Council Minutes 19/07/02

Held at the InternetNZ Council Room, L4, 4 Bond Street, Wellington, Friday 19 July 2002 at 11.20am

Note - for links to papers etc, see the Agenda.

Status: Minutes Adopted at Council Meeting 020830

Induction Session

Prior to the Council Meeting an Induction Session was held for all new Councillors. Gavin Adlam, Solicitor, addressed the Councillors outlining Roles and Responsibilities in relation to their Governance role for InternetNZ. The Executive Director introduced the staff and outlined the work of the Office of the Society and its Operational role for InternetNZ.

1. WELCOME FROM CHAIR

Keith Davidson (President) opened the meeting at 11.20am and welcomed new and returning Councilors and Officers.

2. ATTENDANCE

a. PRESENT

Keith Davidson (President), David Farrar (Secretary), Chris Streatfield (Treasurer), Jonathan Ah Kit, Jordan Carter, Roger De Salis, Bert Felt, Grant Forsyth, Jennifer Northover, Bill Parkin, Simon Riley, Rick Shera, Joop Teernstra, Nick Wallingford, Michael Wallmannsberger, Sue Leader (Executive Director)

b. IN ATTENDANCE

• Frank March ,Chair, .nz Oversight Committee for item 6
• Peter Dengate Thrush, Chair, International Affairs Committee for item 6
• Debbie Monahan, Domain Name Commissioner for item 6
• John Vostermans (Technical Manager)

c. APOLOGIES

Absence: Howard Frederick, Drew Whittle

Lateness: Richard Bourne

02/65 MOVED: (Carter/Parkin) "THAT the Apologies be accepted".

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

3. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING

02/66 MOVED: (Secretary/Treasurer) "THAT the Minutes of the Council Meeting held on 7 June 2002 be accepted as a true and correct record".

CARRIED

Abstentions: Felt, Forsyth, Parkin, Shera, Wallingford, Wallmannsberger

4. MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

Amendments to the Minutes:

• Section 1. Welcome - meeting is misspelled
• Section 8. Admin Committee, b. Honoraria (pg 6)
  Top bullet point, pg 6,. Remove the word 'the' before 'report'.
• Section 9 Liaison Taskforce Report: First bullet point, second sentence (p 12).
  Replace the word 'Rick' with the word 'Risk'.
• Section 10 Appointment of .nz Oversight Committee (pg 14) "02/57": First line, Add the actual Motion Number (01/56)

5. COMMITTEES AND WORKING GROUPS

The President spoke to a list of committee structures that he had prepared for discussion and apologised that this had not been circulated prior to the meeting. He had called for registrations of interest from individuals as to which committees they wished to serve on and he would pass to Chairs the names of those people who had indicated interest in a particular committee. His job was to appoint the committee chairs, who would then appoint their own committees. Some people had not yet indicated the committees on which they would like to serve. Because of the changes to Council structure it was important that each Working Group and Committee revise their terms of reference to ensure that they fitted with the new structure and that these be received by the next Council meeting, or by e-vote before then.

The Secretary suggested that committees should indicate their delegated authorities if they wish more than recommendatory powers.

The President recommended that the Admin Committee should comprise the officers of the Society. Two other Councillors would be added.

In the past the Technical Committee had been more or less focussed on the technical running of DRS and .nz. This work had largely disappeared from that committee and the President suggested that IPv6 be made part of the Technical Committee. The work of the Methods of Electronic Participation Working Group could probably be reasonably done by the Technical Committee. The Unsolicited Bulk E-mail or Spamming Working Group, could move into the the Technical Committee. The Technical Committee could do a review of the .maori.nz process and pass this on to .nz Oversight Committee. He recommended Richard Bourne as chair.

The President thought that the Legal and Regulatory Affairs Committee would grow in power and stature and he suggested that the old Political Liaison Group should fall into that committee. He thought that it was important to note that some of the responsibilities might fall between the .nz. Oversight Committee and he recommended Rick Shera as chair.

New terms of reference were required for the Social Impact Committee and he felt the committee could do work on the outcome from the Internet Industry Forum held in Auckland in 2001. It could do the 'driving' on revising the Internet Code of Practice.

Cr Riley questioned whether the Internet Code of Practice should fall in to the Social Impact Committee as it was an industry issue and therefore should be under Legal & Regulatory.

The President said that the work of Roger De Salis and Sue Leader had seen the re-emergence of the Internet Code of Practice. He thought the Code was at the grassroots and would disagreed that it should be with Legal.

