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ICANN Executive Committee Votes Funds to GAC
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The following is posted at:
http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc10/msg03427.html
A number of questions have been asked and comments made regarding the ICANN
Board's recent decision to fund partly, for a limited period of time, the
GAC secretariat and chair functions, see
http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-13aug02.htm
The following information, which is based on what I know, may answer some of
the questions that have been raised.
At the Accra meeting 11-12 March 2002, the Chair of GAC, Paul Twoomey,
stated:
"... the Chair advised that he will be resigning effective from the end of
the Shanghai meeting and the Australian Government will cease providing the
Secretariat function at the end of the Bucharest meeting."
The issue of replacing the GAC Secretariat was discussed at the 9-10 April
GAC meeting in Bruxelles and the 3-4 June GAC meeting in Canberra.
At both those meetings, some GAC members, and in particular ITU, offered to
provide some secretariat services as in-kind support for GAC. Specifically,
ITU offered to provide the basic secretariat support for meetings, at no
cost to ICANN or to GAC (since the costs are already covered by ITU's
participation).
These offers were noted but not discussed. It was noted that a global
discussion of the nature and role of the GAC secretariat should take place
in the context of ICANN reform.
The GAC meeting in Bucharest was essentially focussed on preparing comments
on the recently-published Blueprint for Reform. At the very end of the
meeting, at 3am, Paul Twoomey announced that Australia had reversed its
previous decision to stop funding the Chair and the Secretariat and was
willing to fund both the Chair and the Secretariat for an interim period.
As a consequence, the Chair announced that Australia would continue to
provide the Secretariat.
I am informed that subsequently the Australian government informed ICANN
that it would be willing to perform the role of GAC Secretariat, but
indicated that it would no longer fund that role. I am informed that the
Australian government subsequently raised with ICANN the issue of finding
alternative sources of funding.
As noted in previous E-Mails, the Board made a decision to provide up to
$75'000 dollars to the Australian goverment, to cover actual costs of chair
and secretariat services for a limited period of time.
I am informed that a draft budget for this funding, for the period 1 July to
15 November, is being prepared by the GAC Secretariat and will be circulated
to the GAC membership.
Best,
Richard
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That's very interesting, and telling. BTW, I think it is Twomey, not Twoomey, or is that the Australian spelling? What's up with that Aussie government anyway? They hijack the .au domain, become the first ccTLD to sign ICANN's pay and obey contract, and bring in a version of the UDRP which greatly increases complainant rights (whilst elsewhere, eg: elsewhere in the Commonwealth like .ca and .uk, the trend is to bring in versions of the UDRP more weighted towards the rights of the respondent). Twomey, who was appointed by the BoD to serve as Chair of the GAC in 1999, seems to have left public service. So how can he remain a GAC member, let alone Chair, when the BoD voted a few months later in 1999 regarding GAC membership: The accredited representative of a Member must hold a formal official position with the Member's public administration. The term "official" includes a holder of an elected governmental office, or a person who is employed by such government, public authority or multinational governmental or treaty organization and whose primary function with such government, public authority or organization is to develop or influence governmental or public policies. Ironically, they inserted that clause at the urging of Paul Twomey. On his assumption of office, ICANN quoted Twomey as saying:The role of the GAC is a significant element of ICANN, [a]nd I acknowledge that ICANN's invitation for me to chair the GAC is a great compliment to Australia's role to date in the Internet reform process. In my position as Chairman, I will endeavour to ensure that the principles affirmed by ICANN, which are those of fairness and transparency of policy and procedure, are upheld, and that these principles are exercised to the maximum extent feasible. Well, we've seen what a great job he's done of that so far. Presumably they're now paying him because he at least has a proven ability to speak ICANNese. -g
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A bit more on .au domain name policies here. They take .sport.com.au away from its prior registrant because he offered the name for sale by auction on eBay (that's a no-no, although the original registrant won it in an auction run by AuDA, which is not a no-no). -g
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