ICANN published its draft budget last night and will open the public comment period on May 25th.

It will approve the budget at the Prague ICANN meeting in June

I went through the budget an found some pretty* interesting things.

While everyone has a top 10, I thought I would go with a top 11:

1.** ICANN needs a new financial planner:

“As of 31 March 2012, the Reserve Fund balance was $52.3 million.

Total investment income for FY13 is budgeted to be $1.0 million”

So less than a 2% return is budgeted.

Since you can find a 5 year CD paying out about 2% if you can’t do better than a 2% return on investment you should find another guy to handle your investments.

In its annual report ICANN had almost $100 million in cash but I guess only 1/2 of that is in the “reserve fund”

2.* When Cost of Living is only going up by 3.6% how does ICANN justify budget increases of 18% and 31% and 39%

The cost of living adjustment issued for 2012 by the US Government is at 3.6% (they haven’t announced 2013 yet)

However ICANN budget includes:

“”FY13 operating expenses are budgeted to be $74 million (without contingency) an increase of 18% over FY12’s forecast.

“FY13 administration costs are expected to increase by 31%.”

“Professional Service costs for FY13’s budget are $20.6 million; a 39.3 percent increase over FY12’s forecast.”

3.* ICANN is a pretty good place to work

As of May 1, 2012, ICANN has 143 employees.

Here are some of the perks an employee gets:

“US-based staff members are entitled to three weeks’ vacation per year for their first five years (and four weeks per year after that).”

“Staff members are eligible to earn a bonus based on achievement of specifically defined performance targets”

“ICANN has a retirement program which they allocate 7% of gross total compensation to”

“Other Personnel Costs are approximately 10% percent of gross* include medical/dental insurance premiums, recruitment and relocation costs.”

4.* ICANN spends a lot on its conferences:

ICANN meeting’s core functions typically cost over $1.5 million per meeting and include:Venue costs including meeting space, audio-visual, technical support functions, power, bandwidth connectivity, and backup provisions which are estimated at about $750,000 per meeting.

“Food and catering, registration administration, printing, office supplies, and shipping are estimated at $250,000 per meeting”

“Meeting interpretation, scribe services, pre-meeting site inspections, and professional planning services are estimated at $500,000 per meeting”

Keep in mind that “Local sponsors typically pay for gala and other costs”

ICANN staff also get free airfare, room and a per diem allowance for attending conferences:

“Airfare costs average $2500 and are adjusted up or down depending on the venue and class of travel.”
“Lodging costs average $250 per night for the seven-day ICANN meeting.




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