For At Large Support and support for ALAC activities (which includes policy work and secretariat support for ALAC, outreach efforts to regional organizations and global engagement, translation of documents, interpretation costs for meetings and conference calls, and an allocation of overhead costs such as rent, human resources and accounting), the Expense Area Group Analysis (budget - page 76) shows the ALAC budgeted at $4.4 million dollars.
In view of this fairly sizable budget (and in view of where we are within the fiscal year), the following entries found within the current ALAC "Secretariats Improvements Plan" stand out as somewhat troubling:
- There were further improvements to atlarge.icann.org recently and the Staff continues to update the website on a regular basis. However, given the current resource constraints within the organisation it is not currently planned to significantly expand the information available in the non-English sections.
- Due to current budget constraints, we might have to wait with the production of conference gadgets.
- Due to current budget constraints, we might have to wait with the production of a starter kit for RALO members.
If translation and other services are being cut or delayed, it begs the question: "What happened to the money?" We would ask the members of the ALAC Finance and Budget Subcommittee, but they haven't posted a single message to their mailing list since June 2008. Hmmmm.... Is anyone minding the store?
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