Venue: Room 104, Kyoto International Conference Hall.
Chair: Peter Dengate Thrush
Attended by: a total of 26 member representatives (from .af, .au, .cx, .hk, .jp, .kr, .lk, .my, .nu, .nz, .sg, .th, .tw, .vn, Afilias) and two invited guests (from .kh and .mn).
These minutes are as amended and adopted at the APTLD Meeting in Singapore, July 6-7 2005.
The meeting opened at 11.00am with the Chair, Peter Dengate Thrush, welcoming members and particularly noting the presence of Kilnam Chon, who was recovering from a serious fall. Peter also welcomed the four people who were sponsored to attend the meeting by APTLD - Mr. Muhammad Aslam (.af) and Ms. Pensri Arunwatanamongkol (.th) as speakers for the Technical Workshop, and Mrs. Lim Yatal (.kh) and Ms. Baasansuren Burmaa (.mn) as prospective APTLD Members. Peter also noted that the just-completed Board meeting had made some changes to the meeting agenda.
The meeting briefly reviewed the list of upcoming ICANN meetings.
Chris reported on the ccNSO Council meeting at Cape Town in December 2004, where APTLD was officially recognised as a Regional Organisation for the Asia Pacific. APTLD now needs to appoint a representative to the ccNSO Council, who can attend Council meetings and report back to APTLD. He noted that a decision on who this would be depends on the coming decision about whether to appoint an APTLD General Manager. Chris noted that CENTR will most likely appoint Giovanni Seppia, its General Manager, to this role. Chris believes APTLD should appoint a representative at this meeting, and that this should occur whether or not a decision is made about the General Manager proposal.
Peter Dengate Thrush (PDT) asked what would happen if no decision was made regarding a GM - who should take the position and what should their role be; Chris (CD) explains that the role is to ensure communications both ways, between the ccNSO and APTLD. He thinks the rep should be a staff member rather than a Board member or other volunteer. PDT noted that Chris (.au), Hotta-San (.jp) and Young Eum Lee (.kr) are already ccNSO Councillors based in the APTLD region. CD noted that aside from this, APTLD as the R.O. is entitled to formal representation. Richard St Clair (.nu) thought that having the Secretariat or someone permanent to do the job would be ideal. CD agreed it needs to be someone who can attend the Council meetings regularly, either in person or by teleconference.
PDT suggested that the decision be deferred until after the discussion on the proposed establishment of a General Manager for APTLD. CD noted that a GM could also attend CENTR meetings for APTLD, and added two other points - that he will discuss the ICANN Strategic Plan and wwTLD matters with Paul Kane at the Argentina ICANN meeting in April; and that the R.O's should consider organising a non-ICANN ccTLD forum once a year, for world discussion on ccTLD issues outside the ICANN framework. On the last point, PDT noted that the Latin Americans would prefer the ccNSO to do this work and do not have the money to run such forums; CENTR on the other hand are not strongly engaged with ccNSO and would prefer a different forum. He also noted that it is a question of resources, and that this could be worked around by having any such fora around other meetings (e.g. CENTR or APTLD meetings). CD said he was not suggesting a new forum, but agreed with holding something in conjunction with existing meetings. He raised the issue just to get people thinking about the issues.
Edmon Chung (Afilias) agreed that meeting at the same time as ICANN or other regional meetings would be a sensible solution. David Farrar (.nz) referred to a debate at the Kuala Lumpur meeting, and said he could see the advantages to having a separate meeting separately organised by ccTLDs at the ICANN meetings, if there are enough ccTLD issues to make such a meeting worthwhile. CD wondered whether such a ccTLD forum would be most useful, or if regular joint meetings of the Boards of the R.O's might achieve a similar objective more effectively and efficiently.
The meeting noted that this issue had been raised, and would continue to be discussed among the ccTLDs. APTLD will await a formal suggestion, and could see a number of ways the objective of ccTLD coordination might be achieved. After some further discussion, a resolution was moved. Discussion continued.
Continuing with his ccNSO report, Chris Disspain noted that the ccNSO has been busy on a number of fronts, with working groups considering issues as diverse as: the ICANN Strategic Plan, WSIS/WGIG, Accounting Framework, GAC, Budget and Secretariat. Progress is slow because people have been very busy. On Monday, Donna Austin starts at ICANN as a ccNSO Liaison Officer, and will be working with Chris to progress ccNSO issues before the ICANN meeting in April. Chris to meet with Hotta-San to talk about accounting framework, WSIS and the ICANN Strategic Plan.
