CHAIRMAN'S REPORT TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

23 JUNE 2000

Introduction

1. This report covers the half year period January to June 2000, reflecting the change in the Society's business year.
2. There have been four meetings of Council in that period. It has been characterised by substantial progress in the reorganisation of the Council's methods of doing business. It has been dominated by domain name registration issues, particularly the roll out by Domainz of its new system, and the work of the Domainz Model Review Working Group.
3. There has been a focus on analysing governance and structural issues, both in ISOCNZ and Domainz. Governance sessions with an outside facilitator have proceeded in parallel, with a view to first ever joint meeting of the Council and the Board in August 2000.
4. There has been a slightly slower pace on the international front than was the case in 1999. Delegates attended the APTLD meeting in Korea in late February, and the ICANN meeting in Cairo in early March.
5. Preparations are under way to attend the Yokohama meeting scheduled for July, and there will have been, by the time of this annual general meeting, a summit meeting seeking policy directions for ISOCNZ in a number of areas critical to ISOCNZ's future.

Council's work

1. True to my election manifesto, I have instituted a number of changes, which I feel have improved the work focus and output of the Council.
2. The first of these was to publish a schedule of Council meeting dates, at approximately monthly intervals. Although it was hoped to have half day meetings, the increasing volume of business has not always meant this was possible.
3. I have required all committees providing reports to do so in writing, for circulation five days prior to Council meetings. By recognising that some work, both in committees and on Council needs to be done in confidence, I have required that the papers presented by subcommittees and working groups to Council for decision be published prior to the meeting. The intent is that members can be informed of the work moving through the Council, and can provide additional input.
4. The meetings are taped for members to access, with a view to moving to audio casting of meetings.
5. The motions passed at Council meetings are posted quickly to the website, with the full minutes following shortly thereafter.
6. Plans are taking shape to restructure the Society's web pages, to more closely reflect the Council's structure. In co-operation with the Policy Committee's draft work on communication, and the Working Group on Members' Electronic Participation [MEP], it is intended that there be web pages devoted to each of the Council's committees and working groups, at which can be found archives, work in progress, and working papers.
7. The way individual councillors vote on motions is now recorded routinely, and councillors have been encouraged to participate in discussions on public lists.
8. These changes to the openness to membership are starting to bear fruit in terms of participation and, much greater participation by members is expected to result from these policies.
9. We have acquired additional work from councillors, and in part reflection of that small honoraria are now payable to the chairs of the permanent standing committees.

Admin Committee: Chair - Frank March

1. The Admin Committee has continued its constant but frequently invisible work on innumerable decisions to keep the organisation running smoothly.
2. Some of the principal activities of that Committee in this period have included:

1. Restructuring the workload of the Executive Director, with the employment of two additional staff.
2. We were pleased to welcome Gail Cornell as the Executive Assistant in March. Gail has worked particularly long hours when required to support the administrative needs of meetings. This recent combined summit and AGM has provided a further testing time, during which Gail's performance has been much appreciated.
3. Just this month we welcomed back Beverley as the Administration Manager, and look forward to her contribution.

