[council] GNSO Council interview

Thu Feb 28 15:31:22 UTC 2008

Dear Rita,

I deeply apologize for being late in presenting a long standing problem now at the time of the interview, and I would appreciate to get some comments what you think should be done about it on the ICANN Board level – with your active initiative, I would hope. Unfortunately, I will not be able to be on the phone for the discussion.

As you are probably aware, there has been almost no support from ICANN, as an institution, for the travel costs of members of the GNSO Council members to participate in ICANN meetings. The GNSO Council has discussed repeatedly – as far as I remember at least since the Wellington meetings – the need to secure funding support for transportation and hotel costs for the members of the Council to assist them in fulfilling their roles in attending meetings, as is done for Board members, NomCom appointees, and certain persons in  ALAC. 

This has also been raised in various ways with ICANN. In the period leading up to the New Delhi meetings this had led to official communication from the GNSO Council chairperson, on behalf of the Council, to the ICANN CEO and others. Very late, transportation support only was made available for New Delhi. That was the first time that ICANN made available any travel support for GNSO Council  participation in any ICANN meeting. Unfortunately, it seems that some members of the GNSO Council were still not able to participate in the New Delhi meeting because the support was only for air ticket, and because the decision was announced so late.

The GNSO Council again raised the problem, and on 13 February 2008, a special ICANN “Workshop: Discussion on ICANN Travel Expense Support Funding” was held at the New Delhi meeting. (Unfortunately, I could not participate in it.) 

However, the GNSO Council has still not received an official notification of any decision about the issue. Mike Rodenbaugh, a member of the Council, wrote to ask for a response. I have just now received a copy of a reply by Denise Michel simply responding with one sentence only: “No funds were set aside for GNSO Council travel support to Paris and there currently are no plans to provide support.” 

As you know, the GNSO Council is a formally constituted body within the ICANN structure, and performs important functions. It is not only unfair but counter-productive to refuse to support the participation of GNSO Council members in meetings, while other bodies contributing to ICANN's work are supported. I would like to know how you intend to help to solve this problem, and also how you could help to improve communication between the Board, the staff, and the GNSO Council more broadly. I consider this case as a serious example where present ICANN practice – in spite of several attempts to rectify the situation – needs improvement.

I would also like to use this occasion to raise my concerns about the way in which ICANN resources for travel are handled. Below is some background material which shows that the administrative handling of my New Delhi travel arrangements did neither care to economize ICANN resources nor demonstrate any understanding of how to handle travel arrangements in a flexible way. Furthermore, as I heard, some participants supported by Fellowship Funding were forced to travel back before the end of the meetings, in order to meet some ICANN travel agency convenience, after hundreds or more than one thousand dollars had been spent to bring those persons to Delhi. 

I would therefore also appreciate to know how you would assist that ICANN use its resources more wisely. Squeezing meeting participants into imposed schedules is an obstacle to their fulfilling their tasks – surely members of the ICANN Board would not tolerate this for themselves. I propose that it is urgent that ICANN authorize, in principle, that supported travelers can make their own travel arrangements and purchase their own tickets if those would be cheaper than tickets provided by ICANN. This would allow meeting participants to mesh ICANN travel with other obligations and choose the travel dates according to their own requirements.

Thanks for your attention, I look forward to your response,

With my best greetings, still from Cambodia,

Norbert Klein
Member of the GNSO Council

= = =

Attachments:

Background information on how my ICANN travel administration was handled:

In order to prepare my participation in the 8-9/10-15 February 2008 New Delhi meetings, I made an early inquiry with a local travel agent, knowing that ticket prices are different according to the time of booking, with considerably cheaper tickets available in the case of early bookings. 

On 11 January 2008, I sent in the dates and flight numbers I had received from the agent, and I added the following information on the form I had received:

“As this is the time close to the Chinese New Year, when it is difficult to get seats, I have made tentative bookings as stated above.
I have made no firm bookings, just reserved the seats.
If I had been authorized to make early payments, the price would have been US$535.
If I would be authorized to buy the tickets here, the price would now be US$590 (subject to daily revision).”

To my great surprise I received the following response from the ICANN travel service:

“Fare is now USD 2,577.70  no lower fares available.  

Please review the tentative itinerary below for changes or approval to ticket. You have 72 hours from the time of receipt of this email to respond, otherwise your tentative flight reservation will automatically get canceled. . .

PENALTY FARE REMARKS 

THIS IS AN ADVANCED PURCHASE NONRFUNDABLE FARE. 
ANY CHANGES MAY RESULT IN A HIGHER FARE AND CHANGE FEE...”

The dates and flight numbers ICANN offered were for exactly the same airline and flight dates and flight numbers.

After receiving this information, I contacted immediately the travel agent again: the ticket price was by now increased to $695 (but changeable without additional payments and refundable) and still available, if I would purchase it early in the week. Therefore I asked ICANN:

1) to be authorized to buy my ticket here for US$695.00 (for later reimbursement), and

2) to receive the difference between the two prices quoted ($2,577.70 minus $695.00), that is 1,882.70, towards covering hotel costs in New Delhi.

=

To point 2) I received no response or reaction. To point 1) the response was still not “Thanks - we are happy that you help to save ICANN money, so you can buy a flexible, if necessary reroutable and refundable ticket for US$695 which you said is available through your agent” - but I got offered instead the following:

“Subject: Re: ICANN GNSO - Group 3356 - PAX NAME: Klein ***Response is Required ASAP***
Date: Tuesday, 15 January 2008

Please see another option for you,  fare for this itinerary would be $861.10. 

MH 755B 08FEB F PNHKUL HK1  1110A  200P
MH 190B 08FEB F KULDEL HK1   640P  950P
MH 191H 15FEB F DELKUL HK1  1110P  700A
MH 754H 16FEB J KULPNH HK1   925A 1015A”

The price of this new ICANN generated option costing of $861.10 was still higher than what I had proposed, and in addition it would return me home to Phnom Penh later. 

= 

Only after a protest did I finally got the permission to save ICANN funds; I received this response:

“After much research we found that tickets which are issued in countries with
'soft currencies' can be obtained for lower fares in the country of origin...
Therefore I have obtained authorization for you to purchase your ticket in
the amount of $695.00US and ICANN will reimburse you.”

So after much effort I was allowed to buy a flexible ticket for $695, instead of a less convenient and less flexible one for $861.10 or for  $2,577.70

To this day I have still not received any reply to my request that I use the $1,882.70 saved on my ticket for hotel instead.

As the ICANN travel service informed me, my cheap ticket was possible because “tickets which are issued in countries with 'soft currencies' can be obtained for lower fares in the country of origin.” 

I wonder who in the ICANN administration has, in the meantime, taken the initiative to check how many members of the ICANN Board, of the NomCom appointees, of the ALAC members, or of the recipients of the ICANN Fellowship travel grants live in 'soft currency' countries, and how ICANN can save funds according to the proportion of  $535 to $2,577.70.  I am aware that ICANN has in the past budgeted over $7,000 per person per event (although, as mentioned above, still nothing is budgeted for GNSO Council members).

And I wonder if the ICANN administration, bound to observe economic wisdom and the ICANN “Frameworks and Principles on Accountability and Transparency”, will from now on authorize that supported travelers can purchase their tickets early and get them re-imbursed, if they are cheaper than the non-changeable and more expensive tickets.

Norbert Klein
Member of the GNSO Council
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