Executive Director's Report to Council 28/01/00

ISOCNZ Executive Director

Report to Council 28 January 2000

I am pleased to present my first report to the new Council. My last formal report to Council was the August 1999 report which can be found on the website at: http://www.isocnz.org.nz/members/ED0899.html, followed by my report to the AGM in December (http://www.isocnz.org.nz/members/ed99.html).

THE OFFICE AND ADMINISTRATIVE AREA

• the Office can finally be considered as 'permanent' as the extensions were done over the Christmas break. The extra space is excellent and we have nearly completed furniture purchases which give meeting space for up to six people, work space for the new staff, and the filing has finally come out of cardboard boxes. I would like to acknowledge the 'unseen' support given here. We sub-lease the space from Actrix Networks, and Managing Director Hal King has been very helpful in actually allowing us to expand and in not raising the rent despite the expansion. Building owners Luit and Jan Beiringa have also supported the Society by actually doing the work and only charging us for outside labour and the few construction materials which they didn't already have. In both cases this has saved us money enabling us to remain in budget. (Jan is also the key person at (e)-Vision)

RECOMMEND - "THAT letters be written thanking Actrix and the Beiringa's for their support"

• The AGM accepted the Council recommendation that an assistant should be taken on, and I am pleased to announce that Gail Cornell has been offered a contract to take on this work. As with my work, the skills mix required is somewhat unusual, and having spent a year trying to get the right person I am delighted that Gail is now onboard. Gail will be gradually taking over the more administrative functions which I have performed in the past, and has already taken over the office management, the mailing lists, and the membership administration. The web pages are next?
• Another long hunt for the right person has drawn to an end with Bruce Miller contracted to upgrade the membership database so that it functions more effectively. (The background is that the membership database used to be out on contract and was part of a bigger, more complex, expensive database. It was brought in-house on Excel spreadsheets, and I turned it into an Access database. However, the functionality was limited and I have spent the last year looking for someone to make the needed fixes.)
• Lyudmyla continues to prepare excellent financial statements, and in late Nov/early Dec did the conversion to our new accounting package (Quickbooks). We are now getting the required information in a useful format without having to reconstruct into Excel spreadsheets as we were doing before. The reporting options in Quickbooks are much more flexible than in NZA Gold, and as Lyudmyla works her way through the nuances of the system she will be able to deliver data in the exact format the Treasurer requires for Council reporting, saving him an extra conversion step as well. Again, I'd like to acknowledge our networks in this area - we have been allowing (e)-Vision and 2020 to use some of our space for their accounting records so we could all contract Lyudmyla part-time. With the extensions 2020 has shown their appreciation by purchasing a desk for Lyudmyla and a PC is on the way. We will put our accounts onto that machine, thus freeing up our existing PC for Gail on a full-time basis. (e)-Vision has come to the party by being willing to provide space for meetings whose numbers suddenly swell at the last minute and cannot be accommodated in our office.

NETDAY

• The NetDay 2000 official launch will be on February 23. As we are sponsoring this event to the level of $5000 this year I am pleased to report that the organisers are very pleased with the outcomes last year. The creation of IT budget funding for schools ($8,000 each for Primary Schools and $40,000 each for Secondary) has meant that schools have had to produce full IT investment plans and this "has pushed schools to really think through their needs" according to the NetDay coordinator.. This is in addition to the Networking/cabling government subsidy which saw grants in 1998 to 99 schools rise to 599 in 1999. Both schemes tie in with NetDay, and there are 480 schools registered to take part this year. Organisers have responded to my suggestion that setting up the network alone is insufficient as most schools then want Internet access and do not have the skills. We are still discussing what role the Society might have in that process.

PACFIS (PACIFIC FEDERATION OF INTERNET SOCIETIES)

(Arising out of UNESCO project to train Internet Service Providers for the Pacific Islands)

• No further progress

ELECTION QUESTIONNAIRE

• Web site created - http://www.isocnz.org.nz/polparties.html - responses in from National, NZ First, ACT, Christian Heritage and Libertarianz. As none of these is part of the new government we are left with no clear statement of Internet polices from those now in power. I believe follow up is needed.

INTERNET CODE OF PRACTICE

• ICoP - Eighteen Founder Signatories, two new signatories (Wave Internet and The Web Co), with Paradise having trouble with getting their copy to us in the post.
• Good coverage in articles in Consumers, Netguide, InfoTech Weekly, and a few lines in PC World.
• Next phase is a publicity campaign in the near future.