International: Chair - Peter Dengate Thrush

1. The period has seen three international meetings. The first was in February, when the Society funded a representative to attend ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee meeting in Sydney. We have been kept informed by the Government of its position as the GAC has negotiated its best practices and delegation document. Although there remain some matters yet to be finalised by ICANN, and possibly some differences as to detail, we remain in substantial harmony with our Government on the management of .nz .
2. Domestic matters have inhibited, to a certain degree, our participation in international matters. In particular, after originally contributing several drafts of papers on delegation and redelegation to the CCT or lead constituency, Jim Higgins and I have been unable to spend time further developing this.
3. I made an extemporaneous offer at the Cairo meeting to host an interim ccTLD secretariat, to prepare ccTLD constituency position papers on best practices, delegation, and redelegation in time for the crucial decision on those matters in Yokohama in July.
4. Further, in this build-up period, negotiations between the CCTLD, ICANN, the GATT and the US Department of Commerce should have been conducted. Another matter which required urgent attention in early March was the commencement of drafting and negotiating a model contract between ICANN and the CCTLD's dealing with such issues as route server service.
5. Regrettably, the ccTLD constituency's penchant for administration has resulted in the appointment of an interim secretariat only yesterday.
6. Although we have received an invoice from ICANN for a contribution based on a taskforce funding model, like most countries, New Zealand has declined, for the moment, to pay that invoice.
7. While we remain committed to ICANN as the best model for internet governance we are concerned at the lack of representation at board level, and the lack of focus to the contract negotiations.
8. We hope with the directions provided by today's summit meeting, greater progress can be made at and just after the July meeting in Yokohama.

Technical Committee: Chair - John Vorstemanns

1. The Technical Committee has been involved in two activities. The first was mounting concern over the format of the "whois" service provided by Domainz, culminating in a motion to censure the company.
2. The second exercise was an attempt to measure the success of the Domainz roll out approximately two weeks after its "go live" date. There was a considerable volume of criticism on the public lists, including of bugs, procedural confusion, and disagreements over policies underlying the system. The Technical Committee awarded a "B" for technical content, but an "F" for public relations.
3. During the year I suggested the Technical Committee should lead a quarterly process involving inviting submissions from industry on how ISOCNZ policies were affecting businesses, particularly those involved in domain name registration. That seemed well received, and a similar version has emerged as a recommendation of the Hine Working Group.
4. It seems to me that more use, such as this, should be made of the technical expertise to be found on Council, and generously offered by members and others.

Policy Committee: Chair - Jennifer Northover

1. The Policy Committee has continued its high-volume, high-quality output. Some of its six highlights include -
1. Liz Dengate Thrush's policy on "developing policy" paper. This sets out a coherent regime for developing draft policy through working groups and committees, tabling them at Council and for public comment for a period, review to incorporate public comment, and representation to Council for adoption.
2. Moderation policy which provides a methodology for the appointment of moderators for moderated domains ("Iwi", ".mill" and others).
3. Acceptable use policies for Council lists and creation of an ISP Code of Practice Complaints Board, which is a logical consequence of the Code of Practice.
4. The limited and ineffective ban on certain offensive words as domain names was removed in June. This followed apparently sufficient public consultation, but we learned that further time may have been appreciated by ISP's and others wishing to change the business practices in anticipation.
5. Internet hotline: A proposal is currently being worked on to provide "help desk" facilities for many inquiries directed at the Society, with a "hotline" available for notification of pornographic or other offensive sites.

Social Impact Committee: Acting Chair - Howard Frederick

1. This is a committee which I had high hopes for, but which has suffered the most from focus on domain name registration issues.
2. It is clear to a number of members of Council that considerable work needs to be done, and can be done by the Internet Society in researching, providing policy advice and education in areas that the internet is impacting on. Typical examples include the "digital divide" which, in New Zealand, appears to mean that Maori have very limited uptake of the internet. Many areas of possible legal change require analysis. Examples this year include the avoidance of the name suppression order in an Auckland drug importing case, and a forthcoming issue is the Electronic Transactions Bill.
3. Current projects of the Committee include -

1. Investigating a warrant of fitness grading for Government websites;
2. Promoting "Think Quest", a competition teaching internet development skills to children;
3. Participating with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs in consumer protection initiatives; and
4. Participating in the Government's E-Commerce Seminar later in the year.

Working Groups:

0867: Chair - Don Stokes

1. This Working Group has met on a number of occasions, and had consultations with Telecom and Clear. A high-level submission to the Ministerial Inquiry into Telecommunications was filed, and it is intended to make further submissions and representations as the Commission proceeds with its work.

