Domain Name Commission Limited Board Minutes - February 2015

Minutes - Board Meeting 17 February 2015

Present: David Farrar (Chair), Lucy Elwood, Adam Hunt, Kenneth Johnston and Dave Moskovitz (with apologies for lateness).

In Attendance: Debbie Monahan (Domain Name Commissioner) and Winnie Cummock.

1. Register of Interests

The DNCL Register of Interests was updated. No conflicts were noted for this meeting.

2. Minutes of the last meeting

The minutes of the last DNCL Board meeting were passed as true and accurate.

3. Policy amendments covering resellers

The second consultation on proposed amendments to the Roles and Responsibilities Policy (RAR) has concluded. One submission was received proposing a grammatical change to one clause.

The Board approved the proposed amendments to the RAR as drafted and noted that the changes will be publicly notified, coming into effect one month after notification.

The Board noted that as part of introducing the changes of the RAR , DNCL is developing a template agreement that the Registrars can use with their resellers.

4. DNCL Policy

Following the December Board meeting, the DNC wrote to the NZRS CE setting out the DNCL position regarding the possible .nz policy amendments. A response to the letter was received in early February.

NZRS' response and the timeframes for the review of the overall .nz policy framework together with the request for consideration of business development proposals were discussed.

It was noted that the policy amendments can be developed as part of the review of the overall .nz policy framework, taking into account NZRS' comments rather than being the subject of a specific consultation.

The Board also agreed that NZRS be advised of the outcome of the discussion.

5. EOY Forecast and 2015/2016 Budget

The EOY forecast, a three year budget forecast and a revised draft budget for 2015/2016 financial years were presented to and discussed by the Board.

The draft 2015/2016 budget, and the 2015-2018 three year budget were approved as per the drafts. It was noted that the DNC has advised NZRS that there will be no change to the level of the management fee for the 2015/2016 financial year.

6. Statement of Direction and Goals

The Statement of Expectations for the 2015/2016 year was received from InternetNZ in December last year and a copy was circulated and discussed in the meeting together with the draft of the DNCL Statement of Direction and Goals prepared by the DNC.

Some amendments were suggested by the Board to the draft Statement of Director and Goals and it was agreed that the DNC will make the amendments and send it to the CE and the President of InternetNZ for their comments.

7. .nz Strategy

The .nz Strategy documents prepared by the DNC were taken as read and it was noted that further discussions will be made on the documents in the upcoming DNCL and NZRS joint .nz Strategy meeting.

8. Risk Register

The revised DNCL Risk Register was considered and approved as drafted. It was agreed that the DNCL Risk Register will be reviewed by the Board annually.

9. Interim Audit

The Board noted the Interim Report and Audit Arrangements prepared by BDO for the year ended 31 March 2015.

DNC advised that the group is currently putting the audit contract up for tender.

10. DNSSEC update

Barry Brailey, Manager, Security Policy provided an update on the current status of DNSSEC as well as the significant activities for DNSSEC during 2014. Issues, challenges and the future in relation to the implementation of DNSSEC were also discussed. The Board thanked Barry for the report.

11. DNC Reports

The reports for November and December were taken as read.

DNCL's awareness campaign and various matters regarding the registrations at second level project were discussed.

12. DNCL Work plan

The DNC spoke about the updated February 2015 work plan.

13. .nz update

The Chair noted that relevant items were discussed earlier in the meeting.

14. Chair Update

There were no further items to discuss that had not already been addressed elsewhere on the agenda.

15. Any other business

NZRS Lucy Elwood, Director of DNCL Board and the staff from DNCL, INZ and NZRS attended the ICANN meeting in Singapore in February 2015

Lucy Elwood shared her experience with the Board of her trip to the ICANN meeting. She praised the work that INZ and DNCL have been doing for the ICANN and was impressed that INZ and DNCL were greatly represented and listened to by the ICANN community.

16. Dates Future Meetings

Changes to the 2015 DNCL Board meeting times were discussed. The next Board meeting will be held on Thursday, 16 April 2015.

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