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apTLD Meeting Yokohama 18/07/00

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REPORT TO ISOCNZ COUNCIL on APTLD MEETING

YOKOHAMA, JAPAN TUESDAY, 18 JULY 2000

  1. The meeting was chaired by Professor Kilnam Chon, who began by wanting to talk about the just completed election results to the board of APTLD.
  2. The election had been run by email prior to the meeting and conducted by an election committee chaired by Stafford Guest (.nu). I had heard from him the night before of some of the difficulties he had had. I asked that the matter be dealt with when it came up on the agenda.
  3. Professor Chon agreed, and turned to today's meeting. It was to be in three parts. First an APTLD founding members' meeting which he would chair until completion of election of the board and chair. Chon was to chair until completion of those elections. As soon as the new chair was elected he was to hand over to the new board chair but noted that "I may have to assist the new chair for some time". Thirdly, there would be a board meeting of the new board.
  4. A set of articles of association for APTLD Limited has been overdue and in preparation for a considerable period of time. Some said there was too much of a rush for the organisation process but it has been in process since late 1998. There was a roll call of 22 founding members (America Samoa, Cook Islands, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Cambodia, Korea, Mongolia, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Nuie, New Zealand, PNG, Philippines, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Western Samoa and NSI).
  5. Eight countries were present: Nuie, Korea, China, Japan, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and .com.
  6. Japan raised the question of whether we had a quorum. .nz (P Dengate Thrush) noted that we had 8 from 21, and that Rule 6 of the bylaws (although not yet adopted formally) provided that one third of the members provided a quorum, which accordingly seemed to be met.
  7. Letter of Intent
  8. The APTLD principles had been developed since the Los Angeles (November 1999) meeting with minor modifications. P Dengate Thrush noted the change to the focus on ccTLDs and said it was important that the APTLD provide a strong association of regional ccTLDs to begin with.
  9. With apologies to the delegates from NSI because the matter had not been discussed, he suggested that generic top level registries should be "associate" (i.e. non-voting) members, rather than "ordinary" (i.e. voting) members.
  10. China noted the definition of ccTLDs and that there was only one .com registry located in the United States. Admission to membership of a regional group meant that NSI could, potentially, be a member of the regional associations in each region.
  11. Nuie (Bill Semich) agreed, and thought while there might come a time when gTLDs of Asian origin would be admitted, the problem was to create an open transparent structure having strong standing within the ccTLD constituency.
  12. .com (Laurie Whitted) appreciated the comments and indicated that NSI's presence was as a show of support for the Asia/Pacific region. If everyone felt they should be an associate member, they would respect that, as they were not seeking board positions, only to participate and were happy to be associate members. The proposal that they become an associate member was met with applause. It was noted that this made no change to the quorum.
  13. P. Dengate Thrush signed the letter of intent on behalf of .nz and will seek ratification for ISOCNZ.
  14. Membership fee report
  15. No monthly financial reports had been received from the secretary and so no report could be given. In particular, there was no budget plan presented.
  16. Chon suggested that we should do the same as the ccTLD constituency and adopt self-selection within a reasonable time. .nz supported the scheme, and said that it needed to be implemented soon, even if on a time payment basis.
  17. Chon agreed, and noted that the organisation needed cashflow through the end of August/ September and that it should not take more than a few months for individual ccTLDs to ratify, self-select their band and commence funding.
  18. .jp (Maruyama) said that, frankly, JPNIC had spent a considerable amount of money on the ICANN meeting. It was happy to sign a letter of intent, but was concerned about making a commitment to funding.
  19. .com (Laurie Whitted) said that there appeared to be no membership fees for associate members. It was confirmed they should self-select according to the same banding process.
  20. Japan was reluctant to commit to membership and subscriptions without a business plan.
  21. .nz (P Dengate Thrush) suggested that the self-selecting was non-binding as one could always review and come back at a different level.
  22. .nu (Bill Semich) noted that decisions needed approval by home base.
  23. .nz (Dengate Thrush) suggested that the Board's first priority should be the preparation of a business plan which may be prepared by the time delegates had returned home and were ready to make decisions.
  24. Report of the election committee
  25. Stafford Guest (Chair, election committee) provided a report. The results of the elections to the board were as follows:
  26. Hualin Qian (China) 9; Kamchana Sut (Thailand) 9; Kwang Ho Song (Korea) 10; Peter Dengate Thrush (New Zealand) 8; Bill Semich (Nuie) 12; Shuich Tashiro (Japan) 9; W S Chen (Taiwan) 9; Ramesh Nadarajah (Malaysia) 5.
  27. Fourteen countries had voted. Two votes were invalid and one (Malaysia) had voted too late. The scrutineer was L Blake.
