Minutes - A Regular Meeting of the PTI Board | 30 September 2020
A Regular Meeting of the PTI Board of Directors was held on 30 September 2020 at 14:00 UTC.
The following Directors participated in all or part of the meeting: Lise Fuhr (Chair), David Conrad, Kim Davies (PTI President), Jia-Rong Low and Wei Wang.
PTI Secretary: Samantha Eisner (PTI Secretary).
The following Executives and Staff participated in all or part of the meeting: Aaron Jimenez (Board Operations Specialist (ICANN)); Xavier Calvez (SVP, Planning & Chief Financial Officer (ICANN)); Kirsten Crownhart (Manager, Financial Planning & Analysis (ICANN)), Becky Nash (PTI Treasurer) and Shani Quidwai (Senior Director, Finance (ICANN)).
The PTI Chair called the meeting to order and introduced the agenda.
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Approval of Posting FY22 PTI Budget for Public Comment
The PTI President, the PTI Treasurer and Kirsten Crownhart jointly presented the PTI Board with the PTI FY22 Operating Plan and Budget. The PTI Treasurer noted that a series of engagements and presentations were held with the community to identify the priorities for the FY22 PTI Budget.
The PTI President informed the PTI Board that the FY22 PTI Operating Plan is informed by and aligns with the ICANN Strategic Objectives developed by a community-driven bottom up process. The adopted version of this Plan will become a component of ICANN's FY22 Operating Plan and Budget.
The PTI President provided a brief overview of the PTI Operating Plan and Budget Structure.
Kirsten Crownhart continued the presentation with the FY22 PTI Budget Summary, and provided a breakdown of the PTI FY22 Budget by cost category.
In relation to the FY22 Operating Plan and Budget document, to provide some clarity, the PTI Chair provided some comments and suggestions, and requested that some adjustments be made to the document, where relevant. The PTI Board will complete its review of the document and provide their suggestions and/or comments, if any, by Monday, 5 October 2020.
The PTI Treasurer concluded the presentation by providing an overview of the anticipated timelines and next steps.
Following the discussion on the FY22 PTI Operating Plan and Budget, and subject to the agreed changes being incorporated into the document, the PTI Board agreed that it is ready for public comment.
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Operational Updates
Finance:
The PTI Treasurer updated the PTI Board on recent organizational changes within the Finance team:
- The PTI Treasurer has assumed a new role within ICANN, as Vice President of Planning and she will continue her role as the PTI Treasurer.
- Shani Quidwai has been appointed as the Senior Director of Finance. He will continue to support the IANA operations budget development and reporting activities; and
- Kirsten Crownhart, Manager, Financial Planning & Analysis, will continue to support the IANA operations budget and financial reporting.
PTI Operations:
The PTI President provided an update on PTI performance and ongoing activities. First, with the numbering functions, the PTI President reported that PTI met 100% of the time for the reporting cycle.
For the naming functions, the PTI President reported that PTl met 100% of the time for the reporting cycle. The PTI President continued that since July 2019, an ongoing process to streamline the SLAs has been put in place, and such work is still in progress. Following an operation incident which occurred in February 2019, the RIRs highlighted a gap in the SLA, and approached PTI with the proposal of having an expanded set of SLAs that govern the uptime and availability of IANA's systems. The RIRs provided a draft proposal on the expanded set of SLAs and PTI has provided some initial feedback on the same. PTI and the RIRs will continue their dialogue on this topic.
For the protocol parameters functions, there is a monthly SLA that has been met 100% of the time. The PTI President also noted that work is currently being undertaken to work on some operational channels to the .ARPA top-level domain (TLD), which the IANA operates as part of the protocol parameter functions for the IETF. Secondly, there has been a recurring inquiry in relation to the licensing terms for the data which are maintained on the IANA functions (specifically relating to the protocol parameter functions), requesting for a more formal, precise set of licensing terms. In this regard, the IETF has developed a draft approach which has been published for a 30-day public comment period. The IANA team will review the approach and provide its feedback to the IETF, and keep the PTI Board abreast of further developments.
KSK Rollover:
The PTI President reported that the no KSK rollover has taken place since April 2020.
In April 2020, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and related stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions, the IANA team proceeded with a modified key signing ceremony with minimum in-person participation, and the Trusted Community Representatives (TCRs) performed their roles remotely. An important change was made by the IANA team by generating nine months of signed material, rather than the normal three. As a result, there will be no need to hold another key ceremony for the remainder of 2020.
At present, the IANA team is in the early planning stages for the next key signing ceremony.
Internal Staffing:
The PTI President reported that the position of Technical Director, IANA, has been filled. Also, Naela Sarras who was previously the Director of IANA Operations has taken on a new role within the ICANN organization as Vice President, Global Stakeholder Engagement, North America since mid-September 2020. PTI is taking the necessary steps towards hiring a replacement for her role. In the interim, Marilia Hirano (IANA Strategic Projects Manager) has taken on additional responsibilities to manage the IANA team.
Given the current COVID-19 situation, the IANA team has continued to successfully work remotely since the beginning of March 2020. However, as the PTI President highlighted during the previous PTI Board meeting, it has been a significant challenge to maintain the team cohesion and engagement throughout this period.
IANA Naming Function Review (IFR):
The PTI President provided a brief update on the status of the IFR. The IFR team approved their Initial Report on 2 October 2020, which will lead to the opening of a public comment proceeding on the Initial Report and its recommendations. The recommendations set out in the Initial Report include:
- To provide greater transparency by posting certain documents on the website (two recommendations);
- To remove a duplicate clause found in the Bylaws as both sections (section 18.2(a)(i) and (ii) describe the same process;
- To remove a requirement for formatting the Root Operations Monthly Audit Reports. This requirement is an obsolete carry-over from the NTIA contract, and as written cannot be fulfilled. It will not impact the Monthly reports as published today.
The Initial Report will be posted for Public Comment during the week of 5 October 2020. An engagement session with has been scheduled at ICANN69 for the IFR team to present their Initial Report to the community.
- Action Item:
- Given that the IFR team did not have the opportunity to engage and consult with the PTI Board during the course of their review, the PTI Board agreed that it would be worthwhile for the PTI Board to meet with the IFR team to discuss their recommendations and the rationales for such recommendations.
Outreach and Engagement with the Customer Standing Committee (CSC):
From a general engagement perspective, the PTI President stated that the PTI team generally meets directly with its customers; and for the broader community, the PTI team holds open information sessions (similar to the one held during ICANN meetings). Given the current COVID-19 situation, the PTI Chair expressed her concern regarding the lack of outreach and engagement efforts with the CSC.
- Action Item:
- The PTI President will initiate a discussion on this topic via e-mail, and at a future PTI Board meeting, the meeting agenda will include a discussion on the IANA team's strategy and engagement efforts with the CSC.
The Chair called the meeting to a close.