Board Minutes - 3 March 2000

Public Version
Meeting of the .au Domain Administration Board

3 March 2000 - 1.00pm
connect.com.au Pty Ltd. Level 9, 114 Albert Road. South Melbourne VIC 3205

Present:
Greg Watson (Acting Chair), David Keegel (Secretary), Mark Hughes (Treasurer), Chris Chaundy, Kim Heitman, David Thompson, Kim Davies
Erica Roberts, Iain Morrison

Teleconference:
Michael Malone and Kevin Dinn

Observers:
Brenton Thomas (NOIE)

Apologies:
Nil


1. Confirmation of Minutes
Motion that the minutes of the previous meeting on Monday 7th February 2000 are a true and accurate reflection of the meeting. Passed.

2. Action items
Item 11, Business and Strategic Planning sub-committee has not happened. See action item 1 below.

Item 12 Information privacy and protection paper to be put on web site has not happened. See action item 2 below.

1. Business and Strategic Planning sub-committee (Chair, Vice Chair, actingCEO, DT, IM) to review and report on the best mechanism for auDA to develop a business and strategic plan.  Option of a half day meeting before the next board meeting for this purpose.  David Thompson to co-ordinate the Business Planning session.
2. KD        Information Privacy andProtection paper be put on the auDA web site
3. Acting CEO       Report on the implications of GST for auDA.
4. Acting CEO       Provide a revised list of action items
5. Treasurer           Report on the short term cash flow over the next few months.
6. Treasurer           Issue invoices for amounts owing from Registrars including .net.au
7. Acting CEO       Obtain legal opinion on whether individuals who are employees of companies who qualify for supply class are entitled to apply for Supply Class. Opinion to cover

    The issue of 'cascading' membership qualifications
    Do employees in such a position have an option of Supply or Demand, or must they be one or the other?
    What do we do with existing members who meet this criteria?

8. KD         List of EOI Respondents to be published on the auDA web site.
9. ER to notify MH of contactat MIT that GW and MH will talk to re their requirements for Aunic.  GW and MH to arrange a phone conference with MIT contact to discuss their requirements.
10.  Acting CEO to prepare revised business plan and operation plan and circulate to board by cob Friday10 March.  Operation plan to include list of all agreements/contracts.
11. Acting CEO to report to the board on Policy Panel timeline, operational processes, and budget
12. Panel Chair and acting CEO to develop the TOR and operational processes.
13. Acting CEO to proceed with more detailed business case for domain names VAS
14. Acting CEO to documentissue on possible membership classes and the mechanisms necessary to support all .au domain name holders being members of auDA
15.  Acting CEO to follow up for Directors & Officers insurance
16. Acting CEO to send update message to members

3.         Treasurer's report

Treasurer's report was tabled.

4.         Membership Officer

Discussion of membership class eligibility for individuals who are employees of entities who qualify for Supply Class.  See action item 6.

Motion to accept Scott Evans as a demand class member.  Moved David Thompson, seconded David Keegel.  Passed.

5.         Publicity officer'sreport

We are continuing to receive up to a couple of hundred queries a week to register@aunic, plus occasional queries to comments@auda.org.au.  MH is replying to non-technical queries, DK is replying to technical queries.

6.         Chairs report

7.         acting ceo's report

Acting CEO has had meetings with several significant stakeholders

7.1    NOIE

Discussions with NOIE covering awide range of issues.

7.2    OGO

OGO identified several areas wherethey are not happy with the service provided by Aunic.  Acting CEO confirmed to OGO that auDA would fix those problems as part of the transfer of Aunic to auDA.

7.3    MIT

Identified with MIT that it was likely that there were issues other than contract wording that MIT believed needed to be resolved.  Acting CEO proposed that the process from here was:

     Acting CEO would workwith MIT's nominated person (ER) to identify the full list of MIT issues.
    Acting CEO would then bring these issues to auDA board for review.
    Acting CEO to also identify the full list of auDA issues that need to be resolved in exchange with MIT.

