[registrars] ICANN funding travel for GNSO council reps

[Bruce Tonkin]

Hello Jon,
  

>>  Personally, I think that ICANN should provide financial support to
the constituencies.  In turn, we, as a constituency, would decide
whether to use the funding for travel, professional support,
administrative support, etc.   

Do you think the financial support should be equal - or in some
proportion to membership/involvement?

One of the problems at the moment is that there is not much incentive
for existing constituencies to grow their membership.   So a
constituency can be operated by one or two active members that dominate
all the discussion around their own personal views, rather than the
views of a larger more diverse constituency.   For example it is
interesting to see how much harder the registrars constituency with a
large diverse membership finds forming a common position compared to
some other constituencies.

You could potentially have some concept of matching funds.

E.g Assume for discussion that each constituency charges $100 per member
and that ICANN administers the membership payments.

ICANN could then assign the membership payments for management by the
constituency plus some percentage of general ICANN funding - e.g 100% of
fees up to some cap.

So for example lets say ICANN provided up to $20,000 per constituency
(for a total of $120,000 across 6 constituencies)  on a matching basis.
To reach that level of support you would need 200 members paying $100.
That would give the constituency a total budget of $40,000.   Of course
a constituency would also be free to charge a higher amount - e.g $200
per member, and the ICANN fees could still be matched at $100 per
member.   So a constituency with 200 members, would then have a budget
of $60,0000.   This ensures that there is still an incentive to grow
membership rather than setting up a constituency with a single member
paying $20,000 and then getting an additional $20,000 from ICANN.

Note the amounts I have chosen above are just for example to illustrate
the concept.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin