rob

Live webcast on now.

Updates:
gilbert:
- will be covering 12 months old figures.
- will speed up AGM processes for next year so more relavant
- strong demand for .uk , exceeded 5 mill first time
- 110,000 new reg per month.
- 6500 new reg's / renewals per day
- 97% registrars are satisfied with support
- 'well pleased with that'
- increased staff and efficency
- 'the government think its right' for nominet to play bigger role with ICANN
- targets internally set have been exceeded

- 10 year anniversary ball was well recieved and attended.
- MP reception in HoC , 42 MP's attended.
- Margeret Hodge 'whos wing Nominet is under' attended despite being busy.
- Lesley sitting on a JCB. Thats a few domainers fantasys sorted.
- 4.1million quid going into bank today as sold old offices.

- 'we need a better understood and wider profile'.
- 'we want to offer an increased range of services'
- 'staff are most important asset'.

Lesley now up...

Talking about 2004, 2005 , 2006.

04/05
- Launch of out of hours support.
- Real time zone file updates
- Auzzy litigation ... not seen a penny. Does nominet want a debt collector?

05/06
- income is up 11%
- kept tight on costs which increased 10% (investment in full backup datacenter).
- nom made pre tax profit of £3.5m up x 2.5 previous year.
- Got pissed in party last night and had ideas on what to spend it on, sadly restricted
- No price change on registrations since 1999 but 'managing inside that envelope'.
- exchanged letters with .nz
- invested in a trophy cabinet (which is filling up).
- RSPB beat them in 'best place to work' due to not being in a nature reserve.
- Priorites are to manage finances well.
- Nom has 130 staff.
- 'in the .uk we have self regulation and it works' re: control of the internet.
- New director of communications to increase the profile of Nom.
- Lesley wants to work with us to increase penetration. Of .uk .

- Feedback from stakeholders is key to improving.
- We want to make sure that Nominet is involved in new tech/standards development.
- IDN's 'there is a diversity of views' Lesley would like to see progress on them and eventually introducing them for .uk .

- working hard to develop relationships with key infulencers nationally and internationally.
- DRS service 'we can change it ourselves' unlike UDRP which is a strength.
- New DRS iteration in November, looking forward to input.

Bob taking questions on the formal stuff

- No questions
- So moving to formal resolutions, just the two, the change of accountants and the acceptance of accounts etc.

- Old accountants were small and local, very good, but not enough experiance for the new issues faced.
- Both resolutions passed (one against) unsuprisingly
- Declaring formal poll open until 1pm today for the none-exec vote.
- Results out tomorrow.

Any Questions?
Question from Angus: Nom miscalculated voting power. In view to the serious implications of this, how did it happen , what it means and who is responsible?

Lesley answering: What happened was the revised voting figures was on tag, previously was based on renewed and paid for in previous year. Software didnt include the change. Not going to publically say who made the error, will learn lessons etc.

Floor Response (angus): Everyones vote was changed (based on 2.3 million names originally so blatently wrong - now 4.8 million out by factor of just over 2). The allocations were uneven. ANYWEB went from 3000 to 18,000 votes (factor of 6). This was after the postal vote was closed, it matters as at least one person has not voted due to thinking they have no power. It is reasonable to think it causes problems as candidates speak to the larger voters. Call for Nominet board to re-run the poll.

Board reply: clarifying what the call to board is to do.

Response from floor: Re-run poll with new notice period and correct figures from outset.

Hazel: Has concerns with the short time periods involved. Agrees with Angus that forms on a monday and posted for the friday is not great. It may be legal but she doesnt like it.

Lesley: 'it is an incredibly stupid timeline' possibly historic from when 'Nominet' was all in one room

Nom Board: we follow articles to the letter, so would have to change that. We are complying with the articles.



Question: 'does anyone standing feel aggrevied by this?'

Bob Gilbert: It is unfortunate , but legally it is ok.

Alex: Everyone found out about the problem the same time.

Whois-Search (i think) : Feels aggrieved would have talked to ANYWEB .

Bob Gilbert: Our legal people are here, so it can be clarified. I think way forward is to take the point, apologise and move forward with the vote as it stands. We could ask voting company to look at the vote and see what the cock up means - ie. two results one pre cock up and one post cock up. If there a difference reserves the right if borderline to re-run election.

Bob: We will consult with lawyers in coffee break. Bob wants to be sensible about this. Leaving that issue there for now...

Coffee break time for everyone. Returning in 15mins.

Back for round two

Bob: On voting issue we have talked to lawyers, position is clear, we have called a poll. We can only do that as per articles, so there will be a legal result as per the vote in progress. I have no way of changing this. Apologises for error. Nominet not oblidged to publish how voting works, but we do. The poll will be run under the new figures and the vote the stands.

