Update from the Board Chair 

4 August 2023

Dear DotAsia members,

This email gives you a brief report on the DotAsia Board meeting held on Wednesday 2 August, and looks forward to some topics the Board will be working through in September in preparation for a General Meeting towards the end of the year. 

Board Report - August 2023

The main matters dealt with by the Board during the 2 August meeting were these:

• We confirmed the Audit Report for DotAsia for the FY ending September 2021. The audit process for the FY ending Sept 2022 has now begun. Later in August, the Board will meet with the Auditors to discuss both audits, ask any questions or clarifications, and hear from the Auditors direct as part of our improvements to DotAsia’s general good governance practice.
  
  

• We conducted a brief Namesphere board meeting, agreeing to release the settlement funds arising from the settlement of the .box litigation to the company - these funds are currently sitting with our lawyers.
  
  

• We further refined the agenda for our upcoming Face to Face meeting, which is planned in September alongside the APTLD meeting in Seoul.
  
  

• We had a first discussion on some governance changes and improvements which we will bring to DotAsia members for consideration in the last quarter of 2023.
  
  

• We worked through some key monthly financials for the company for the period to 31 July 2023. 

We also adopted the minutes of the Board meetings held on 22 June and 13 July 2023, which will be posted at the following URL along with other Board Committee meeting minutes: https://www.dot.asia/dotasia-organisation/agm-and-board-meetings/ 

As I have reported in past months, the Board remains conscious that the Elections Committee review of the 2023 elections is continuing, looking at complaints about how the election was conducted. I am anticipating that the Board will receive this report in August. We will organise a meeting for members to discuss the findings and follow up actions once we have worked through them. 

If the report includes recommended changes to the election process, we will work through those and include them in the governance change package I mentioned above. 

Strategic clarity and governance improvements

At its September face to face meeting, the Board is hoping to settle on recommendations in two areas for discussion and engagement with members:

• A new strategic framework for DotAsia, to clearly set out priorities across all DotAsia’s work and be clear about how we would measure achievement of these. This will be about consolidating and clarifying our work, rather than any sudden changes in direction.
  
  

• A set of governance improvements to strengthen DotAsia governance, including improvements to the election process to prevent the sorts of problems seen recently, an update to the Articles of the company, improve the quality of Board selection processes, and various other matters.

DotAsia Members are integral to both of these discussions and so the Board’s role will be to prepare clear, well-thought out proposals to discuss with you, and then to convene a General Meeting for decisions to be made. 

I look forward to those discussions. If you have any ideas in respect of any of these - where DotAsia should focus or not focus, how our governance approach could be improved - I would love to hear from you. 

The next ordinary meeting of the DotAsia Board will be held in the first week of September, deferred by a week from previous schedules to avoid the APrIGF week at the end of August. 

In closing, as ever, I want to thank you again for your continued interest in, and support for, DotAsia. 

If you have any questions or suggestions, please do contact me.

Yours sincerely

Jordan Carter