DomainNames
Top Contributor
domainnames: re ICANN, i'll just speak for myself here.
although i have not been to an ICANN meeting i do intend to as my role as a director, we are part of a global group and much i feel can be gained by face to face meetings, FAR more then video as being there enables you to " work the room" and make connections you can not make via a set video time frame.
i also agree that a ROI is valid and a trip report is also valid, i have done this in the past for other companies and it helps focus on a goal, a "definition of success " , having said that sometimes you only pull out 1 item from days of meetings but that item might be VERY valuable. being someone that goes to many conferences in my own business i see great value in attendance.
business class: it is acceptable in most organisations that over a certain number of hours flight that business class will be used, you want to arrive at the conference as fresh as you can and 18 hours + in economy will not achieve that and NOTE that directors are not paid whilst attending so i would be giving up my work time to go FOR the organisation.
so far my burden on the costs of auda have been a few train dailies, 2 cab fairs and an overnight in sydney where i gave up 2 days of my work time on auda business.
so i don't consider i'm on a gravy train and my understanding is that this was simons first time ever at icann in 3-4 years of opportunity.
a small delegation to icann to keep our fingers on the pulse is part of properly representing as a director, to do "video" is like having a business in a back alley and not advertising. my experience at conventions is MOST business and knowledge gets exchanged outside of seminars and over dinner.
tim
We await the trip reports and cost disclosure of each person who attended in light of the apparent many years of auDA excessive expenditure, lack of proper reporting and lack of evidence to show the ROI was worth it.
- How many people where paid for by auDA to attend Icann and other trips this last year since last AGM?
- Where are their trip reports?
- What was the total cost?
"Simon Johnson queried the Board’s view on travel expenses, in the 2009- 10 Accounts
Chris Disspain advised that auDA has been increasing its domestic and international outreach activities in line with the Strategic Plan approved by the Board. Domestic travel increases were also due to Board & staff attendance at ICANN Sydney June 2009 and the 2009 AGM in Perth. The Chair assured members the Board would monitor the travel budget".
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/au_historical_financial_irregula
"While these long-standing relationships have had considerable strengths, they have also continued early patterns of fairly informal Board practices over a period of some 15 years" which, arguably, "have not kept pace with auDA's growth in scale and importance to the Australian community, nor with evolving good practice in governance and accountability". In light of this alleged lack of governance, accountability and transparency, the newly appointed CEO and management has taken initiatives in the past 12 months to introduce various organisational and administrative policies to reform auDA's governance framework.
"
As part of these initiatives, a forensic review of auDA's historical expense management practices was performed to ensure accountability on expenditure in general. According to slide six of the CEO presentation given at the Special General Meeting on 31 July 2017 (accessible here - https://www.auda.org.au/assets/pdf/SGM/a... ), the Board of auDA ("Board") appointed PPB Advisory, which specialises in undertaking forensic investigations and investigating fraudulent activities, to conduct an independent forensic review of auDA's expense management in two phases ("PPB Review") as follows:
• Phase 1: travel and expenses review under instructions from Maddocks commencing in February 2016; and
• Phase 2: forensic investigation under instructions from Ashurst commencing in September 2016.
Slide seven of that presentation summarises the findings of the PPB Review as follows:
"The review of travel and expenses identified there was a lack of formal policies and procedures governing how travel and expenses were managed at auDA. There were high levels of expenditure on international travel and reimbursement arrangements with international bodies that lacked transparency, which should have warranted a more robust process;.. There was general a lack of formal procedures and supporting documentation."