Board Minutes - 6 September 1999

Public Version
Meeting of the .au Domain Administration Board

6 September 1999 - 1.10pm
Phillips Fox. Level 15, 255 Elizabeth Street. Sydney NSW 2000

Present:
Sandra Davey (SD), Kim Davies (KD), Chris Connolly (CCo) Greg Watson (GW), Mark Hughes (MH), Chris Chaundy (CCh by phone), David Thompson (by phone), Ian Morrison

Observers:
Kevin Dinn (IIA), Asa Masterman (NOIE), Nikki Vajrabukka (NOIE)

Apologies:
Larry Bloch and Vic Cinc


1. Confirmation of Minutes of the Previous Meeting That the minutes be accepted. Moved: SD, Seconded: CCo

2. Actions Arising from the Minutes

3.1 (3.1/5): DT to draft new press release and include AGM by 5 AUG DT completed, including announcement with respect to Connect.com. A press release was sent regarding the AGM.

3.2 (3.4/5): MM to contact CSIRO to follow up on their involvement. A meeting is organised with CSIRO in Canberra on 7th September 1999. Completed.

3.3.1 (3.11.1/5): KH to contact IM to confirm results, with "no response equal acceptance". Response received yesterday. IM has informed KH that he would talk about it at today\'s meeting. IM has figures.

ACTION 3.3.1/6: IM to supply votes to KH.

3.3.2 (3.11.3/5): KD to publish KH findings to web site. Deferred pending 3.3.1

ACTION 3.3.2/6: KD to publish KH findings to web site.

3.3.3 (3.11.4/5): KH to send detailed results to board of selection process. Deferred pending 3.3.1

ACTION 3.3.3/6: KH to send detailed results to board of selection process.

3.4 (3.14/5): MM to reply to Geoff Huston advising of auDA\'s goal to operate AUNIC. Meeting with Geoff Huston to discuss this on the 7th September 1999.

3.5 (3.15/5): GW to develop terms of reference for the panel Mark has developed this and sent to the board mailing list earlier today. TO be discussed in Other Business.

3.6.1 (4-1/5): GW to remove NOIE funding from business plan. Completed. New version 1.1.3 of the business plan has been created. To be discussed with each of the stakeholders and to be published by end of the week

ACTION 3.6.1/6: KD to publish at the end of the week.

3.6.2 (4-2/5): SD to date the timeline and financial plan so context makes sense on published version. Not yet complete.

ACTION 3.6.2/6: SD to date the timeline and financial plan so context makes sense on published version.

3.6.3 (4-3/5): KD to add Nicol Delbaere to mailing list Done.

3.7 (5/5): SD(chair), KD, VC and MH to form AGM subcommittee and organise the AGM. To report twice weekly on progress to board. Done.

3.8 (7/5): MM to try and meet with Peter Gerrand by next Friday (6/8/1999) to discuss points, and make a response. DT to draft first letter. DT has drafted letter, and sent off after a number of modifications by MM.

3.9 (9/5): MM to follow up on educational sector response with IM. Done, to be meeting tomorrow with ....

3.10.1 (10-1/5): MM to send copy of the letter from LB to the board list by AUG 1.

3.10.2 (10-2/5): Engage Phillips Fox to draft a censure motion. A letter was drafted by Nicol Delbaere and sent to LB. LB responded.

ACTION 3.10.2-1/6: ND to send LB\'s response to board mailing list.

ACTION 3.10.2-2/6: MM to send draft retraction letter to ND to review and send to LB as a suggested form of apology.

3.11.1 (14-1/5): MM to send the "PDPP" to invite comment from large number of sectors. Extend 21 days notice until the next board meeting. Has been completed by MM around 2 weeks after the previous board meeting. An official response has been received from Tradegate and one from a member. No other response has been received.

ACTION (3.11.1/6): IM to create a new version based on comments for a further 14 day period of comment. To be completed for release by Monday, 13th September 1999.

3.11.2 (14-2/5): ALL to send a list of stakeholders to board list over the next 2 days. SD and IM proposed names which were added to the list. Completed.

3.12 (15/5): KH to add Service Level Agreements to the work for Phillips Fox to conduct for auDA. KH commissioned ND to complete this. Phillips Fox estimates it will cost $3,500.

