InternetNZ AGM - 28 July 2006

InternetNZ's 2006 Annual General Meeting was held on Friday 28 July 2006 at:

Level 10, Exchange Place
5 - 7 Willeston Street
Wellington

Minutes

Minutes of 2006 AGM of the Internet Society of New Zealand (Inc).

Following a function for Members and guest speaker presentations from Judit Bayer and Liz Butterfield, and noting the presence of a quorum of financial members, the AGM convened with a welcome from Colin Jackson. Members were present in Wellington, in Auckland, in Dunedin and online.

Meeting opened: 6.57pm

Colin noted that the voting is now open again for the first half of the meeting, and will close around the half-way point of the meeting.

Apologies

Apologies were received from: Mark Harris, John Rumsey, Andrew Mason, Rodney Prescott, Margot McCutcheon, Rick Shera, Roger Hicks.

President / Don Hollander

AGM 01/06 THAT the apologies as noted above be received.

Carried

Minutes of 2005 AGM and Matters Arising:

The only correction was the spelling of Frank March’s name in the Apologies.

President / Chris Streatfield

AGM 02/06 THAT the minutes of the 2005 Annual General Meeting be received as amended, and adopted as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

Carried U

In terms of matters arising, there were none.

President’s Report

Colin noted his written report is in the Annual Report. Aside from those matters, Colin asked the meeting to note the passing of Liz Dengate Thrush last month. He explained her background in the industry, and her commitment to it and to her family.

The meeting stood and observed a minute’s silence.

Colin noted the formation of the Liz Dengate Thrush Foundation to commemorate her work, the establishment of which was facilitated by InternetNZ. Trustees will be appointed and a founding grant from the Society has been made available. Contributions through http://www.internetnz.net.nz/liz/

On other matters, Colin noted the work in the ICANN meetings in March; the government’s announcements on telecommunications regulatory reform which closely matched InternetNZ’s proposals from the stocktake. This reform is a big step forward for New Zealand in aiding broadband uptake.

Colin thanked the outgoing Councillors for their work – Rodney Prescott and Sean Weekes. He also thanked all those standing again who face election contests. He also thanked Merv Delaney for his service as an NZRS director over recent years.

A final note was the proposed constitutional reform package, which is designed to increase membership.

President / Frank March

AGM 03/06 THAT the President’s Report be received.

Carried U

President / John Hine

AGM 04/06 THAT the Annual Report be received.

Carried U

Fellows Appointments

Colin introduced the Fellows appointment process, managed by Frank March for the Fellows. For 2006, Liz Butterfield was appointed as a Fellow by the Council at its meeting on 16 June 2006. Colin introduced Liz’s work and background. Liz was welcomed and congratulated by the Meeting. A certificate of Fellowship was presented and met with applause. Liz made some remarks of thanks in response.

Treasurer’s Report and 2006/07 Budget / Business Plan.

Colin invited the Treasurer to address his report and the Accounts for the 2005 year. Chris Streatfield noted the written report is in the Annual Report document.

Chris noted that the Business Plan is the last from the current Strategic Plan, and a new Plan will drive next year’s budget.

He does not have anything to add, other than that the budget has not been overspent. Chris asked if there are any questions for the budget.

One question was in Strategy 1 2005/06 Budget, which showed a surplus despite revenue and expenditure being the same. All numbers will be checked.

There were no other questions asked.

Chris noted that there have been a number of member consultations on the budget this year, in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Treasurer / Don Hollander

AGM 05/06 THAT the 2006/07 Business Plan and Budget be adopted.

Carried U

Treasurer / John Hine

AGM 06/06 THAT the Treasurer’s Report be adopted.

Carried U

Treasurer / Dominic Baron

AGM 07/06 THAT the Audited Annual Accounts be accepted.

Carried U

Treasurer / Steven Heath

AGM 08/06 THAT Grant Thornton be appointed auditor for the ensuing year.

Carried U

Chris noted he has been Treasurer for the past four years and has enjoyed the job. The meeting congratulated and thanked Chris for his work over this time by applause and acclamation.

At 7.20pm the President noted that voting will close in five minutes.

