[At-Large] Auction Proceeds - where we are and what you can help

[bzs at theworld.com]

On May 13, 2017 at 12:28 johnl at iecc.com (John R. Levine) wrote:
 > 
 > There's a separate question of what to do with the extra application 
 > money.  Personally, I find it hard to have a lot of sympathy for the dire 
 > conditions of speculators and marketers who applied, and I'd treat the 
 > extra the same way as the auction money, use it to support projects 
 > relevant to ICANN's charitable mission.

Whether I agree or not I'm not sure spending the money before one is
sued or similar is a good plan either. One could end up with an
insolvent ICANN no matter what our opinions are of the results or how
they transpired.

That said I would agree that there is a tendency when running any
business that "excess" cash tends to get allocated one way or another
barring an iron-willed commitment otherwise which is not what I'd
expect of an organization structured like ICANN.

Even when that allocation, due to lack of competition or superior
firepower or even errors in judgement (e.g., lawsuits), is miserable.

This is one reason why the idea of a trust or endowment which is
structured to make such allocations much more difficult (nothing is
impossible) has, I believe, merit.

-- 
        -Barry Shein

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