[ga] ICANN secret "closed-door" meeting on compensation in Brussels??!!??

[George Kirikos <gkirikos@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks,

According to:

http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/prelim-report-23jun10-en.htm

ICANN's Board had a secret closed-door meeting on the Wednesday in Brussels, 
and 

I don't recall ever seeing an advance notice to the community of the agenda.

In it, according to the preliminary report, staff compensation was the main 
topic. Staffers feel that making more than $200K/yr is just not enough, at a 
non-profit during a deep recession:

http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/ga-200709/msg04046.html

And for Rod Beckstrom, the compensation is of course much higher:

http://www.thedomains.com/2010/02/11/nonprofit-icann-releases-salaries-beckstrom-over-2-2-million-guaranteed-cfo-270k-lawyer-230k-plus-plus/


It's funny because I directly asked about the 16+ people making more 
than $200K/yr during the public Q&A and they couldn't name any 
comparable  organizations, lol. See question #2 at:

https://icann.wufoo.com/reports/icann-38-public-forum-fy-11-budget/

and the full transcript is at:

http://brussels38.icann.org/meetings/brussels2010/transcript-public-forum-24jun10-en.txt


Searching for "Twomey" takes you to it, where they tried to dodge the 
question, got jeered at by the crowd, and then attempted an answer after the 
break which included:

" I think the third question was have we looked at the proportion of 
individuals compensated over $200,000 as it relates to other non-profit 
corporations.  I don't know the answer of how our proportion compares to others.

The fourth question by the respondent was:  Are we aware of other 
non-profit corporations that use for-profit benchmarks in doing their 
compensation?  And while I can't give names right off the top of my head, with 
the compensation consultant that ICANN uses, we've extensively looked at 
appropriate benchmarks, 
appropriate comparables. They have assured us that this is.

The board actually has had a discussion with staff at this meeting 
about rebenchmarking all our comparables.  And that's something that we're 
going 
to be looking at.  I would look forward to being able to answer that question, 
which 
is the proportion of relatively highly paid people in ICANN versus 
other non-profits.  I think that's a great question to benchmark ourselves 
against.   I don't have the answer to that today."

Why didn't the ICANN Board discuss these issues during the public and open 
meeting on the Friday? Isn't it funny how ICANN has "all the answers" in their 
secret private meetings (where staff is allegedly vastly underpaid and needs 
salary increases), yet when questioned in public, their response is "I don't 
have the answer to that today."

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.leap.com/