Stephen Heath
With great power comes great responsibility. Welcome and thanks for taking time to read the material provide by myself and the other candidates for the various InternetNZ elections.
InternetNZ has a very small membership base with a considerable non membership income. This income is from our unique role in the world of being the custodian and manager of the .nz name space. Thanks to this role, and its resulting income, we are able to provide input and advice in key areas that align with our objectives as a society.
However we must ensure that our 'core' operates in a manner that meets the needs of registrants and does not take advantage of the unique nature of the .nz TLD and its inherent monopoly status.
What we do outside of the 'core' can make a huge difference in New Zealand but we must understand that we can not do everything that could be done. We must have limits and we must respect the limits we impose on ourselves.
I believe the key limit we have is that we must operate NZRS on a cost plus model and not become addicted to the future dividend flow from NZRS. As one of the two people that prepared all the cash flow and profit projections of NZRS before it was formed I can tell you that the domain name growth was the only area that we got wrong. We prepared all the financial projections of the company on a much lower domain name growth.
As former Treasurer I know the challenges of InternetNZ. In fact in my first term the revenue grew from less than hundred thousand to over a million dollars, in less than 12 months. Putting in place the polices to handle this change in magnitude while working on implementing the SRS as both Treasurer and other committed and working group roles I had is still something I recall with satisfaction.
I have observed in the last few years a large amount of spending that is not sustainable in the medium to long term. A small number of people have a major influence on events and expenditure in InternetNZ, this has always been the case. I would like to make sure that what is presented to members for approval is clearly documented and is robust in its approach.
I am standing for Treasurer as I have the skills and experience for the job as well the desire to make sure that the current and future aspects of the society are met. I am currently contracting to the Department of Labour as the Vendor Manager for the EDS out source agreement. I have responsibility for all aspects of the engagement of EDS in both application development and operational support.