Chris also noted that the revised GAC principles are seen as better, and that ccNSO is seeking feedback on these.
On the ccNSO Secretariat, Chris noted some issues with TWNIC's ability to provide the agreed Secretariat function, which should be discussed during the current meeting. David Farrar noted that the ccNSO does need an independent Secretariat. Chris noted that there would be a cc function at the Argentina ICANN meeting, and that the only problem for the Secretariat proposal is working out the appropriate cost model. At ICANN in Cape Town, the APTLD model was agreed as being appropriate, but was not finally agreed as the way forward at that meeting.
Ching Chiao (.tw) noted that TWNIC's issue was about working out the true cost of hosting the Secretariat function. Chris agreed to discuss this with TWNIC.
Chris Disspain (.au) / Shariya Haniz Zulkifli (.my)
THAT APTLD supports continued close interaction and cooperation among the global ccTLD community. We look forward to discussing methods and avenues (such as leveraging on regional associations) to bring this into effect.
Carried U
Doug Barton (IANA General Manager) joined the meeting at 11.30am, and spoke to his presentation. During the subsequent Q&A session, the following issues were discussed:
Peter thanked Doug for attending the meeting, which then broke for lunch 12.30-2.00pm.
Peter Dengate Thrush led the meeting through a review of ICANN's draft 2003-04 -2006-7 Strategic Plan, hilighting many sections for members to consider. Members took an initial view that a response would be appropriate and agreed to discuss such a response after Chris Disspain's presentation on the outcome of the Amsterdam consultation. Chris worked through the need for ICANN's plan to be split into two documents - a longer range Strategic Plan, and an implementation plan for each year developed in conjunction with ICANN's annual budget. He noted Dr Paul Twomey's comments which were in line with moving to this sort of approach. The aim should be to have a revised document to discuss at the ICANN meeting in Argentina.
Members then went through a number of documents to gather more ideas for the APTLD response. These included considering and making comments on points raised by:
Other points raised in the debate included the following:
The meeting agreed that there should be an APTLD response; that this should consider the process being taken to be a positive one, and that it take into account the results of the full discussion held on all the issues. Peter Dengate Thrush and Chris Disspain agreed to draft a statement and have this considered on 22 February when the AGM continues.
The results of the discussion, including the various perspectives agreed by the members after debate, are summarised in the APTLD Statement on the ICANN Strategic Plan rather than being repeated in these minutes.
The afternoon session continued with members' presentations, available as .pdf files linked through the Agenda.
The formal AGM began at 9.33am when a quorum was present, with a brief welcome from the Chair, Peter Dengate Thrush.
Peter explained the process, which is the endorsement of the electronic ballot held in January to select the new Board members.
Peter Dengate Thrush (.nz) / Shariya Haniz Zulkifli (.my)
THAT the election results as previously notified be endorsed.
Carried U
This item had been covered on Sunday.
Shariya took the Chair for the purposes of the Board Report.
Peter Dengate Thrush presented his Chair's report. He noted his special thanks to TWNIC for their Secretariat services 2001-2004.
Shariya Haniz Zulkifli (.my) / Chris Disspain (.au)
THAT the Chair's Report be accepted.
Carried U
Yumi Ohashi presented her report.
Peter Dengate Thrush asked how APTLD could best recruit new members. He noted that sponsorship to attend meetings has worked in the past, but wondered if this was the best way going foward. Yumi-san replied that more could perhaps be done: upgrade information on the APTLD website about membership; better online promotion. She will develop a plan for better joining material to be developed on the website. PDT queried whether there was budget provision to do this if required, Yumi-san said that there was.
Shariya Haniz Zulkifli (.my) / Chris Disspain (.au)
THAT the report of the Membership/Sponsorship Committee be accepted.
Carried U
There was no written report; items were covered in the ICANN discussion on Sunday.
There was no written report.
Chris Disspain noted that the role of the Technical Committee to date has been to organise APTLD Technical Workshops. He wondered whether there needs to be a technical forum or discussion list for APTLD, where members' technical contacts can share information, ideas, suggestions and so on. Peter Dengate Thrush agreed this would be a useful addition to APTLD activity, and that CENTR's technical list provides a good example of how this could work.
Should the committee be renamed or should it be a new list? Chris thought it should be a separate list with a different name, and agreed to work with the Secretariat to establish such a list. Peter asked members to keep an eye out for such a list and to encourage their technical members to join it when it is established.