Executive Director’s Report

Colin asked Keith to report. Keith noted the written report in the Annual Report document. Since that document was published, a number of issues have progressed. InternetNZ will soon lodge submissions on the Telecommunications Amendment Bill, which matches much of what arose from InternetNZ member consultations as reflected in the stocktake submission.

Three key areas of work are to support the proposed legislative changes in broad, to critique the draft law where improvements are made, and to continue to seek separation in Telecom to the most appropriate degree possible. This is busy through to 11 August and beyond. There may not be full consultation on the submissions, but they will be consistent with the established views.

Keith asked for any questions or comments.

Peter Dengate Thrush congratulated the staff on the standard of the Annual Report, which was of a very high quality.

President / Chris Streatfield

AGM 09/06 THAT the report of the Executive Director be received.

Carried U

At 7.24pm, the President declared voting closed. There was a short delay while counting was commenced.

DNC/NZOC Report

Frank March (NZOC Chair) and Debbie Monahan (DNC) joined the top table to make their presentation on the year. Frank began by congratulating Liz on her elevation to the Fellowship. The .nz domain name system is attracting more government interest than it has in the past in the infrastructure of the Internet. The job is becoming more interesting as a result.

Frank spoke to the power point presentation and noted that the Annual Report includes the DNC side. Names are increasing, the reason for this is not entirely clear. There are increasing efforts made to provide guidance to registrants about the rights and responsibilities of holding .nz domain names. A dispute resolution service came into existence at the start of June, marking the substantive completion of the .nz policy framework.

In the year there have been a range of policy reviews. There has been strong growth in domain names too. There was a discussion among members about the drivers of domain name growth.

Frank March / Colin Jackson

AGM 10/06 THAT the DNC/NZOC Report be received, and that the Chairman of NZOC be thanked for his service.

Carried U

John Hine noted that it is five or six years since the 2000 AGM and the struggle to build the .nz SRS since has been successful. Everyone involved should be congratulated.

Colin noted that John wrote the Hine Report, which set out the model.

NZRS Report

Anne Urlwin (Chair) and Nick Griffin (GM) came forward, and delivered a brief report to their powerpoint. This covered the financials, highlights for the year (domain growth, stable staffing, customer satisfaction, ICANN, system availability and more), future plans (TBSR review to implement, evaluate any related new business opportunities, technical outsourcing contract renewal, INZ structural review).

The Board appreciates contributing to NZRS and to the wider community.

Questions asked included some questions about the SLA measurements for availability, and whether there is any monitoring of QoS of ISPs. The latter point will be taken on board, but may duplicate the work of the Consumers Institute.

Colin thanked Anne and Nick for the presentation and for their work.

President / John Hine

AGM 11/06 THAT the NZRS Annual Report be received.

Carried U

General Business

Alick Wilson noted that Telecom has proposed it is New and Changed. Alec’s view is that InternetNZ should continue to push for regulation as strongly as to date, and not lose momentum or rely on the company’s goodwill. The meeting positively agreed with this. Peter noted that a lot of resource is going into this work, on a financial and staff level. The ED noted that submissions will continue along these lines.

No other items of general business were raised.

Announcement of Election Results & Vote on Constitutional Amendments

The Returning Officer announced the election results. Keith is the RO and is a member but did not vote. Keith’s abstention in the election is noted for the record.

Secretary: Chris Streatfield

Treasurer: Michael Wallmannsberger

Councillors:

Frank March, Jamie Baddeley, Michael Sutton, Jonny Martin, Janet Mazenier.

The full results of the preferential ballot will be published on the InternetNZ website.

Both resolutions for Constitutional Amendments were carried with large majorities sufficient to amend the Constitution.

Colin congratulated all those who have been elected, and thanked all those who stood for office.

Keith noted the first Council meeting will be on Saturday 26 August 2006.

Peter Dengate Thrush noted that in the past it was hard to secure enough Council nominations. He hopes all those offering to serve will be taken up and supported to keep contributing in a range of roles.

There being no further business, the 2006 Annual General Meeting closed at 8.08 p.m.

Signed as a true and correct record:

………………………………………………

Colin Jackson, President, CHAIR