Executive Committee
Meeting Minutes 03-008
Executive committee
meeting 15 September, 2003
Date: 2003-10-21
Committee: Executive Committee of BoT
Document: excom-03-008
Revision:
Supersedes:
Status: Unconfirmed
Maintainer: Minutes taken by S. Bradner.
Access: Unrestricted
Present:
Fred Baker (Chair)
Steve Crocker
Kees Neggers
Glenn Ricart
Pindar Wong
Lynn St. Amour (President)
Lynn DuVal - ISOC Dir. of Finance
Scott Bradner (Secretary).
Apologies were received from Latif Ladid.
The ISOC ExCom met from 9:02am to 11:00 am (EDT) October 21, 2003 via conference call.
I Financial Update, including 2004 budget timeline
Lynn reported that she sent out a financial report last night. Received 2nd injection of PIR funds to support the identified projects. Lynn projects that the organizational revenues will fall short of budget projections and that PIR funds will exceed budget projections. She still expects that the overall budget projection of a small surplus will be met. As a result of the PIR infusion the ISOC cash position is quite good.
Lynn will have a 2004 draft budget ready for the November board meeting but, because the PIR budget will not be finalized until after the board meeting, the budget she will present to the Board will not be final and the Board will need to hold a special teleconference meeting to approve the budget. Lynn noted that the PIR budget process was running late this year because PIR is trying to understand its cash flow since it did not get any history from the previous operator of .org.
In response to a question from Pindar, Lynn reported that the final decision on the non-profit tax status for PIR will not be known until next summer. Meanwhile, PIR is setting aside enough funds to cover an adverse decision.
II IETF Universe Update
Lynn, Fred and Steve reported on the discussions going on in the IETF Advisory Committee. They reported that the discussions are ongoing but have not reached any conclusions. They also reported that there would be discussions during the upcoming IETF meeting and on the IETF mailing list.
III Individual Membership proposal - additional questions/comments?
Lynn reported that she had received no real comments on the Individual Membership proposal she had sent to the board. She hopes that there will be some discussion before the board meeting. The ExCom discussed the level of benefits proposed for the new membership class and voting mechanism (chapter-based voting vs. individual voting). Lynn reported that about 800 people responded to a survey of which benefits ISOC members would find useful. It was noted that additional benefits could fall out of the results of the IETF discussions. ExCom members agreed to try to kick start discussion on the board list on the Individual Membership proposal.
IV Strategy & Operating Plans - preparation for the Board discussion
Lynn reported on the memo she sent to the board on the results of previous strategic planning efforts. She noted Pindar's suggestion for an "Interoperability Preservation" ISOC bumper sticker. She also said that she felt that the ISOC needed to be more involved in the current round of Internet governance discussions at WSIS, the ITU etc. Lynn noted that the board had not had much luck in the past discussing strategic issues during board meetings but that it was needed. Kees suggested that the basic questions are 'what can the ISOC do that no one else can do and what can the ISOC do better than anyone else can.'
Kees said that he feels that the board must define strategic directions soon. It was noted that there is an interaction with the IETF's discussions of its future that may change the strategic direction that the ISOC could take and these discussions may take a while to conclude.
V Review Draft BoT Agenda for November 2003 meeting
Lynn reported that she and Fred would be meeting later this week and she expected to send a draft of the Board agenda to the board by the end of the week.
VI Miscellaneous / AOB
VI (a) Barcelona conference
Kees asked what the status was of the preparations for the Barcelona INET conference. Lynn reported that she was about to appoint program committee and conference committee chairs. Lynn will report on the status of the conference at the board meeting in November.
VI (b) VP Education:
Lynn reported that the Randy Bush and Zita Wenzel have stepped down as ISOC Education VP's as part of their effort to reduce their commitments.
VI (c) Conflict of Interest Statement (revision of current policy)
The ExCom discussed the revised conflict of interest statement and minor wording suggestions were made. The question of who should oversee the conflict of interest process came up. A possible structure was suggested of a subcommittee comprising of the President, the Chair of the Board and a lawyer selected for the purpose. The revised statement will be sent to the board soon
VI (d) Credit Facilities
The ISOC currently has a $75K line of credit. Lynn St. Amour reported that Lynn DuVal has started exploring establishing a larger line of credit.