Peter Dengate Thrush noted the link between this work done by Tech Committee, and the efforts to attract new members by Membership Committee. Managers had been sponsored to attend meetings in part to receive training. Meetings had been held in conjunction with ICANN to attempt to attract greater numbers. He thought that after several years on the current programme, the issue of training of ccTLD managers in the region could also be reassessed.
He referred to suggestions made in the past by Kanchana Kanchanasut, and agreed to take the matter up with her.
Shariya Haniz Zulkifli presented her report, dealing with the use of proxies in APTLD meetings. In discussion the following points were agreed:
The Committee is also looking at wider issues, including online elections, the 21 days notice requirement for the AGM, and quorum rules. Shariya hopes that these can be developed into a full set of proposals for members to vote on by the end of the year, to take effect in 2006.
Peter Dengate Thrush (.nz) / Richard StClair (.nu)
THAT the report of the Constitution Committee be accepted.
Carried U
Chris Disspain presented an oral report. The next APTLD members meeting will be in Singapore, on or around 7 July 2005, just prior to the July ICANN meeting in Luxembourg. SGNIC staff have begun negotiating room rental and venue provision for the meeting; they have held 30 rooms at corporate rates and will be contacting the Secretariat to discuss meeting requirements shortly. He noted that having meetings causes necessary work to be done, and so he supports APTLD retaining a three-meeting calendar each year. These should be over two or three days, and the first meeting of the year should probably be held in conjunction with APRICOT.
PDT agrees that longer meetings are worthwhile, and that there is no point having three one-day meetings. He would prefer fewer, but longer, meetings. .nu said they don't mind the meeting programme. .sg believe that the meetings should be two consecutive days, with a technical workshop either before or after the board and members' meetings. Chris says that he thinks the two-day meetings more often are useful, and notes that the length was increased because the frequency was cut. He wants to keep the three two-day meeting pattern for a while.
There would be a third APTLD meeting in October/November. The first meeting of 2006 would probably be at APRICOT 2006 in Bangalore, India. For the last meeting of 2005, a venue and host are asked to volunteer. It was noted that there would be an ICANN meeting in Vancouver, Canada at the start of December. Chan-ki Park said .kr could host end of October/start of November; Jonathan Shea said .hk would be happy to host at the same time. Members were asked to email offers to Chris Disspain so the Committee could consider these.
PDT asked whether it was time to hold a meeting farther to the West - in the Middle East region. He has started some discussions and notes that we can, and should, meet in all parts of the region over time. The options should be considered. Stafford Guest noted that Jordan (.jo) might be interested in hosting this last meeting of 2005 - he thought this had been mentioned at the Perth meeting in November 2004. Chris noted that there would be a lot to be said for meeting in the West of the region, but that we would need to ensure that electronic access was made available for that sort of meeting.
For the first meeting in 2006, Chris noted that sometimes holding APTLD in conjunction with APRICOT means people get lost into the APRICOT sessions. Shariya noted that it may be a good meeting to use to encourage potential members from south Asia to join APTLD. Chris asked that feedback on this go to him too.
PDT asked Lim Yatal and Ms Burmaa their views of the meetings. Ms. Burmaa indicated the availability of other sessions had been useful, so appreciated the joint meeting. Mrs Yatal thought the closer meetings were to Cambodia, the easier it would be for .kh to attend.
Chanki Park presented an oral report. He has received the audit report from Deloitte, who audited the 2004 accounts. The opening balance was USD 65,668.00; annual expenses were about USD 32,000, and the closing balance was USD 109,699.00. The status of the accounts is sound and firm. The contract with Deloitte is now over and APTLD will need to appoint a new audit firm in New Zealand to do the 2005 accounts.
Chanki Park (.kr) / Shariya Haniz Zulkifli (.my)
THAT Grant Thornton be appointed as auditors for 2005 and that the sum of USD 1,500 set aside for paying costs.
Carried U
The meeting broke for morning tea at 10.40am, and resumed at 10.55am.
Edmon Chung gave a presentation on the .IN launch, and took questions. PDT asked what the registration prices were - for third level domains they were 250 rupees or USD 5 - 6. For second level domains they were 500 rupees or USD 11. Members asked what NIXI was - it is a not for profit independent corporation established by the Indian Government, including industry input. It has an MoU from the government to run the ccTLD. InRegistry was appointed by government to run the registry - they are a subsidiary of NIXI. Peter also asked about the redelegation process - this is being discussed, but is not moving forward. Currently the official ccTLD contact is the National Centre of Technology.
