Board Minutes - 1 May 2000

Public Version
Meeting of the .au Domain Administration Board

1 May 2000 - 01.00pm
connect.com.au Pty Ltd. Level 9, 114 Albert Road. South Melbourne VIC 3205

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

Observers:
Jo Lim and Paul Walsh

Apologies:
Kevin Dinn and Michael Malone


1. auDA chair

There was extensive discussion on whether or not to have an acting chair until the AGM.

Moved DT seconded KH motion to elect a Chair & Deputy chair for the period up to the AGM. Carried.

Call for nominations for position of Chair.

Candidates were Greg Watson and David Thompson. Greg Watson was elected auDA Chair. David Thompson was the sole candidate for Deputy Chair, and was therefore elected unopposed.

Moved David Thompson, seconded Greg Watson, that there be a vote of thanks to Michael Malone for all his work as Chair. Carried.

Action item that the Chair will write to Michael expressing our appreciation for his services.

2. Confirmation of Agenda

Agenda was confirmed.

Question from Chair re outcome of strategic planning meeting. David Thompson confirmed that he would be providing a report to the board.

1. Minutes of previous meeting
Proposed GW seconded DT that minutes including the changes will be circulated, if there are no further objections within a week, they will be accepted.

2. Action items

3. Corporate governance

4. Continuing Disclosure

No changes to any director's status under continuing disclosure rules.

2. Independent Directors

A list of possible independent directors for appointment to the board of auDA was tabled.

Iain Morrison, Michael Malone and Kim Heitman comprise the board's independent director's subcommittee, reviewing proposed candidates for independent directors. The time period for board members to propose candidates to the Independent directors sub-committee was extended to Monday 8 May.

Discussion of requirements for independent directors. Agreed that it was desirable that independent directors had experience with government; experience with industry self regulation; experience in building consensus amongst key stakeholders, independence in terms of shareholdings and employment.

7. Treasurer's Report

Treasurer's report was tabled.

Action Item: Acting CEO to provide 12 month budget/plan at each board meeting.

8. Membership report

Response from Baker McKenzie to clarify the situation regarding auDA members who are employees of Supply Class members:

Individuals who are employees of Supply Class members are Demand Class members, unless their activities separate from their employment qualify them for Supply Class; i.e. the fact that they are employed by Supply Class members does not affect an individual's membership class.

ER moved seconded IM that we accept and publish this advice via web site, FAQ, etc.

Supply Class
ECORPORAT8 Pty Ltd
WebCentral Pty Ltd

Demand Class
Peter Moss
Erica Roberts

Action item: Acting CEO to include in the membership renewal process that the member re-confirms their eligibility for correct class.

Motion to accept 4 new members. Moved DK seconded GW carried. ER abstained due to potential conflict of interest.

9. Customer service

We have received / replied to 607 enquiries.

10. Publicity

Acting CEO has accepted an invitation to speak on Domain Name Issues at the ISPCON in Melbourne 14-16 August, in the 'Regulatory Stream' of the conference.

Phone interview with Peter Young of The Industry Standard on 28 April. Salient points:

    auDA is close to finalising an agreement with Melbourne IT re .com.au
    auDA will soon initiate reviews of competition model and domain name policy
    NOIE is supporting auDA by providing resources to enable the reviews to progress properly

auDA web site updates:

    FAQ at HYPERLINK "http://www.auda.org.au/faq.html" www.auda.org.au/faq.html has been revised several times during the month to include new issues and correct/provide more information on other issues.
    Advisory Panel Vn 2.3 is at HYPERLINK "http://www.auda.org.au/" www.auda.org.au/
    Membership form at HYPERLINK "http://www.auda.org.au/membership-form.html" www.auda.org.au/membership-form.html has been revised

Action item: Acting CEO to update faq to point out that .au.com is not part of .au -it is a second level domain under .com. Not under our jurisdiction.

Action item: Acting CEO to advise link and other mailing lists of its existence and to ask existing 2ld registrars to provide a link.

11. Acting CEO's report

1. Operational Issues

Acting CEO is working to finalised all issues relating to resignation of CEO.

2. Contracts

1. MIT

We have received latest iteration of the proposed contract from MIT. Contract has been reviewed by Acting CEO and Baker & McKenzie. Contract will be sent to NOIE and ACCC comment, then presented to Board for consideration.

Noted that the contract is to be signed by the Chair.

2. Asn

Contract based on .connect.com contract. It has been signed and is on its way back to Acting CEO.

Action item: GW and DT to review the contract.

3. Gov.au

Revised contract has been sent to OGO.

Action: Acting CEO to prepare a summary of the contracts. One line per contract with relevant information such as Period/Payment terms/What happens at the end of the period

Action item: NOIE and ACCC to receive contracts signed and proposed.

Signed contracts to be put on the web:

4. Edu.au

No Progress

5. CSIRO

Jonathan Potter has been overseas for a month. He returns this week and Acting CEO will meet him next Tuesday 9th.

12. Aunic

Action item: Acting CEO to issue the tender.

13. ABN as Domain Name eligibility

Discussion about the ABN as evidence of eligibility for a Domain Name.Motion: Proposed DT Seconded GW auDA has decided that an ABN is an acceptable criteria for compliance to current eligibility in .net.au and .com.au. Carried.

Action Item: Acting CEO to write to .net.au and .com.au to state that an ABN is an acceptable criteria under existing policy; asking them to advise on an implementation date. Write to other delegates and advise them of the outcome.

14. Advisory Panels

1. Name Policy Panel

Proposed Constituents - send specific invitations to:

    Consumers ACA
    Business Tradegate ECA, ACCI
    Registrars All Registrars/Delegates/Administrators
    IP IP Australia, IT&PA, Australian Digital Alliance, Law Council of Australia

Call for participation to members, DNS list

Call for participation to include comment that competition panel will exist

Noted that the specific invitations will ask the organisation to nominate an individual, but will not at this stage guaranteed that organisations participation in the panel.

Terms of reference

Action Item: Acting CEO to replace the existing date driven schedule with elapsed time guidelines and post on the web site.

2. Competition Panel

Proposed Constituents - as for the Name Policy Panel, plus NOIE and ACCC:

Action item for acting CEO to develop TOR for approval at next board meeting.

15. Other business

Acting CEO outlined his understanding of the ACCC's view. That:

    they expected auDA to put in place the policies and infrastructure necessary to enable competition
    then they expect all registrars to then use that infrastructure.

16. Next meeting / Meeting closed

Meeting closed at: 17:05

Next meeting 5 June at Melbourne IT.