7.4    GW - Aunic Transfer

Met with GW to discuss Aunic Transfer

13 respondents to the statement of interest were received, who will all be invited to tender.

General discussion about transfer of Aunic to auDA.  Issues included the addition of a Q&A session for tenderers as part of the process.  The tender is a hosting contract, it is not intended as project management or software development.

Discussion about evaluation process and use of independent evaluation.

Motion that the selection criteria include that respondents must identify all conflicts of interest and how they would resolve such conflicts;  for example operational independence, equality of access, etc.  Moved David Thompson, Seconded Iain Morrison.  Passed.

Motion that a third party evaluate the responses and provide a report to the subcommittee who will provide a report to the board.  Moved Iain Morrison, seconded David Thompson. Passed

Noted that auDA would update registrars such as OGO and MIT on general Aunic capabilities, etc, 24x7service, security, etc.  See Action item 9.

7.5    Business Plan and OperationalPlan

Acting CEO to prepare revised business plan and operation plan and circulate to board by cob Friday 10March.  Operation plan to include list of all agreements.  See action item 10.

8.         Contracts in Negotiation

Brief discussion about Registrars and contracts not already mentioned under section 7 - acting CEO's report.  Comment that acting CEO would follow up with other minor 2lds including:

    .csiro.au
    .id.au
    .info.au
    .conf.au
    .telememo.au
    .otc.au

 See action item 6

9.         Policy panel

Discussion on issues of privacy,etc.  Should auDA allow responses which are confidential and not made public, as well as responses which are made public but not attributed.

Action Item:      acting CEO to report to the board on timeline, operational processes, and budget.  See action item11.

10.         Competition panel

General discussion on the Competition Panel TOR.  Agreed that Stage 1 must address what competition models are available, and options to maximise competition and minimise monopoly.  Theend of Stage 1 is a report back to the board on options available.  Agreed that models must address registry definitions and functions.

Action Item:  Panel chair and acting CEO to develop the TOR and operational processes.

11.         Value added services

Acting CEO proposed to establish service to enable other entities to provide value added services based on .au domain names database.  Discussion on level of information that would be provided. Agreed that only domain names would be provided at this stage.

Action item:  acting CEO to proceed with more detailedbusiness case.  See action item 13

12.         Competition model

Discussion about whether work should be done before the panel, or whether this task the responsibility of the Competition Panel

Motion that a primary objective of auDA is to introduce sustainable competition into the .au namespace.  Moved David Thompson, seconded Greg Watson.  Passed.

13.         Independent Directors

Discussion on appointment of independent directors to auDA board, and the issue of an auDA chair who would be neither a Registry, Registrar, or Delegate.

Action on all board members to nominate suitable candidates for independent directors.

14.         Expansion of auDA membership

Discussion of expansion of auDA member base - options to automatically include all .au domain name holders as a members auDA.

Action item:      Acting CEO to document issue on possible membership classes andthe mechanisms necessary to support all .au domain name holders as members ofauDA.  See Action Item 14.

15.         JOR's Resignation

General action item for CEO to ensure that all board members are kept up to date with contracts and information. Discussion of mechanisms to ensure distribution of information, and the option of a password protected part of the auDA web site.

Motion that Mark Hughes be appointed acting CEO for six months or until appointment of a permanent CEO on a renumeration of $90,000 with details to be confirmed at the next board meeting..  Moved Erica, seconded David Thompson.  Passed.

Move the Joseph's letter not be made available, nor the contents.  Moved ?  Seconded ? Passed.

Other actions items - see Action Items

Action item - ceo to follow up for Directors & Officers insurance

Action item - either ceo or chair to send messages to members

Action item - ceo to write statement to members.

View expressed that acting ceo was different from ceo, therefore there it is OK under the constitution.

16.         Acting ceo status

General discussion on acting CEO status, and constitutional issues.  It was noted that the constitution was not clear on the issue, and that various interpretations could be made.  Comment made that an acting CEO was different from a CEO, and therefore this many be allowable under the constitution.

17.         Next meeting
Melbourne 7th April