[governance] Financial reporting and transparency at APNIC
Suresh Ramasubramanian
suresh at hserus.net
Wed Apr 30 20:25:49 EDT 2014
Silent observer so far but this is a storm in a teacup.
1. More than one of the individuals commenting don't really have a long track record of actively attending apnic meetings (participation in SIGs etc).
2. APNIC being located in Brisbane is correct but it has a multicultural staff from across Asia. Japan, Vietnam, India, China, Indonesia .. just to name the nationalities of a few of APNIC's most long time employees.
3. All RIRs that I know of do have a substantial part of their budget dedicated to outreach / education and fellowship programs. The fellowship committee for the apricot conference for example (nanog equivalent in asiapac) gets funding from apnic, isoc and additionally individual meeting sponsors from time to time.
4. I fully support transparent financial reporting and a further discussion on that, but the rest of the vaguely accusatory and in one case hyper supportive discussion around airfare must take into account that apnic staff travel a lot more every year than the average globetrotting civil society person doing the rounds of netmundial, wgec etc, to fulfill their many roles (hostmaster services, training workshops across a very large coverage region including the pacific islands and not just Asia, etc). If some of them get business class fares for longer trips so they can arrive rested and immediately begin work, that is a net saving compared to the number of extra days hotel rooms are going to be booked for an extra rest day (a normal perk when your policy says to travel economy) and also keeps staff available for assignments that many more days in a year. That is a small number of very highly trained and skill sets not particularly easy to replace staff.
--srs (iPad)
> On 01-May-2014, at 0:22, Geetha Hariharan <geetha at cis-india.org> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> Please find below an account of a conversation over at the APNIC Talk
> mailing list regarding financial and activity transparency and reporting.
>
> 1. The conversation began with Dave Mead on Saturday (April 26, 2014)
> addressing Paul Wilson on the APNIC Talk mailing list. Mead referred to
> Wilson’s talk at the A-Pac Internet Leadership Programme, where Wilson
> allegedly stated: “Members pay fees to APNIC to support the organisation
> and the services and they don't give APNIC a blessing to spend that
> money in unlimited fashion on Internet development” [1]. Mead alleged
> that Wilson and other senior staff at APNIC utilize members’ fees/funds
> for business class travel, and denounced this practice as not befitting
> a not-for-profit Internet development organization.
>
> 2. Hanif H. Mohammed of Pakistan supported Mead, and added that APNIC
> was conducting a training programme on cyber-security, etc. for law
> enforcement agencies (“LEAs”), utilizing APNIC funds. As LEAs allocate
> funds of their own for training purposes, Mohammed stated that APNIC
> should not be spending on their behalf.
>
> 3. Skeeve Stevens intervenes and supports APNIC spending, by stating
> that APNIC staff do very important work and need to be alert and awake
> at meetings.
>
> 4. Masato Yamanishi (APNIC Policy SIG co-chair) reframes the debate:
> “The real question is whether there were enough outcomes compared to
> resources spent including costs and man-months”. This gets more support
> from members, and Dean Pemberton first makes a call for transparency and
> reporting: “To that end I would support an increased level of financial
> and activity reporting along the lines Yamanishi-san has suggested. We
> do see this increased reporting in RIRs and other multistakeholder
> organisations and they are to be commended for this. This will allow the
> membership to determine if outputs such as those reported by APNIC at
> ICANN49 are balanced with the expenditure required to produce them”.
> Others support this.
>
> 5. Tony Smith of APNIC responds by clarifying APNIC’s scope of
> operations and defending the LEA Training [email attached].
>
> 6. Skeeve Stevens takes a side-dig at B.C. Jain of India, who supported
> reduced APNIC fees: “With the size of your population, the growth rate
> of your industry, I really don't see why you have a problem with
> finances. The NIR of India really should be making enough revenue to pay
> for itself.”
>
> 7. Skeeve Stevens seeks financial reporting from all NIRs within APNIC
> [email attached].
>
>
> There was also a side-conversation on the same thread regarding APNIC’s
> effective representation of Asia and countries in the region:
>
> 1. A short series of standoffs between Mohammed and Skeeve Stevens (who
> voices support for APNIC, its activities and its staff) shows that there
> is confusion in some minds as to whom the APNIC-EC represents. Mohammed
> refers, for instance to APNIC offices located in Australia, and
> questions whether it really represents Asian interests. There are
> multiple responses to this: Rajesh Chharia asks why APNIC does not have
> a regional office in South Asia, and invites “Paul and Akinori” to
> respond. Aftab A. Siddiqui endorses this, referring to the newly opened
> Dubai office of RIPE-NCC. Others contribute to this as well, noting that
> Asia has no RIR.
>
> 2. In response to all these, Skeeve Stevens provides a long
> justificatory email, and accuses speakers of “sit[ting] far away, not
> attend[ing] conferences, not be[ing] involved and criticis[ing] any
> process and organization” [email attached]. Stevens emphasizes that
> regional interests take priority and states that those with national
> interests “will never be taken seriously”.
>
> 3. Skeeve Stephens responds by inviting others to look at APNIC-EC [2]
> and staff composition [3] and states that they effectively represent
> Asian economies.
>
> 4. Masato Yamanishi proposes that APNIC Secretariat should seek members’
> approval and priority “about major activities with expected human
> resources, CAPEX, and OPEX”. He refers to the ARIN and the RIPE-NCC
> Activity Plan and Budget 2014 [4], where such discussion is held.
>
> 5. Dave Mead again makes an intervention asking questions about APNIC’s
> involvement and support in setting up NIRs.
>
> ___
>
> [1] The audio may be found linked from the APNIC event wrap-up here:
> http://www.apnic.net/publications/news/2014/icann-49-event-wrapup.
> [2] APNIC-EC composition:
> http://www.apnic.net/about-APNIC/organization/structure/apnic-executive-council/ec-members.
> [3] APNIC staff composition: http://www.apnic.net/about-APNIC/team.
> [4] RIPE-NCC Budget Plan: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-598.
>
> I hope this is useful.
>
> Best,
> Geetha.
>
> --
> Geetha Hariharan
> Programme Officer
> Centre for Internet and Society
> W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 8860 360717
> <[apnic-talk] Question regarding Financial Reporting by NIR's.eml>
> <Re: [apnic-talk] ICANN 49 event wrapup.eml>
> <Re: [apnic-talk] ICANN 49 event wrapup.eml>
> <Re: [apnic-talk] ICANN 49 event wrapup.eml>
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
> governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> To be removed from the list, visit:
> http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
>
> For all other list information and functions, see:
> http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
> To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
> http://www.igcaucus.org/
>
> Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
For all other list information and functions, see:
http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
http://www.igcaucus.org/
Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
More information about the Governance
mailing list