If you feel aggreved, follow it up by law (but we hope you dont), and AGM is sooner next year, so anything that needs corrected will happen then.

moving on...

Bob is giving updates since the EGM - 6th March 06.

- Past summary, ie. voted against etc.
- Bob / Nom learnt that comms needs to improve, and consult.
- Board doesnt want to change core compentancy - .uk is at the core of Nominet.
- We do want to offer other registry services, esp. the UK enum stuff. If nom dont 'we will lose infulence in our community'.
- Nom wants oppertunity to bid for other registry running eg. .eu but cannot, doesnt mean it would but would like to be able to.
- '.eu is relatively successful'
- 'we are not going to compete with membership'
- Spent last week with AUDA people.
- we dont want to give away our knowledge as it doesnt make commercial sense.

- we are financially strong. ironically if we are allowed to do enum we will get stronger.
- in three years time having built buildings , upgraded tech etc , we would have substantial sums of money in coffers that we CANNOT give back to members. The question is what do we then do? We want to serve members and stakeholders but how do we do it?
- We will not change 'not for profit status'.
- Bobs thoughts of way forward is like AUDA to serve the internet community (rob note: AUDA do courses, sponsor uni stuff / r&D etc ). Setting up foundations etc is possible.

Free forum now Q&A session:

Q: Spending the money, there were very few people here last night / today. It is very cliquey and not representative. There is more to be done to make it more accessible.

Bob reply: Good point, well made. It frustrates me that less than 11% of membership interact.

Bob reply: Good point, well made. It frustrates me that less than 11% of membership interact. We want to make things simpler and engage. The whole membership model needs changing but we cannot change it, so have to work with it.

Lesley: It is not a clique, lots of other way to interact so AGM not sole way to interact. It has historically been around 10% of membership interaction mark.

Bob: We would like to change the way we communicate with you. We want the power to talk to you electronically.

Question (Clive): Re the EGM, can we get the proposals before the notice for a sanity check to prevent problems as they occured at the last EGM.

Bob (jacket off, nice tie): Yes, point taken. We cant tender for Enum saying 'we have to change our articles first' so want to get things spot on this time round. Remember details turn off lots of members so have to consider that.

Question: Why not just send a summary sheet to include everyone?

Bob: The response we get is people are not interested, they need a single page summary to engage the 89% who cannot be bothered. I see the point, but just trying to explain the problems.

Alex: It is 'consultation fatigue'. It is 'mothers milk and apple pie' !


Question: You said you want to help your members but cant, thanks for lowering the transfer fee. There is another way to return £300k , by reducing the annual membership fee. Keep the £400 application fee, but reduce the ongoing fee.

We heard previously on income neutral being a good thing, however has that fallen by the wayside?

Alex reply: It was not a solid aim. Lots of cash is a problem. Cutting prices actually increases revenue which creates a problem. It is possible to give members a rebate at the end of the year but requires members to agree and enter discussions.

Bob: It is unusual as we are victim of own success, overcoming the challenge is down to members.

Question: Any nasty disputes / clouds on the horizon?

***** (? not sure why her name is censored?) : In terms of us sueing people, it is quiet.

missed abit here

Question: As a member I welcome extension of scope to run other TLD's etc .

No further questions.

Lunch served outside... !

Final summary from Bob Gilbert "We have alot going for us, it is not at all broken, we want to make it better. We need your support for that. If you have a burning issue discuss it with the board / me / lesley. I am frustrated as people put things in an email and click send and do not know the impact it has on people and our staff. Please consult and talk to us, my door is always open."

LeeOwen

Password holders only

Launch the webcast

A shame that they're hiding.

fred

I don't see why they should provide free access to the webcast for non-members. It costs money and takes resources and members should get priority.

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static

A stumbling presentation. The room looks half empty.

tifosi

At work and firewall stops it. Please keep up the updates.

S

static

Bob is bumbling along. Room still half empty. Webcast not too smooth...loss of picture at times...and audio.

static

Suggestion from the floor that one way Nominet could return surplus cash to the membership would be to scrap the annual membership renewal fee charge (Articles and Memorandum of association not allowing Nom to return cash to members in any other way). No direct response to that one from the Board.

rob

Webcast ended, hope the above is useful.

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So in summary, vote cock up, nominet have lots of cash, they want to do Enum and other services.

static

Well, all over at 12:20pm. I've never been to an AGM and having watched this one I'm not inspired to change that record. There seemed to be almost nobody attending. There has to be a reason. Why down in London, always?

rob

someone mentioned this in the Q&A's... said it was cliquey etc and staying at that hotel was not cheap so nominet are not encouraging people.

With the quest to spend the cash next year they might fork out tickets + acomm to the AGM in hawaii