Cr De Salis said this led to a deeper issue that faced the Council and referred to the last three or four years where Telecom had not signed the Code -. Council could make all the policy it liked but, in the event, it would have to work with two major players in the industry and would need to consider how this should be done. One of the issues Council faced in the next twelve months was being told 'No'.

The President referred to the Auckland Internet Industry Forum where attendees had said they would explore the concept of self-regulation. He felt the Council had a mandate from that Forum.

Cr Forsyth felt that Cr Riley had correctly categorised the substance of the Internet Code of Practice and that the issues suggested by Cr De Salis did exist. It was important for Council to scope outcomes that would be desirable but he felt they would be better handled in the context of legal.

The President felt that in terms of drafting, the Internet Code of Practice could be Legal & Regulatory but that the overall responsibility should lie with Social Impact. The Executive Director noted that the draft Business Cases currently with Council for comment contained the Internet Code of Practice work as a separate project area and suggested that Council review this before making a final decision.

In response to Cr Streatfield's question as to whether the Social Impact Committee could be considered an outreach committee, the President suggested that a question-mark be placed around the name of the committee. He recommended Jordan Carter as chair.

The President recommended that Peter Dengate Thrush should chair the International Affairs Committee, with Jennifer Northover as deputy chair.

The .nz Oversight Committee had been formed and was a complete structure. The President believed that Council may have to amend its terms of reference somewhat.

Terms of Reference for the Next Generation Internet Steering Group (formerly Internet2 (NZ) Steering Group) were to be completed shortly. Cr Riley said that the Steering Group had expanded to include senior people from the Research and IT sector.

Most of the work of the Constitution Review Working Group would be complete by the end of the year. The Secretary did not believe that Peter Dengate Thrush wished to sit on the committee and suggested that Cr Shera might be interested, as resident lawyer.

The President requested that terms of reference and committee composition be confirmed at the next meeting, or by evote.

A new Strategic Planning Taskforce had been formed to evolve a Strategic Planning process to go to Council by December, chair would be Simon Riley with Jennifer Northover as the other member. Other Councillors were encouraged to put their name forward for this if interested.

The President would chair the Domainz Future Taskforce .

He suggested that the Domain Name Dispute Resolution Working Group should report to the .nz Oversight Committee.

MOVED (President/Treasurer) "THAT the Committee and Working group structure and chairs be ratified".

Discussion:

• Cr Carter commented that there had been a view expressed at the last meeting that the Administration Committee had been empire building. The President responded that he had suggested two additional people for that committee, though the circulated list had only Officers on it.
• Cr Felt asked that papers be distributed by e-mail a couple of weeks prior to Council meetings. The Secretary advised that, normally, the Administration Committee met two weeks prior to Council and that papers went out one week in advance. Papers were put on the website. The Executive Director noted that the Office sent out all reports and papers which were received by deadline and also endeavoured to place even late reports on the website.
• Approximately half of the Council Members confirmed they would like hard copies of papers. Cr Forsyth indicated his preference to receive information by e-mail rather than via the website. Cr Felt referred to the question of security.
• The President advised that papers were distributed in time and were referred to in the agenda.

  ACTION: Executive Director to email all Council Members to establish preferred method of receipt of Council papers.

• Cr Riley commented that the idea of changing the Admin Committee into an Executive Committee had come up at the previous meeting, and referred to the resolution that had been passed to reduce the size of Council to fourteen so as to make Council more efficient. He questioned whether there was a role for this committee and suggested that Council should consider the issue.
• Cr Riley suggested that the number of full Council meetings could be reduced by half if the Executive Committee undertook more management decisions rather than policy decisions. He suggested there should be more discussion as to whether this would lead to the Admin Committee working more efficiently.
• The President suggested that in the meantime the Administration Committee name be retained but that a process to determine the duties of an Executive Committee should be embarked upon.
• The Secretary suggested it would be useful to have a resolution of the matter. Cr Riley commented that he was not suggesting that the Administration Committee should be renamed.

02/67 MOVED (President/Treasurer) "THAT the Working Groups, Committees and Taskforces and their chairs be approved".

CARRIED

ABSTAINED: Felt

02/68 MOVED (Riley/Secretary) "THAT the Constitution Review Working Group be directed to consider the option of creating an Executive Committee of Council and to report to Council by 30 September 2002".

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

12.30pm Lunch break
1.30pm Meeting resumed

The President welcomed Frank March, Peter Dengate Thrush and Debbie Monahan to the meeting.

