[NA-Discuss] Financial Contribution & Assessment of Dues

[Evan Leibovitch]

How absolutely astounding that anyone who supposedly advocates for
greater public accessibility wants to retroactively change the RALO
model to "pay for play".

We operate on a shoestring. There's no way we could participate in San
Juan without financial support. The value of CLUE personnel time spent
so far on this ICANN advisory adventure -- with no evidence yet that
we'll actually have any effect on the process -- is substantial.

A "membership fee" assumes that we are joining something from which we
would be entitled to "member benefits". So far the only benefit has been
the ability to have substantial amounts of our time disintegrated in the
pursuit of pointless discussions that have nothing to so with actual
policy. In any case, it has yet to be demonstrated that ICANN's
financial model requires such contributions.

The RALO structure is that of an advisory body, not a membership
organization, and we are here by invitation. The notion that we should
have to pay for the privilege of offering our point of view is
reprehensible.

Hey, I have no problem recommending that CLUE pay a membership fee IFF
ICANN will pay for the time I spend having to read ridiculous,
time-wasting emails generated from its process. The net-positive revenue
stream to our organization would be considerable.

- Evan