EURALO point of view there was a certain frustration when the global summit was postponed to the “Fiscal Year 2008-09”, to be organised somewhere else but Paris, by the ICANN board. And there have been different suggestions and ideas to use the ICANN Paris meeting *at our front door* for a common EURALO User-related project. In this context Wolfgang suggested: 
“I would add that we need a drafting committee. One outcome from the summit should be a "ICANN At Large & Internet Users Declaration". The Paris meeting gives us an opportunity to negotiate F2F on a text like on a PrepCom. We would need a drafting group with volunteers starting on a concrete outline and later with text.” (Wolfgang)

The EURALO board (Annette, Desirée, Wolf, Jeanette, Bill and Wolfgang so far) believes that there is a need for another event for European ALSes besides the foreseen GA *based on content* with Working Groups and presentation on subjects like

* Whois (volunteers Wolf with Rudi?)
* A “Internet Users Declaration"
* Public perception and understanding of DNS (Desirée)
* Summary of ALAC’s activities (who volunteers for this part?)
(any further suggestions for subjects?)
Annette said that she has worked already on the “Internet Users Declaration" issue of putting together a list of items relevant for Internet users underlining some special European concern like Privacy and the Whois. Annette volunteeres to chair this WG and to set-up a Website to further discuss these subjects. The ALAC-EU / EURLAO (www.//st.icann.org/euralo/index.clgl) could be a suitable place for this.

As we believe that many of our ALSes are tired from procedural debates and won’t come to Paris in summer if there is no event / programme of content and substance which may attract and mobilize them again. Therefore a common project like a European PrepCom (for a later global Users’ Summit) is considered as being essential. As we cannot count on ICANN funding for such a side event / Users’ Summit PrepCom in Paris Wolf will prepare and submit a project proposal for the board to be submitted to different European organisations for sponsoring.
Part of such a PrepCom and project proposal could be an input like a “reader” with summarized position papers on subjects dealt with in Paris.


(Topic 3) Draft EURALO budget for the coming fiscal year
The board members (present) agreed that the current working conditions do not enable or promote RALOs’ efforts and do not allow to follow their tasks, dynamics and agenda setting. After EURALO was created in March 07 in Lisbon and the board was elected in May 07 we repeatedly asked for funding for a f2f board and outreach meeting which was refused twice. And there is no transparency so far, which of the five RALOs has requested what for their respective activities and what was approved by the staff or not. As long as we have no auto-determination and decision authority on the conduct of our activities we cannot make further progress with our work. 

At the Los Angeles 2007 meeting, ALAC and RALOs and staff have agreed upon clear procedures that any ALAC member or RALO representative could send in a budget proposal to the ALAC budget committee; the budget committee then coordinates the budget proposals and sends it to ALAC and RALOs and in general it is expected that if proposals within the limits of the budget, it should be approved by staff, and if it is not approved, the staff should explain why. Staff should be copied on the proposals from the very begging in order to facilitate this process.

EURALO will submit a new budget proposal for the Fiscal Year 2008-09 to ALAC that will at least include 
-one board f2f meeting a year, 
-one General Assembly, 
-and several outreach and internet user related projects.

Wolf will prepare a draft at the beginning of March, post it on the list for review and submit it afterwards to ALAC’s budget committee.


(Topic 4) Planning for General Assembly in June 08 in Paris
According to the by-laws EURALO and its board are supposed to organise a first General Assembly within one year. The next ICANN meeting in Paris offers the best opportunity for this GA as one representative per ALS will be invited and funded by ICANN for a meeting in its region.

For a preliminary/draft GA-agenda the following points are suggested:
Board Statement of Accounts, needs for revision of Bylaws (as noted in Lisbon) for example individual users participation at EURALO, discussion and approval of a EURALO working programme and projects 2008-09, approval of EURALO’s working budget 2008-09, board (re-)elections.


(Topic 5) Board elections at GA in June 08 in Paris
As the term of some (half) of the board members will expire in summer we have to discuss this issue at the GA in Paris. There are suggestions to reduce the size of the EURALO board to five members to make it more operational and effective. We have to clarify in advance whether any adjustments have to be made in the By-laws.


(Topic 6) Other outreach activities foreseen
Wolf was invited last week (21./22.02.08) to the DomainPulse 2008 in Vienna to discuss the “User perspective” and to present EURALO on a panel (moderated by Wolfgang and with participation of Roberto and others).

Another outreach meeting (ICANN Studienkreis) is already foreseen in October 08 in Helsinki and EURALO should use this opportunity to find, attract and include ALSes from Scandinavia (which is a blind spot at our landscape so far).


(7) Miscellaneous
None


This is a first draft from Monday’s meeting, discussed, modified and approved at yesterday evening’s/Tuesday meeting with Jeanette, Bill and Wolfgang. Please let us know your comments on the respective topics! If we can find further approval we could define it as a “consent paper” of the board -- and discuss further details on a next phone conference.

Thanks and regards,
Wolf



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