ACTION 3.12/6: MM to create an informal exposure draft to stakeholders and DNS list in order to gauge general areas to include in the terms of reference for a policy development panel on Service Level Agreements. Any comments to be collated for the first board.

4. Annual General Meeting

4.1 Logistics

Seek scrutineers and volunteers. NOIE to volunteer one person as a scrutineer. iiNet to try and allow Jody Morris to travel to Sydney to act as volunteer. Phillips Fox to supply returning officer for the AGM. iiNet to timestamp and supply all correspondence regarding auDA to Phillips Fox. Draft Notice of Annual General Meeting was circulated to the board.

ACTION 4-1/6: SD to insert at 4 in Agenda, "Announce results of election"

4.2 Communications

All are on time and have been delivered.

4.3 Governance Issues

SD to brief the board before the AGM on the running order of the the meeting.

4.4 Ethical issues

There were discussions of member and voting balance issues. It was suggested some options to reduce the possibility of vote stacking is for the ACCC to formulate regulations as part of its license to ensure no stacking, or have .au delegated to the ACA which is then subdelegated to auDA.

5. Membership Applications

There were 7 new applications received from: i) Cheryl Langdon-Orr (Demand) ii) Ralph Booth (Demand) iii) Robert Cawley (Demand) iv) Philip McCrae (Demand) v) John Southgate (Demand) vi) Anthony Hill (Supply) vii) Net Services Australia Pty Ltd (Supply)

MOTION: That these memberships be approved, with Anthony Hill approved on the provision that his eligibility for the Supply class is confirmed. Moved: MM, Seconded: KH Action 5/6: MH to proceed with membership matters as per the motion.

6. Registration Complaints

SD tabled complaints regarding 2LDs that were submitted to auDA via the Internet. They will be passed to the appropriate policy advisory panel.

7. Funding negotiation process and recent activities.

(Chair) connect.com.au are having delays in signing their contract, due to the recent resignation of director John Stuckey, and a lack of suitable eligible signatories to apply their company seal to the documents. Connect also queried part 6 of the agreement. Suggests a new part 6.4: (Insert wording here) Define generic 2LDs? (to be asn, org, net, com), chartered and unchartered and that Connect has the right to veto if other domains are not opened at the same time.

ACTION: ND to change the execution clause to only require an authorised person.

No response from com.au to date, although the letter was only sent recently. There was some discussion of Geoff Huston\'s role in edu.au, and where at this time it is any more involved than his role in com.au - i.e. purely as administrator of the registry AUNIC. It was decided that this needed to be clarified at auDA\'s forthcoming meeting with Geoff Huston.

8. Other Business

auDA Policy Advisory Panel #1 MH has produced a terms of reference for "Review and Recommendations on Applicant Eligibility Policy and Name Allocation Policy for .com.au, .net.au, .org.au and .asn.au second level domains."

IM suggested a dispute resolution process.

It was suggested the terms of reference be extended to gov.au, edu.au and csiro.au. These organisations would have a right of veto over policy.

A further suggestion was that the panel work on all second level domains, but to prioritise the above domains, and treat id.au etc. at a later time depending on available resource.

It was suggested the Ministries of Fair Trading or equivelant representatives to the panel. Consult with Australian Consumers Association, Chamber of Commerce etc.

In the Duration section, Panel must pass project plan by board. 4(a) Panel to confirm back to auDA its timetable and processes.

ACTION 8-1/6: MH to 1. Call for members to nominate to participate in policy advisory panel who have time to dedicate and have an active interest. 2. After a week, contact any important parties to see if tey want to be involved. 3. Formulate a list of panel members and publish terms of reference. MH has volunteered as chair of the panel.

ACTION 8-2/6: MM and IM to cover the issue during their meetings with stakeholders tomorrow.

ACTION 8-3/6: MH to rename "Stages" to "Outcomes" * ATUG ATUG has proposed that we have create a contra membership, so that auDA becomes a member of ATUG in exchange for ATUG becoming a member of auDA.

ACTION 8-4/6: MH to reply to ATUG to decline on the basis that auDA does not have the resources to maintain an active membership and involvement with them at this time.

* AGM Board Meeting SD proposed the board meets at 3pm on the day of the AGM.

9. Close of Meeting (4:35pm)