  28. Taiwan proposed to accept the report, Nuie seconded it and the first seven were declared elected.
  29. Board chair election
  30. There had been one nomination which had been seconded Professor Hualin Qian from China. Professor Chon moved that voting be closed and there was a unanimous vote in favour of Professor Hualin Qian.
  31. First Members Meeting : APTLD
  32. After the coffee break, Professor Qian took the chair of the meeting. He suggested that we take a flexible approach to expanding the Board members and noted that we needed a vice chair, secretary and a treasurer.
  33. Japan indicated that expanding the Board seemed a very good idea and they were concerned about the bylaws not yet being clear on such issues. They suggested that there be a review of the election procedure and bylaws with a view to putting in place a more concrete structure.
  34. New Zealand (P Dengate Thrush) moved that under Article X(5) the Board for this coming year be increased to eight members, and that Ramesh fill the additional slot. J P seconded the motion and it was passed unanimously.
  35. Vice Chair
  36. There were a number of discussions concerning the vice chair, the treasurer and secretariat positions. Taiwan expressed an interest in performing the secretariat functions for APTLD. Professor Chon noted that the new organisation had changed and that there was no a CEO full-time position with secretariat. It was better to go through a formal process as the key was the CEO, it was important to have someone who had dedicated time to APTLD.
  37. The current APTLD secretariat was 1.5 to 2 fulltime employees (which included Y J Park). This was insufficient to handle working groups, being barely able to manage one working group. Additional fulltime employees were required, and it was reasonable to start with two. Looking at CENTR, there were four FTEs.
  38. It was noted that we needed to make an appointment to the ccTLD Ad Com particularly in the light of the necessity to have Names Council members by the end of August.
  39. First Meeting : APTLD Board
  40. After lunch, the inaugural board convened. Professor Hualin Qian reviewed the position of vice chair, and had proposed that there be three vice chairs:
    1. The first, a Senior Vice Chairman responsible for working groups, deputy chair and also the ccTLD Ad Com representative. He proposed P Dengate Thrush (New Zealand) for that position.
    2. The second was a Vice Chairman to act as treasurer and be in charge of finances and administration. He proposed Bill Semich (Nuie) for that position.
    3. The third Vice Chair was to be responsible for membership, noting there were 70 ccTLDs in the region and only 21 participating. Shuich Tashiro was nominated for this position.
  41. The meeting endorsed the Chair's proposals and they were declared elected.
  42. For secretary, it was suggested that Ramesh (Malaysia) be invited to accept this position.
  43. Secretariat
  44. P Dengate Thrush noted that the ccTLD constituency had recently been through the same process of appointment, and suggested adopting the ccTLD methodology for the APTLD secretariat. Briefly this would require:
  45. Two weeks to publish a specification
    Two weeks as a period for application from ccTLD entities
    Two weeks to respond and make an appointment.
    The meeting concurred.
  46. Professor Chon suggested that a board member should be in charge of the secretariat process until it was complete. It was a tight timetable. Ramesh might be the right person but was not then present. It was agreed that one of the vice chairs from a ccTLD with no interest in submitting a bid for the secretariat, should manage the process. It was agree that Bill Semich would do this (with Helen Lee to continue tasks until transition).
  47. Committees
  48. All previous committees and working groups should be treated as disbanded as of today, with new ones set up under the new constitution.
  49. The following committees and working groups were proposed, with the following vice chairs or others responsible:
    1. Bylaws - P Dengate Thrush
    2. Business plan - Bill Semish
    3. Membership outreach - Shuich Tashiro
    4. Seminar tour - Y J Park
  51. It was agreed that each vice chair would do a one page description of his role to define for the future within a week of returning home.
  52. MINC (Multilingual Internet Names Consortium)
  53. It was reported that the MIMC was formed, it would be having elections and had almost settled its bylaws. Maruyama (J P Nic) was in charge and been posted to its interim board.
  54. Future meetings
  55. ICANN meetings were scheduled for November 12-16 and it was agreed to have an APTLD meeting on the Saturday or Sunday before the ICANN. It was noted that there was an AP* retreat on 21-23 October in Bangkok. It was agreed that an APTLD board meeting should occur then to prepare for the Los Angeles meeting.
  56. The officers would prepare an agenda and discuss it on the list, and make temporary arrangements that way.
  57. The chairman/secretary could be reached at rainbow@cnnik.net.cn
  58. Web policies
  59. Arrangements had been made to transfer the APTLD site as soon as possible to China setting up Korea as a mirror site.
  60. A members' list should be set up, membership meaning those ccTLDs which had signed the letter of intent and selected a fees band (including the zero band) and making the appropriate payment within two months.

The meeting closed at 2.30 pm.

© 2000 The Internet Society of New Zealand
Last updated 2 August 2000

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