6. .NZ OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE (NZOC)

Frank March, Chair NZOC, commented that the previous Council had set up a structure to handle complex issues within the structures and suggested that the present Council should let developments take place without trying to solve everything at once. People should be given the opportunity to do the job.

The NZOC Chair remarked that although he had been elected chair of the committee at the first meeting, the Minutes did not reflect this appointment. He said he had accepted the chair, despite a possibility of conflict of interest, because he expected a high level of interaction between the chair and the Domain Name Commissioner (DNC) during the set-up phase and he is Wellington based. It was intended that a review should take place following the initial phase in six months. The next meeting was scheduled for Tuesday 5 August 2002 and procedure for creation of policy would be on the agenda.

In relation to some of the events in the last few weeks, lessons had been learnt about process and policy but he did not see the role of the committee as that of creating policy. Issues should, in the first instance, be addressed to the DNC.

The NZOC Chair referred to the decision at the Annual General Meeting to increase the overseas travel budget out of the DNC's contingency budget. He noted that the NZOC expected the DNC to perform to Budget, and that this would not be possible if the Society were to interfere in that expenditure. He flagged that Council had three choices:

• Revisit the decision to take $20,000 from the DNC budget for needed International Travel, and find the money from somewhere in the Society's budget.
• Rescind the decision entirely and live within the agreed Budget
• Not revisit the decision and face the fact that the DNC has the power to refuse approval for the extra expenditure.

He thanked Council for the faith they had shown so far.

Discussion:

• In response to the Secretary's query as to whether the NZOC meetings were open to members of the Society, the NZOC Chair advised that the issue had not been discussed, but he did not anticipate a problem with this. He said that the committee would report to Council on a monthly basis. It had however been decided that the mailing list discussion would be private although there would be regular public statements. The committee oversaw and approved policy on behalf of Council but had discretion to decide whether their meetings should be held in public or open to members of the Council.
• Peter Dengate Thrush commented that some members were not aware when issues would come up. If the policy process meant they did not know when the committee would meet, final decisions could be made at meetings, and this should be considered as part of the overall planning. The NZOC Chair saw the committee as overseeing policy development. An interim decision might be published if an urgent issue arose.
• In answer to Cr Felt's query, the NZOC Chair said that Council made policy decisions and could over-rule or rescind. He was inclined to interpret this narrowly. He did not think international travel was a matter for the committee. Council was the group that oversaw responsibility of .nz.
• The President thought that the process would be that if NZOC had an issue with policy that had not gone through full consultation then it would bring the matter to Council.
• Cr Northover commented that the terms of reference for NZOC gave full authority to "approve .nz policies". She expected there would be low-level policies that would not need to go to Council.
• Cr De Salis said that there was a wide vacuum as to how to answer questions from the industry on the role of policy.
• The DNC referred to the Procedures document that had been published. The process she had in mind was that she would identify issues and offer answers to providers. At the meeting on 5 August she intended to provide summaries of policies and procedures and, following discussion, to provide more in depth comment prior to approval by Council.
• The DNC said she thought the NZOC had approval to put policies in place. Her terms of reference did not refer to Council and she had thought that the NZOC had a decision-making role. She felt the committee might not be able to meet parties' expectations if Council should require more time to consider issues.
• The NZOC Chair did not consider there would be any problem with providing an interim decision as long as it was pointed out that such a decision was not binding.
• The DNC said there were issues in the allocation of domain names and the future of Domainz. However, feedback had been positive.

The President thanked Frank March and Debbie Monahan.

7. INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE (IAC) REPORT

Peter Dengate Thrush, Chair IAC, advised that there had been a teleconference meeting two weeks previously and a meeting the night before, and that two reports would be posted to Councillors.

The IAC recommends that Council to offer host the APTLD Board meeting in mid-September. Other more likely possibilities were Malaysia, China and Japan but he hoped that by making an offer now the invitation might be taken up in February/March 2003.

The IAC Chair also referred to the recommendation that he attend the next APTLD Board meeting, and he commented that the Chair and Executive Director were tasked to prepare a roster for attendance at upcoming meetings with budget implications.

A further recommendation was that InternetNZ joined the Country Code Support Organisation which was due to be launched at the Shanghai ICANN meeting in October.

The committee recommends that President be authorised to sign a Letter of Intent to join and that the matter be referred back to Council when the rules of the ccSO had been set.