ICANN

• the scheduled meetings for ICANN this year are double the amount we expected when we put the Budget together. In addition, the Asia-Pacific Region of Top Level Domains (APTLD) has decided to hold its regional meeting in conjunction with APRICOT 2000 a few days before the ICANN meeting in Cairo. This presents travel problems, but I have pencil bookings for travel and for the hotel in Cairo for myself and the Chair. As the cost is much higher than we expected I have put together a draft Budget for Council approval.
• Draft Base Budget APTLD Seoul & ICANN Cairo
  NZ-Seoul-Cairo-NZ* NZ-Seoul-NZ** NZ-Cairo-NZ***
  Flight 3659 1485 2459
  APTLD Reg**** 10 10
  APRICOT reg 488.28 488.28 ($US250=$NZ 488.28 2 days)
  Sheraton Seoul @5 2082.45 2082.45 (W240000=$NZ 416.49 Per night)
  Sheraton Cairo @ 7 1547.7 1547.7 ($US113.05=$NZ 221.10 Per night)
  Total ONE Person $7,787.43 $4,065.73 $4,006.70
  Total TWO people $15,574.86 $8,131.46 $8,013.40

* the cheaper $2195 fare on Korean Airlines is fully booked right back before the 24th - presumably for APRICOT. This is only Star Alliance available that meets the dates

** on Singapore Airlines

*** same across airlines

**** Unknown if higher charge than last ICANN Meeting

NB No incidental expenses - e.g., meals, phones, taxis

• I attended the Los Angeles ICANN meeting in November 1999 and learnt a lot in the process. This topic was covered in my report of November 22, and I will place this in the web site as soon as possible as well as the report from Jim Higgins. My conclusion was that the Council made the right decision to send as many people as possible to these meetings as there is so much going on, and so much we need to know about, that the more "ears" and expertise attending the better.

MEMBERSHIP

• as reported above. A full membership report will be made when the software upgrade is completed.

'REBRANDING' OF ISOCNZ

• Business cards and letterhead - these have been reprinted in a simple format without logo or "trading name" i.e., ISOCNZ, pending the rebranding exercise.

RECOMMEND - "THAT the issue of rebranding be revisited now as the six month review period has expired."

0867/KIWSHARE

• I wrote to the new Minister, Paul Swain, just before Christmas asking for a meeting on the issue, and providing him with all the background material sent to his predecessors. The Minister has yet to be sworn in because of his illness, and the situation is in a limbo at the moment.
• the first meeting of the 0867 Working Group took place yesterday (Jan 26) and Minutes will be posted shortly.

CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

• Uniforum is the only Conference to which we have direct input at the moment and I am waiting to hear from their Board Meeting as to date (likely June) before working further with their organisers on the one-day Internet Society Day, and the proposal to provide Internet Tutorials in the two day slot leading up to the Conference. Last year I spoke with the new President on the Council's behalf regarding working more closely together, and the outcome was a proposal that we assist with the actual Conference arrangements. I would appreciate a directive as to whether we should pursue this as I am conscious that our AGM will be late June/early July this year.

FINANCIAL

• I have flagged to the Admin Committee that we are going to be over budget in several areas which fall under Council jurisdiction, mainly in relation to Projects and Overseas travel. We are now operating under the approved Six Month Budget with the change in Financial Year approved at the AGM, so adjustments can be made in response to changes (or non-changes if the Internet Foundation does not go ahead).

COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

• In progress. The first step has been taken as our ISP, Actrix, has changed the software they use for mailing lists. The migration of these lists will take place early next week and the key change is that they can be administered entirely on-web. Cr Vorstermans may like to speak further to this. I will email you with the new mailing list names once the migration is completed.

NETWORKING

• Consumers' Institute - I invited David Russell of Consumers' to attend the launch of the Internet Code of Practice. He was unable to attend, but they were writing an article on "Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet" and I had input into that. I was sent a copy of the draft for comment, and made some suggestions for change. They are happy to have a link to the article on our site and vice versa.
• Statistics NZ - no follow-up on our input into the Household Survey on areas re the Internet nor on invitation to comment on the 2001 Census Internet questions

• ECPAT - on hotlines, arising out of the Vienna Meeting- I believe that Cr E Dengate Thrush is reporting on this. This ties in to the contact with the Advertising Standards Authority and the proposed "E-Commerce Self Regulation" group.

"TRANSITION MANAGEMENT"

I have not completed all Action Items from the last meeting as I chose to prioritise the "management of the transition" to the new office, new staff, new Council, and new Chair. I am impressed with the enthusiasm of all the new people, but especially with the Chair as he has worked hard to come to grips with all aspects of the Society's work in a very short time. This has meant an immense amount of work for us both, and has set the stage for a rapid movement into action for the new Council. The meetings since January 10:

1. Chair/Executive Director - x 2, plus lots of phone and email correspondence
2. Admin Committee
3. International Affairs Working Group
4. 0867 Working Group
5. New Councillors Induction Session

MEDIA

The Media came on full-force as soon as the office was opened. I've done two Morning Report interviews and spoken with various media approximately twelve times on the issues: the alleged breach of name suppression on the web, the Times-Warner-AOL merger, the Times-Warner EMI merger, the impact of the net on the Society, outcomes of the AGM; had an article on the front page of the NZ Library Association Journal "Soap Box" and have a "Last Word" column to write this weekend. I also "vetted" another article for Consumer this one on ISP's. In most cases I have also referred the Media to either the Chair, the past Chair, or Councillors with specific areas of expertise. I also did two phone interviews while on holiday about 0867 and the Internet Code of Practice.

Sue Leader
Executive Director

© 2000 The Internet Society of New Zealand
Last updated 27 January 2000