Re: IESG's support

["Vinton G. Cerf" <[e-mail]>]

Dan,

for simple accounting reasons, we need to have an accounting
of what was spent. And we need proper attention to financial
controls (the person writing the checks isn't the one who
authorizes the expenditures. That's elementary accounting and
required of us by the auditors). All I am trying to do is
establish documented budgets, just as we have for the conferences.
If the invoices are sent to ISOC, we can pay the bills - that 
gives us separation of authorization expenditure and an audit
trail of the expenses.

Vint

>Date:     Wed Apr 5, 1995 09:30 pm EDT
>Source-Date: Wed, 5 Apr 1995 18:25:20 -0800
>From:     Dan Lynch
>          EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
>          MBX: [e-mail]
> 
>TO:     * Vinton G. Cerf / MCI ID: 105-0002
>Subject:  Re: IESG's support
>Message-Id: 43950406013034/0003765414DC1EM
>Source-Msg-Id: <[e-mail]>
>U-Mime-Version: 1.0
>U-Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
>If I were Paul,  I'd be nervous about the "chain of expenditure control
>here".  I think that we (ISOC Trustees) should trust the IESG to "do the
>right thing" and simply give them a dollar amount that is the ceiling.
>ISOC will disburse funds for any activity that is not in violation of our
>legal charter.  IESG may find other addtional means of support and we have
>no standing on those possibilities.
>
>Am I way off base here?
>
>Dan
>
>
>At  5:16 PM 4/5/95 -0500, Vinton G. Cerf wrote:
>>Paul,
>>
>>thanks for the concrete message. Here is where I think
>>we stand today. I have NOT had our counsel or our accountant
>>review these comments, so I am asking them by CC: to keep me
>>honest if I have made misstatements. Ditto the trustees who
>>are also copied.
>>
>>1. $25K has been allocated specifically for legal counsel for IESG.
>>   Disbursement from ISOC upon receipt of invoice from counsel -
>>   if we do not have a letter of agreement from counsel, that should
>>   be taken care of (an action for Geoff Stewart).
>>
>>2. Additional funds TBD for other work, and would most likely
>>   be allocated based on a budget developed with IESG.
>>
>>3. the cleanest disbursement mechanism would be to have an agreed
>>   budget and invoices coming to ISOC for disbursement from there
>>   so that our accounting can properly record the expenses. An IESG
>>   person could be authorized to make commitments in accordance
>>   with the agreed budget - much in the way we have handled conferences
>>   with non-ISOC chairs/treasurers. We would probably execute a
>>   letter agreement with the authorized party to spell out the
>>   responsibility for staying within the budget and providing
>>   adequate documentation for charges (invoicing ISOC is one way
>>   to do that).
>>
>>4. As long as the expense falls within the budget and is consistent
>>   with allowed ISOC activities (non-profit constraints), it does
>>   not matter whether the expense is domestic or international.
>>
>>5. There is a preference on my part to provide some staff support
>>   out of the Reston office but this is by no means an absolute
>>   requirement in my opinion.
>>
>>6. Insurance for WG chairs and probably area directorates will
>>   almost assuredly fall outside the ambit of the Director's and
>>   Officer's liability insurance coverage that was recently
>>   extended to IAB and IESG members. One of the key questions will
>>   be exactly what is it that is to be defended by the insurance.
>>   Perhaps Geoff Stewart can be of some help here, having studied
>>   the question of liability for standards making in some detail.
>>
>>7. Support for "hostless" IETF meetings? Can you say a bit more
>>   about what that actually might mean? If at INET, it sounds as
>>   if it might be for space, and perhaps audio-visual equipment,
>>   and consumables? Are these "hostless" meetings intended to be
>>   the same scale and structure at the conventional three meetings
>>   such as the Danvers one, or is this something more informal
>>   and smaller? Just not sure how to respond without a more
>>   complete understanding of what is intended.
>>
>>Thanks for a constructive effort, Paul.
>>
>>Vint
>>
>>
>>
>> Date:     Wed Apr 5, 1995 02:52 pm EDT
>>Source-Date: Wed, 05 Apr 95 11:38:01 PDT
>>From:     pvm
>>          EMS: INTERNET / MCI ID: 376-5414
>>          MBX: [e-mail]
>>
>>TO:     * Vinton G. Cerf / MCI ID: 105-0002
>>Subject:  Re: IESG's support
>>Message-Id: 43950405185234/0003765414DC3EM
>>Source-Msg-Id: <[e-mail]>
>>
>>> During the POISED meeting on Monday and in separate
>>> corridor conversations, both Paul and other IESG
>>> members indicated how valuable it would be to have
>>> one or two knowledgeable support staff provided to
>>> assist IESG members in their work.  The IAB Executive
>>> Director and the IAB Chair also indicated the
>>> desire to have "part-time" support for the IAB of
>>> one person.
>>
>>This level of agreement is simply not there NOW.  To get to this level
>>of agreement,
>>
>>The IESG would like:
>>
>>A concrete statement that $x is available with x identified.  A range
>>is fine, so long as it isn't too vague.
>>
>>A defined procedure for receiving approval of a proposed amount with
>>identification of an ISOC person responsible for approving requests.
>>I'm assuming we are at a stage where the money is there, and it will
>>be spent for any good purpose, and we are not in the mode of having to
>>submit a proposal which gets considered at the next BoT meeting.
>>
>>A defined disbursement procedure.  That is, who holds the checkbook.
>>
>>Any notable strings.  For example, if we identified a person who could
>>work from the University of Montana or Sydney on documents or web
>>pages, would this be unacceptable, and only staff time in ISOC Reston
>>meet the qualifications here?
>>
>>While I would imagine that Tony's ideas are on the list, they are not
>>my personal top priorities.
>>
>>Likely expenses include:
>>
>>1. Legal help with POISED.
>>
>>2. Insurance for WG chairs
>>
>>3. Expenses associated with hostless IETF meetings, such as INET 96.
>>
>>4. Innovative programming for web tracking of standards process, etc.
>>
>>Obviously, the amount of money will influence our choices.
>>
>>paul
>>
>>USC/Information Sciences Institute      phone: [phone] x285
>>4676 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey, CA  fax:   [phone]
>>90292
>
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