The IAC Chair referred to the Motion from the previous Council meeting that InternetNZ investigate hosting the APTLD Secretariat, noting that this is proceeding, and said that this was more of a political than a cost exercise at this stage.

PoR (Point of Order Recording - Stop)
PoR (Point of Order Recording - Start)

• Government Advisory Committee (GAC) to ICANN

  The IAC recommends that Council fund the Chair of the NZOC to attend the Shanghai meeting as it is important that we have a GAC representative.

• ICANN Reform

  If the current ICANN failed the Memorandum of Understanding might not be extended in September. The critical issue was who made the policies for the ccTLDs. If it was not to be the ccSO, then InternetNZ may need to review its involvement in the ICANN process. The IAC recommends running another International Summit meeting to review InternetNZ's stance on major international issues.

• At Large

  Council had previously approved US$1,000.00 donation and the Executive Director was still seeking approval from the AtLarge Interim Panel to dispense the money.

• Decisions required: Authorisation for the President to sign the Letter of Intent; the .nz IANA file to be made available to the US Department of Commerce; Summit to be held after Shanghai.

  MOVED (Northover/De Salis) "THAT :

• InternetNZ organises an International Summit after Shanghai".

  Discussion:

• The President confirmed that Council could make a recommendation to the NZOC
• The IAC Chair said his presence at the Council meeting, despite not being on the Agenda, was as a result of the meeting the previous evening and the issue of reporting lines which represented a major change in relation to dealing with his committee. The IAC had not been consulted on these changes. The agreement at the Annual General Meeting with the President was that the issue would be later fully discussed.
• The President said that under the terms of reference, Council retained decision-making roles for the long term strategy of .nz on international issues and therefore a decision on the ccSO was for Council to make.
• The Secretary said it was his job as Secretary to point out when Council didn't follow policies and deciding who attended International meetings was NZOC's job. [The Executive Director read out the relevant text which delegated that authority.] The Secretary noted that policy could be ignored as it was only an internal policy, but Council should be aware they were doing so.
• The IAC Chair suggested Council made a decision at its present meeting on the basis of the recommendation by the NZOC Chair that it is not yet ready to consider these matters.
• The President said that in recognition of the transitional phase, Council would be empowered to make the decision.
• The NZOC Chair noted that their next meeting would likely recommend that this aspect (international travel) by suspended until the next financial year when the transition issues would have settled down.

  02/69 MOVED (Northover/De Salis) "THAT :

• InternetNZ offer to host the next APTLD Board Meeting in Wellington;
• the Chair of IAC attend the next APTLD Board Meeting;
• the President of InternetNZ be authorised to sign a letter of intent for .nz to join the ccSO;
• that the .nz IANA file be made available to the US DoC;
• InternetNZ organises an International Summit after Shanghai".

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

Cr Northover noted that the final two pages of her report were in the wrong order.

• ICANN "Donation"

  The Executive Director referred to the copy of the reply from the CEO of ICANN regarding our US $5000 donation (which we placed in a Trust Account until our terms were met) and said it had been received between the two Council meetings. She asked whether Councillors wished this response to be placed on the website. She noted that the President had pointed out that money should not be deposited in perpetuity and the outgoing letter included this.

• Following a straw poll, it was agreed that the correspondence be placed on the website.
• As the matter of $5,000.00 had been formally raised, the Secretary suggested there be no Motion that it be withdrawn from the lawyer.
• The President suggested that the matter be placed on the next agenda.

The President thanked Frank March and Peter Dengate Thrush.

Roger De Salis left the meeting at 2.30pm.

8. .MAORI.NZ PROPOSAL

The DNC referred to the circulated paper on implementation of the new Second Level Domain .maori.nz .She said it was based on the very few submissions that had been received after the interim decision to proceed with .maori.nz was made at the last Council meeting. She acknowledged that her brief was narrow, i.e., to take account of only new submissions received in the final call for submissions on implementation. A wider range of issued could have been considered, in which case the first come first serve recommendation may not have been made. at the Vice President referred to the huge international debate that arose with the opening of the new gTLDs, e.g., the issues surrounding a sunrise or landrush period, which Council should consider even though the volumes for .maori.nz would likely not be so high as for the gTLDs. He noted that David Farrar's submission in the previous round covered implementation issues which 'first come, first serve' doesn't cover. he felt there could be substantial issues which needed detailed debate.

The Treasurer agreed and noted that there were wider issues raised by the NZ Maori Internet Society at the previous meeting's conference call on the implementation issues, for example, a lottery.

