Executive Director's Report - 31 August 2007
Executive Committee
The Executive
Committee resolved to support the WSA Awards entries from New Zealand with a
budget allocation from the Special Projects Fund of $7,000.
Membership
As at 31st July 2007
our membership was:
Fellows 14
Individual 108
Professional Individual 65
Small Organisation 41
Large Organisation 6
Total membership 234
We have agreed to
sponsorships at Novembers Digital Strategy Summit, Decembers Wireless and
Broadband Conference and NZNOG in January 2008 with a view to recruiting
members at these events.
Staffing
- Campbell Gardiner joined the staff on 9 July 2007.
- Simon Riley has been contracted in a part time role as Senior Advisor
- 4 of the 6 full time InternetNZ have elected to participate in Kiwisaver
- Jordan Carter is now based in Brussels
on his EU Parliament internship and will be back in NZ on 8 December 2007.
Jordan will contribute 1.5 days per week to InternetNZ activities.
International Travel
It is my intention to attend the following international
meetings:
- 24 – 25 October APTLD Meeting, Bangkok
- 27 October – 2 November ICANN Los Angeles
- 7 – 9 November ArchEcon Los Angeles
- 12 – 15 November IGF Brazil
- 10 –
12 December GKP
Kuala Lumpur
The APTLD meeting is a precursor regional meeting leading up
to the ICANN meeting in Los Angeles. The dominant issue for the ccTLD community
is the .idn issues. I think all will be aware that Peter Dengate Thrush has a nomination
for the Chair of ICANN, and InternetNZ should actively support this nomination.
My attendance at ICANN is most essential for my role as co-chair of the GAC /
ccNSO Liaison Group, and as the GAC have for the first time sought input and
agenda items from the ccTLD community it is imperative we deliver a useful
programme for the joint meeting in Los Angeles.
The ArchEcon meeting is being hosted by Gordon Cook and
given that it is in Los Angeles, and relates to a number of useful broadband
projects, it would be useful to also attend this meeting.
The IGF meeting in Brazil is the second annual meeting of
the UN / ITU Internet Governance Forum and requires the input of sensible
ccTLDs to help avert risk from interference in the core fabric of the Internet
by these treaty organisations. Some useful outreach especially with our Pacific
Island neighbours can be harmonised at this event.
The Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) GK3 (www.gkpeventsonthefuture.org/gk3)
meeting looks to provide a most useful insight into the overall direction of
ICT and the Internet and will provide connection with a different network than
those usually associated with the ICANN and IGF processes.
Returning Officers Report on AGM
There
were two issues that arose during the AGM voting process that should be given
consideration by Council, as follows:
Majority
vote for constitutional change
The current constitution clause
states:
“14.5 No motion proposing any amendment to this
Constitution at a general meeting shall be deemed to have been passed unless
two-thirds of the votes cast on the motion were in favour.”
A supermajority of 66.67% is required to adopt
a change to the constitution, and this currently arises from the votes for,
against and abstaining. A number of members elected to abstain from voting,
whereas their probable intention was that they did not wish to vote, rather
than abstaining due to some conflict of interest etc. Given the constitution in
its current form, a vote of abstention effectively is a vote against the
motion. If Council has concerns with this, I would recommend an amendment to
clause 14.5 of the constitution as follows:
14.5 Motions proposing amendments to this
Constitution at a general meeting require a two thirds majority of either Yes
or No votes to carry.
The other issue that arose during the voting
was a number of “ties” in the voting. Currently the constitution states:
“4. If at the end of a round no candidate has
reached the threshold, the lowest polling candidate is temporarily removed from
the count. (If there are two tied for lowest vote, it is done by `toss of
the coin´).”
It occurs to me that a nominee may have greater
support at earlier iterations of the preferential ballot, but that this greater
support is valueless should a tie occur later down the ballot order, and the
“toss of the coin” rule applies. Within the preferential voting system, the
drop off rate for voters in their rankings of candidates is high. I believe it
would be more representative of a preferential ballot system, in the event of a
tie, to re-evaluate the earlier higher order preference votes for the tied
candidates. The constitution could be reworded as follows to allow this change:
4. If two candidates are tied for the lowest
vote the candidate who received the higher number of earlier preference votes
will win. If there is still a tie the successful candidate will be decided by a
‘toss of the coin’.
Recommendations
1. That the Executive Directors Report be received
2. That Council recommends amendments to clauses 4 and 14.5 of the constitution to the 2008 AGM.
3.
That an additional budget of $15,000 from the Special
Projects Fund be allocated to the History of the Internet project.
