Post-Meeting Update for DotAsia members
17 October 2023
Dear DotAsia members,
This email gives you a brief report on the in-person Board meeting held by DotAsia alongside the APTLD meetings, in Seoul on 17-18 September.
The most important output was the governance improvements package agreed unanimously by the Board, to share with you and seek your input. It is a very important question for members to make a decision on, and my honest request is that you support these changes.
The changes we have proposed are vital to help resolve several of the difficult problems that have been facing DotAsia for some time, and will help us clean up the organisation and get it focused on the future.
Thank you to the members who attended and took part in our discussion of these reforms alongside the Internet Governance Forum - on Monday 9 October.
There were several interesting questions and the sense of support for the proposed changes was very strong.
You can review the video of this session at the bottom of the engagement page here:
https://www.dot.asia/proposed-amendments-to-the-dotasia-articles-of-association-2023/ This is a good way to understand some of the questions and what the answers are.
For those attending the upcoming ICANN meeting in Hamburg, I would be happy to meet and discuss the proposals or any other aspect of DotAsia, with Edmon or other colleagues or simply in my own capacity.
Other Matters - September 2023
Some other key matters discussed at the face to face meeting included:
Further development of an updated strategic framework for the company, focusing it more clearly and transparently on its goals than previous Boards have done. We will ask members for feedback on this after the governance reform package is done.
We made some adjustments to the way the Board works, including a reduced frequency of meetings in 2024.
We discussed the future of Namesphere and agreed to prepare an MoU between NS and DotAsia to clarify and formalise how DotAsia provides corporate support to Namesphere.
We discussed the current litigations in which the company is ensnared, which are wasting huge quantities of time and money that could be much better spent on fulfilling DotAsia’s mission.
We debrief a bit on the APrIGF recently held in Brisbane, and we prepared for DotAsia’s work at the #IGF2023.
We received reports from the staff team on the company’s community work, operations and finances.
We also adopted the minutes of the Board meeting held on 6 September 2023, which have been posted at the following URL along with other Board Committee meeting minutes: https://www.dot.asia/dotasia-organisation/agm-and-board-meetings/
This meeting was a productive and harmonious meeting, focused on the work needed to fulfil DotAsia’s mission and responsibilities.
I would like to offer my thanks to all the Directors who participated in the work.
Finally, an update like this cannot pass without noting that we still await the report of the Election Committee into the 2023 election process.
Public comments by Cheryl Langdon-Orr, the Election Committee independent chair, indicate this process is nearing completion, and I am very much looking forward to this report being sent to DotAsia and then shared with members and the public.
As ever, if you have any questions or suggestions on any aspect of DotAsia’s work, please do contact me.
Those of you travelling to Germany for the forthcoming ICANN meeting, I hope to see you around the meeting.
Yours sincerely
Jordan Carter