Domain Name Commission Limited Board Minutes - September 2018

Present: Jordan Carter (Chair), Adam Hunt, Lucy Elwood

In Attendance: Brent Carey, Maria Reyes (minute taker)

The Chair opened the meeting at 8.59am

1.    Register of Interests

Lucy advised that as of 1 June 2018, she has become a director of Unison Fibre Limited (which is a subsidiary of the Unison Network Limited).

2.    .nz Strategy

Brent gave an overview summary of his paper and highlighted the .nz 2016-2020 Strategy and a related DNCL document, cross referenced another document dated 2016 which had a couple of additional strategies just for DNCL. The Board clarified that the 2016 DNCL document was currently in effect.

Discussion was then held around the timing and sequencing of a review of the strategy and whether this should start now and whether it would be led by the DNCL team.  

The Board recommended in the first instance updating the existing strategic transformations in the joint .nz strategy, and for the company, in light of the organisational review to reflect those strategies that were still a priority for DNCL. The Board discussed those strategic transformations that can be removed since they are no longer relevant or applies to the new role/function of DNCL.

In terms of timing for a new strategy work on this could commence at the final Board meeting for the year. Brent advised that the preference would be to do a co-creation exercise since DNCL is such a small team and best to work with the Board on this.

ACTION:     Commissioner to draft the proposed co-creation process approach for the DNCL Strategy for discussion at the next Board meeting.

ACTION:     DNCL 2016 Strategy to be converted into a Google document and sent to the Board and provide feedback by end of October.

There was a brief discussion on DNCL’s functions in the .nz space, it was noted that work on revising the .nz strategy, updates to the .nz Framework policy, to the InternetNZ-DNCL Operating Agreement and outcomes of the 2017 Organisational Review and of the independent review of DNCL would lead to greater clarity about the future work of DNCL.

The Board noted it was also important to develop a process for the Commissioner to have access to the advice of the two independent Directors in appropriate circumstances (e.g. if the Chair is conflicted due to their role as Group Chief Executive). 

3.    Update on Group Strategy Process

Jordan gave a brief verbal update on the Group Strategy Framework which was discussed at the recent Council Strategy Retreat on 21-23 September. 
 
He also gave a quick summary on the other topics that were discussed at the strategy retreat which includes discussion on the Māori Engagement Strategy as well as discussing the paper on the outcome of the Council review conducted by Boardworks.

4.    Update on .nz Policy transition work

Brent gave a brief status update on the .nz Policy transition work and advised that the transition work had begun, and he is working side by side with the InternetNZ Policy Director.  He also advised that InternetNZ had hired a contractor/consultant to assist with the transition work. 

InternetNZ intends to run a public consultation on the .nz framework policy. Staff from the Commission had provided InternetNZ staff with background materials on how the Commission had previously run public policy consultations. The Board will review the policy consultation and will consider whether or not to make a submission.

Preparation for the Domain Name Abuse Forum is underway with the forum planned for late November 2018.  Lucy advised that she’s happy to be involved in the forum and would be keen to be included in a Panel once the programme had been finalised. 

ACTION:     Commissioner to draft a possible submission on the .nz Framework Policy for the Board to consider.

A brief discussion was also held around the .nz fee setting and the Board agreed to Jordan’s suggestion to suggest to Council deferring the review of the .nz fee setting process to mid-next year since there’s no impending need to have this done right away; and doing so will also allow some time to consider the recommendations from the independent review and enhance the processes.

5.    Current thinking on DRS Review

Brent advised that he is working with Ellen on what approach to take for the policy review, which is to provide a position paper on Dispute Resolution as a service from end to end; get an idea on what the service would look like and build the policy to enable this. The Board supports this approach.

6.    Performance Cycle 2018/19

2018/19 draft performance goals have been simplified to five high-level goals and a monthly catch-up between the Chair and the Domain Commissioner had been setup, so they can discuss day-to-day interaction and progress on projects.  

Jordan commented that for the development goals, re core functions and making decisions on .nz policy compliance, the Board suggests doing a scenario testing to continue developing the Commissioners decision-making and proposed to do a short workshop on this at the end of this year.

ACTION:    Board to do a brainstorm on what this scenario-testing would look like and schedule a workshop towards the end of the year.


7.    Updates

The Commissioner’s operational update report as well as the Health & Safety report had been noted and taken as read.

The Board acknowledged and thanked the DNCL staff for being shortlisted at the Annual Plain English Awards for the published DNCL Annual Report 2017-18.

8.     Minutes of last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were accepted as a true and accurate record.

9.     DNCL Risk Register

Taken as read and noted.  However, a point was raised that the risk register needs to be revised as some of the risks related more to the policy-setting and regulatory-setting environment which now sits with InternetNZ.  

Board agreed to discuss the revised risk register at the November meeting.

10.    Dates of future meetings

The next Board meeting will be on 28 November 2018.

11.    Other Business

The Board went into committee to discuss a confidential matter related to ongoing legal action.

12.    Meeting Closed

The Chair closed the meeting at 10:13 am.
 

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