Cr Bourne suggested that if a lottery were chosen that any proceeds could go to the NZ Maori Internet Society for their work, though he agreed that a 'free' lottery seemed to be the suggestion.

The DNC acknowledged that the brief may have been too narrow, and that wider issues could be considered. She noted that the proposed implementation date of September 16 only applied if a 'first come, first serve' implementation was chosen as the SRS Implementation was during the same period, and any variation to first come first serve process could not happen until the SRS was bedded in.

The Secretary said there were three issues, one technical and two policy:

• Technical - no prepurchase period could affect the Registry if there were a high number of registrations. The Registry has since confirmed there would be no issue with this.
• Policy - should existing nameholders in .iwi.nz and .org.nz have priority on .maori.nz (view to heading off cybersquatters). This would raise complex issues as determining 'rights' would be even harder than for trade marks.
• Policy - fairness: with a 'first come, first serve' approach the Registrar who has the faster equipment could gain disproportionate share of names. The lottery approach suggested by NZ Maori Internet Society goes some way to balance this.

He felt that the new second level domain should be approved. He confirmed that there was no set policy for operating a second level domain.

The Chair of NZOC had advised he would be happy for the matter to be referred to the NZOC for further consultation before it came back to Council.

MOVED (Secretary/Vice President) "THAT items 1, 2 and 6 of the DNC's report be approved".

Discussion:

• The President suggested that Council recommend to the Oversight Committee that there be a sunrise period for the creation of .maori.
• The Treasurer suggested that the former Motion be withdrawn.

02/70 MOVED (Secretary/Shera) "THAT the contents of the report be received".

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

02/71 MOVED (Secretary/Parkin) "THAT Items 3, 4, 5 and 6 lie on the table awaiting a report from NZOC on issues around pre-purchase period, lotteries, sunrise periods and other consequences, such report to be received by the next meeting of Council".

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

Numbers 3-6 would be referred for further discussion and an implementation strategy would be provided for Council.

A telephone call was made by the Executive Director to Karaitiana Taiuru, Chairperson NZ Maori Internet Society, to advise the first decision of Council.

While the Mr Taiuru was online the President put the motion:

02/72 MOVED (Secretary/Vice President) "THAT Council confirms the establishment of .maori.nz".

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY (BY ACCLAMATION)

• Mr Taiuru thanked InternetNZ on behalf of the NZ Maori Internet Society for both their support and the decision to establish .maori.nz, and noted that it was an historic occasion for Maoridom.
• The President noted that it was an historic moment for InternetNZ as this was the first new Second Level Domain created in six years.

ACTION: The Executive Director will co-ordinate with NZ Maori Internet Society on a prompt media release.

Debbie Monahan left the meeting at 3.30pm.
Cr Riley left the meeting temporarily.

9. ADMIN COMMITTEE

Two Councillors requested that the Admin Committee present monthly reports at the last meeting. The Secretary presented his first and last Administration Committee report as chair, and asked for discussion.

10. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Before dealing with the Executive Director's report, the Secretary had one item which should have been dealt with in the Admin Committee report.

• The Secretary suggested that the tabled meeting schedule for the next twelve months be referred to Council in the next week or two.

  The Executive Director tabled a paper from Cr Ah Kit on the UniForum NZ Conference. She apologised that she had not had time to prepare a formal written report. The Executive Director spoke to the following points:

• AGM Implementation Issues
  Time had been taken up with the series of implementation issues arising from the Annual General Meeting and the operation of the new Constitution. A full report on the Operational issues will be presented, and Admin Committee may be adding comment on Governance issues.
  
• Staffing Changes
  A significant amount of time had been spent in terms of staffing changes. Beverley Irvine had taken on the role of Senior Support Analyst in the Office of the DNC, but she will retain the Society's financial work for the moment. The Executive Director noted that the change had brought forward the restructuring work which was underway and presented an opportunity to rethink resourcing methods within the constraints of the current Budget. A Staffing Paper had been circulated to Council already. A Temp person would commence on 29 July to do the Society Office administration and a minute secretary was being trialed.
• Monthly Membership Report.
  As at 30 June there were 147 Financial members, and 48 individual and 6 Corporate Bronze members who had moved to non-voting (non-financial) status. One new individual member had joined in the period.
• Draft Business Cases
  Feedback from Council was urgently needed so that resources and budget could be allocated. The Executive Director suggested there be consultation with regard to setting the process for support to Internet Groups.

  Richard Bourne left the meeting.