SUPPLEMENTARY EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS REPORT
IPv6 Workshop
From 6th to 10th August a 5 day IPv6
workshop was held on the 10th Floor, sponsored by InternetNZ and
REANNZ, and supported by Cisco and Packet Clearing House. Jonny Martin spotted
the opportunity and facilitated the workshop, which was well attended with more
than 20 participants. Participation was keen and there is enthusiasm to repeat
the event in either Auckland or Christchurch in the future.
The total cost to InternetNZ will be less than $4,000, and I
will approve this unbudgeted expenditure against the Technical Capability
Development Fund.
Congratulations should be recorded to Jonny Martin for his
efforts.
APNIC Meeting
InternetNZ has prepared a bid to host the August 2008
APNIC-26 meeting in Christchurch. A copy of the proposal is attached. The
proposal indicates a potential funding requirement for the budget shortfall of
around $11,000 and we have noted this amount for inclusion in next years budget
should we be successful in our bid to host this meeting. APNIC have never
hosted a meeting in New Zealand previously, and as part of our commitment to
improving technical knowledge in New Zealand, this is an obviously useful event
for our technical community.
E-Gov BarCamp
I have been approached by the organizers of the E-Government
BarCamp for InternetNZ to be a sponsor of this event, which will be held in
Wellington on Saturday 15 September. I have agreed to their requested $250
sponsorship package.
See http://barcamp.org/BarCampWellingtonNZegov
for details.
Constitutional
Changes
The changes to InternetNZ’s constitution have been accepted
by the Registrar of Incorporated Societies.
Anti-spam Code of Practice
- Service providers are currently signing up to the code.
- We
have a potted power point informational presentation on the legislation
and code of practice, for general distribution and use.
Council e-votes
Since the last Council meeting on 18 June 2007 there have
been 2 Council evotes conducted, as follows:
EVOTE 070709 - Governance Remuneration, moved Jackson, seconded
Riley
1. That
NZRS Directors Fees be increased to $93,600 per annum for the current financial
year, with the NZRS Board empowered to allocate these fees as they deem
appropriate.
2. That
the NZOC members honoraria be increased to the following applicable from 1 August
2007:
a. Chair $12,000
b. Deputy Chair $ 9,000
c. Member
$ 6,000.
3. That InternetNZ Council honoraria be confirmed for the forthcoming yearas follows:
a. President $24,000
b. Other Officers $12,000
c. Executive
Committee non-officer $,9,600
4. That
InternetNZ Councillors receive an annual honoraria of $5,000, applicable from 1
August 2007.
MOTION 1
FOR: Baddeley, Farrar, March, Martin, Streatfield, Jackson, Macaulay, Northover, Harris, Reilly
AGAINST: -
ABSTAIN: -
MOTION 2
FOR: Baddeley, Farrar, Martin, Streatfield, Jackson, Macaulay, Northover, Harris, Reilly
AGAINST: -
ABSTAIN: March
MOTION 3
FOR: Baddeley, Farrar, Martin, Streatfield, Jackson, Macaulay, Northover, Harris, Reilly
AGAINST: -
ABSTAIN: March
MOTION 4
FOR: Baddeley, Farrar, March, Martin, Streatfield, Jackson, Macaulay, Northover, Harris, Reilly
AGAINST: -
ABSTAIN: -
Cr Farrar declared a conflict of
interest in casting his vote.
EVOTE 070719 - 2020 Survey, moved Baddeley, seconded Northover and
Wallmannsberger
"That $7,500 from the
special projects fund be allocated to the 2020 Communications Trust's 2007
survey of ICT in New Zealand Schools, combined with input from council and the
office of INZ on a set of 3 questions to be covered."
FOR: Farrar, Wallmannsberger,
Martin, Streatfield, Macaulay, March, Northover, Baddeley, Speight
AGAINST: -
ABSTAIN: Jackson
These evotes were declared carried.
Priorities
Our priorities for the immediate future include:
· ICT Week in Parliament
· Submissions on the TSO Bill
· Submissions on WiFi Bill
· Submissions on Election Spending Bill
· Submissions on Naked DSL / UBA etc
· Telecom Operational Separation Plan
· NZBA Code of Practice
· Anti-spam code of practice signing
· Structural Reform implementation
· Peering position paper published
· Cyberlaw project (next year, ensuing years, last year)
· NZ CERT Scoping
· History of the Internet project
· IPv6 Hui
· Access Grid / Telepresence
·
Certification Authority Scoping
Recommendations
1. That
the supplementary Executive Directors report be received.
2. That
the e-votes be ratified.
Keith Davidson
Executive Director
