Board Minutes - 8 April 2002
Public Version
Meeting of the .au Domain Administration Board
8 April 2002 - 1.00pm
.au Domain Administration Limited. 107 Faraday Street. Carlton VIC 3053
Present:
Chris Chaundy, Patrick Corliss, Greg Crew, Kim Davies, Peter Dean, Chris Disspain, Kim Heitman, David Keegel, Jo Lim, Peter Nissen, Tony Staley, Greg Watson
Teleconference:
Liz Williams
Observers:
Keith Besgrove (NOIE), Michelle Scott (NOIE) and John Higgins (Hayes Knight)
Apologies:
Michael Malone and Josh Rowe
1. Continuous Disclosure
CC advised that he has resigned from Connect Internet Services and accepted a position with COMindico.
KD advised that he has accepted a position with CENTR in Austria.
PC advised that he is no longer a director of the TLDA.
2. Confirmation of Minutes
The minutes of the February 2002 meeting, as amended by PC, were approved.
3. Finance Report
The Finance Committee approved the finance report prior to the meeting. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has advised that auDA may qualify for tax exempt status under recent amendments to the taxation legislation regarding non-profit organisations in the ICT sector.
Action: auDA to lodge objection to tax assessment, in accordance with the new legislative provisions.
4. CEO Report
The CEO gave a progress report on the generics auctions, transition to competition, and new staff.
Action: Transition update to be posted on auDA web site.
5. Policy Development
auDRP
The board noted progress on auDRP implementation. auDA will hold training sessions for prospective auDRP panelists during May.
New 2LDs
The board approved the selection criteria for new 2LDs. It was agreed that the board should reserve its opinion on whether open 2LD proposals should take precedence over closed 2LD proposals, until the outcome of the call for proposals is known. The board requested that the New Names Panel provide its final report in November 2002.
Action: auDA staff to issue call for proposals for new 2LDs, and nominations for New Names Panel.
Code of Practice
LW gave a progress report on Code of Practice development. The next committee meeting is on 22 April, after which a draft Code will be released for public comment. The board re-affirmed that it is not auDA's role, nor is it sufficiently resourced, to actually write the Code. Rather, auDA's role is to promote and facilitate development of the Code by the industry.
6. New DNS Secondary Arrangement
KD advised that ISOC-NZ has requested a reciprocal DNS secondary arrangement for .au and .nz. The board agreed that there are benefits to such an arrangement, that it could be incorporated into the general .au DNS strategy currently being implemented, and that appropriate terms and conditions (eg. service levels) could be specified in a Memorandum of Understanding between auDA and ISOC-NZ.
Action: KD to follow up with ISOC-NZ.
7. Membership
The members listed below were accepted in the classes indicated, subject to checks by the CEO.
DHS International P/L (supply)
Destra Corporation (supply)
webarama.com.au (supply)
Anthony Alder (demand)
Fleur Hinton (demand)
Cyrille Lefevre (supply)
Michael Pappas (supply)
Internet Registry P/L (supply)
Imagineering Technology P/L (supply)
Augusta Margaret River Tourism Assoc (rep assoc)
Action: Membership outreach committee to draft issues paper for the board focusing on 1) who auDA members should be (eg. all domain name holders?), and 2) what services should be provided to members. The committee was also asked to consider how to improve transparency of auDA (eg. public board meetings?), and a process for regular review of auDA policy.
8. NOIE report on ICANN reform
NOIE advised that it will shortly issue a discussion paper regarding ICANN reform. Submissions are due by 6 May.
Action: auDA to provide input to NOIE in early May.
9. Other Business
IDNs
The board noted that AusRegistry will implement checks to prevent registration of International Domain Names (IDNs) in the .au domain, in accordance with ICANN policy. This means that domain names with hyphens in the third and fourth position (eg. ab--cde.com.au) will not be able to be registered. Action: Restriction on IDNs to be included in auDA's policy rules.
Transfer of domain name licences between registrants
The board noted that under auDA's draft Consumer Safeguards policy, a registrant may transfer their domain name licence to another registrant. This is not allowed under current policy. The change in policy requires board approval.
Action: PC to draft a paper on transfer of domain name licences between registrants, for consideration at the next board meeting.
Standing technical advisory committee
The board agreed to appoint a standing technical advisory committee, pursuant to the Competition Panel's final report. The role of the committee will be to provide information and advice to the board on DNS technical developments of relevance to the .au domain.
Action: auDA staff to draft proposed composition and terms of reference for the committee, for consideration at the next board meeting.
Attendance at next ICANN meeting in Bucharest
TS will attend with the CEO.
Directors
GW advised that he will be moving to the US at the end of May. The board acknowledged GW for his outstanding contribution to the development of auDA and the .au domain, in particular his personal commitment and effort in securing Government endorsement of auDA in 2000.
The board noted that KD is also moving overseas, and acknowledged KD for his contribution to .au reform over the past 4 years, in particular his work as auDA webmanager and DNS list administrator.
10. Next Meeting
The next board meeting will be held on Monday 17 June 2002 at 10am.