• Other matters
  • completion of the contract with Industry New Zealand re NGI Capability Study
  • a broadband event in November where the Study would be released;
  • the UniForum NZ Conference and Annual General Meeting had been held the previous week, a successful no-frills, low-budget event.
• UniForum NZ Conference
  • Cr Ah Kit spoke to his circulated paper , noting the range of Conference papers of interest to InternetNZ. Crs Ah Kit, Parkin, and De Salis, as well as the Executive Director, had attended. The Executive Director had done a session on ICANN.
  • Cr Parkin advised that the Executive Director had been elected President of Uniforum NZ and Cr De Salis had taken on the role of Vice President and co-ordination of the next Uniforum Conference. Cr Parkin was in his second year as a Board member.

The President extended the congratulations of Council to the Executive Director.

• The Executive Director said she was continuing her endeavours to find synergy between the 'sibling' organisations - InternetNZ, NZCS, UniForum NZ, TUANZ, and occasionally ITANZ. At the moment they are trying to co-ordinate calendars.
• She suggested that consideration be given by the UBE Working Group to the presentation by Paul Vixie on SPAM.
• Cr Parkin advised that NZNOG was an informal mailing list of people that actually run the Internet in New Zealand. He found it extremely valuable to attend their section of Conference.

ACTION: Executive Director to forward UniForum NZ Conference proceedings once available.

11. PRESIDENT'S REPORT

There was no President's report other than the Committees and Working Groups Structure paper .

12. TREASURER'S REPORT

The Treasurer reported that he had spent time familiarising himself with financial issues and commented that the DNC had raised the issue of a corporate visa for permanent staff. He had a concern about this, as this wouldn't comply with the requirement for approval of expenditure and therefore proposed to pass this matter to the Administration Committee for a report to the next Council meeting.

The Treasurer said the Society was in a sound financial position. He would provide financial reports in the future. The previous Treasurer had circulated the July accounts to the Council list.

The President commented that as a result of the new structure there could be an opportunity to rework the budget and he suggested the Treasurer should look at the committee budgets.

13. LIAISON TASK FORCE

The Secretary advised that a contract had been signed between Domainz, the new Registry and InternetNZ. The loan paperwork was not quite complete. The funds were expected the following Monday or Tuesday which would mean the Registry would commence paying their own accounts. A Domainz Future Taskforce had been set up. Under the contract, Council would need to signify its intention by 30 November. It was suggested that Council should have a half-day discussion and that there should be Domainz representation.

The President offered congratulations to Rick Shera and the Liaison Taskforce team.

PoR (Point of Order Recording - Stop)
PoR (Point of Order Recording - Start)

It was agreed that the contract would be put on both websites.

Cr Teernstra advised that the Domainz website contained new policy statements. These would be replaced on 1 October. He commented that he was not happy with the Domain name and felt that people might not understand that Domainz would change from a Registry to a Registrar.

14. GENERAL BUSINESS

a. UNIFORUM CONFERENCE

• Cr Teernstra suggested that more should have been done to inform members about the conference.
• Cr Parkin said that the conference had been organised by people who had not run a UniForum conference before. Although the communication was poor it had been a very successful conference.
• The Executive Director advised that the Agenda had not been confirmed until four days prior to the Conference. She suggested that InternetNZ should run a one-day conference if its own this year.

b. COMMITTEES / WORKING GROUPS / TASK FORCES

• The President explained that, in general terms, the committees continued year in, year out, Steering groups had a specific tasks and task forces had a specific finish date.
• Cr Forsyth commented that he might be available to assist.

c. DOMAIN NAMES

• Cr Shera advised that VeriSign Registry (.com) had proposed a service to all Registrars whereby names could be pre-registered should they fall into the public pool. The fee would be paid whether or not the name ever came into the public pool. It was originally proposed for a twelve-month period. There were competition, philosophical and legitimacy issues. There was a public forum on ICANN and a petition with signatories.
• Cr Forsyth said the recommendation was that ICANN reject VeriSign's request. There would be a list of proposals if the recommendation went through.
• The Executive Director saw a difficulty in that the ccSO was a policymaking body for ccTLDs only and this was a gTLD issue.
• Cr Shera is on the committee for this and sought guidance from Council - he asked that Councillors with a specific interest should contact him by email over the weekend.

d. NEXT MEETING

The next meeting will be held on Friday 30 August, 2002, 10am, subject to flight arrangements.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 4.30pm.

Note - for links to papers etc, see the Agenda.