Members' Electronic Participation: Chair - Mark Harris

1. The principal focus of this Working Group has been to improve the quality of online participation at this Annual General Meeting. Its overall mandate includes:
1. Audio taping Council meetings, with a view to audio casting them;
2. Providing facilities for payments, including membership registration, by credit card and working in the redevelopment of the website to permit greater membership input.
2. There is a considerable increase in the funds available in this year's budget for "electronic democracy".

Ministerial Liaison:

1. This Group, too, has had its members distracted by other matters. It has plans for the preparation of briefing papers for Ministers, which should be useful on other occasions.
2. The Executive Director and I presented our credentials at a hospitable meeting with the new Minister of IT, the Hon. Paul Swain, together with Ministry officials recently.

E-Commerce Working Group on Model Review: Chair -John Hine

1. This was the "Hine Commission",  ably chaired by John Hine to whom I am indebted for the time put into this project, and the manner in which it was performed. It was a model of policy development, which I am sure will be much adopted in the future.
2. My original confidence in appointing John to this task has been more than borne out. Thanks also owed and given to the other contributing members of the Committee, Don Stokes, Stephen Heath and Rick Shearer. David Farrar has maintained an interest in the Working Group's report. It is a matter of concern that representations for a wider range of stakeholders have not yet made their position known.

Domainz Relationship: Chair - Peter Dengate Thrush

1. I had not appreciated, on joining the Council in January, the deep divisions between the Council and Domainz, nor the dissatisfaction of some domain name registration agents with the proposed (now implemented) Domainz registrar system.
2. This Working Group met on a number of occasions, attempting to clarify which of the many available communication channels should be used, as it appeared none were working well.
3. Having Councillors of the Board of Domainz seemed not to have produced the closeness and unanimity of purpose which was intended when setting that structure up. Although the CEO requested details of reporting requirements frequently, the Council seemed unable to articulate its reporting requirements. An inability to respect confidential information by Councillors, made Domainz unwilling to provide much commercial information. Fearful of becoming "deemed directors", Councillors appeared to move away from imposing policy control on Domainz. Councillors held diametrically opposed views to each other on the intent and functioning of the "management fee" paid monthly to Domainz for provision of policy advice. The Treasurer alone appeared to hold strong views on maximising the taxation advantages of a combined dividend/management fee income. No dividend policy was in place. Incredibly, the contract for the running of the .nz registry had no specified service levels, as schedule "A" had never been completed. For this not to have been completed prior to the commencement of the new system seems a considerable oversight.
4. Upon reflection, and in discussion with the Chairman of the Board of Domainz, we agreed on a joint governance exercise. An outside consultant was brought in to advise both the Council and the Board on aspects of governance. While Council still has considerable work to do in this area, a governance manual has been received, and will be worked through in the coming months, taking into account the continuing transition from a society of enthusiastic amateurs to a more professionally-staffed organisation.
5. A set of draft "protocols" has been tabled, and I have circulated a draft schedule "A" to Council for consideration. The first at a joint session of the Board and Council will be scheduled, probably in August, to set these in place.
6. A provisional dividend policy is in place, by which 50% of the Domainz surplus will be paid to ISOCNZ by way of dividend. Naturally, this is subject to the directors signing a "solvency" certificate, being satisfied that the company does not need to retain the money against likely contingencies.
7. The audited annual accounts for Domainz are available at this meeting.

Conclusion

1. Considerable progress has been made in opening the work of the Council up to membership scrutiny, and greater public participation. Considerable progress is being made in co-ordinating with Domainz to ensure that its performance and outputs correspond to ISOCNZ policies and expectations.
2. The Council is working across a wide range of activities within the ambit of its Articles.
3. It has been a testing but pleasurable time leading the Council. I thank the Executive Director and her staff, and all the Councillors for their support during this period.

P C Dengate Thrush
Chair
ISOCNZ
23 June 2000

© 2000 The Internet Society of New Zealand
Last updated 11 August 2000