Chris Disspain spoke to his presentation. A job description had been earlier sent out. Feedback was useful, and the duties of the GM are the focus of the presentation. There are two key questions: should a GM be appointed, what would they do? Second, can APTLD afford to appoint a GM? Richard St Clair added another question - what does APTLD want to do, and does it want to go to the 'next level' in membership growth and professionalisation or not. There was extensive discussion about the items raised, including the experience of appointing a Secretariat, incorporation and future efforts to help ccTLDs in the region.
Richard's view is that the key function is for APTLD to give our members a voice in ICANN/ccNSO. Shariya noted that our aim should be found in carrying out the APTLD mission. Objectives there. Just a matter of “doing it”. Jonathan Shea agreed. PDT ran through the six proposed tasks and thought they were all appropriate and required. He asked about the interface with the Secretariat: Chris replied that secretariat services are on a cost recovery basis, so the less done the less the expense. Secretariat would focus on the administrative aspects of APTLD activities.
A straw poll indicated members present wanted to move ahead with the idea of employing a GM. The discussion then turned to costs. Members identified concerns with pressures for mission creep that might emerge from employing a GM; the fact that USD50k is 2/3 of current revenue. Chris responded that the proposal is simply for a one-year trial. Some funds could come from the Membership/Sponsorship Committee budget which has been underspent the last two years; they could co-locate with the Secretariat in NZ but this is a new, more demanding role that the Secretariat has not been asked to fill and is not best placed to meet.
There was also concern about whether it would be hard to appoint someone for a 12 month term, or whether a longer appointment would be required. Chris pointed out this is a catch-22 position: we could wait until there is more money to employ someone but it may take employing someone to generate more membership and thus more money. .AU would be prepared to pay more if the result was a GM. Shariya pointed out the largest registries are already members and so future members won't generate much more revenue; higher fees on existing members may be required. Afilias' fee level could be increased.
Chris noted he would be happy to serve on this committee but did not have the time available to convene it.Stafford Guest (.nu) / Chris Disspain (.au)
THAT the Board establish a committee to investigate the proposal to employ a General Manager, and come back to the membership with a more substantive proposal within one month.
Carried U
5. Secretariat Reports
Ian Chiang from TWNIC (old Secretariat) presented the report for 2004 and the 2004 financial report.
Peter Dengate Thrush (.nz) / Stafford Guest (.nu)
THAT the Secretariat Reports be adopted.
Carried U
Jordan Carter from InternetNZ (new Secretariat) presented the report for 2005, which included the draft budget for the year. There was a long discussion on the membership fee bands for 2005, with Chris Disspain proposing a 10% increase to all bands; that Afilias could afford to pay more; that .AU would contribute more. A number of other comments were made, and members agreed to adopt the budget:
Peter Dengate Thrush (.nz) / Shariya Haniz Zulkifli (.my)
THAT the budget, as presented in the report and amended by the meeting, be adopted.
Carried U
It was also noted that the Secretariat should add to its objectives the task of web-casting APTLD meetings. The Secretariat agreed to take this under consideration for implementing at the July meeting.
The meeting broke for lunch about 12.35pm and resumed at 2.00pm.
Edmon Chung gave his presentation on IDNs.
Ching Chiao gave his presentation on APEET and the current status of ENUM trials in the Asia Pacific region.
Shariya gave her presentation, taking members through the first two papers prepared by the WGIG and exploring the implications for APTLD members. The time to submit on the first draft papers is over. Revised papers out later this month. Should APTLD form positions on WGIG issues?
Hotta-san introduced the JPRS position and Yumi-san spoke to it.
After discussion, it was agreed that APTLD should take a position on the WGIG issues by 14 March, and that a draft statement should be available before that point. The following agreed to serve on the committee drafting the statement:
Keith Davidson asked whether this input might be more useful later in the WGIG process. Shariya said it was needed soon, and will email the relevant dates around.
Members went through the statement as drafted by PDT and Chriss Disspain, and made some final changes. Key points to note are that the statement takes a strong position on some issues. The version of the statement as finalised by the meeting can be read here.
The meeting considered and amended a draft statement to ICANN from Hiro Hotta. The final statement can be read here.
There was a brief discussion about whether APTLD should have a position in response to the revised GAC principles. There will be a working group between the GAC and ccNSO on 5 April, and a message will be delivered on the updated principles. Some elements within the GAC do not want to adopt the revised principles.
It was suggested that we could look to CENTR and see their draft statement. Time, however was probably too short to allow preparation of an APTLD position before the Mar del Plata meeting of the GAC. Members were encouraged to liaise with their GAC members “at home”.
There being no other general business, the 2005 Annual General Meeting closed at 4.35pm.