AGM: Voting is now open for NED & articles changes

[webber]

You should have received your voting packs today via email from Civica Election Services <[email protected]>.

If you're wondering how to vote and need some points about each section, here's what I would recommend to you:

Election of Director
You can watch the candidates at the Domain Summit debate and Nominet webinar.
Two of the candidates seem very qualified and I would recommend them, while the third has been a member of the Board during the Russell Haworth era and signed off on the diversification into cybersecurity and the subsequent loss of over £18m of members' money into CyGlass.
You can drag the names in the ‘Vote Preferences’ list and order them:

Ordinary Resolutions
2. Appoointment of Haysmacintyre LLP, Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditor as the auditors of the Company
This is a welcome change which you can read more about here:
community.nominet.uk/t/change-of-auditors/1628

Special Resolution
4. That the Company hereby adopts revised articles of association
Well, read more about it here and wait for your refund :
acorndomains.co.uk/threads/why-you-should-vote-no-to-nominets-proposed-governance-changes

Hope this helps...

 

[Systreg]

You can drag the names in the ‘Vote Preferences’ list and order them:
View attachment 4034

Thanks, I didn't know it was multiple choice, so I might as well go with the 2 you suggest.

 

[ukbackorder]

I wasn't going to vote until I saw David put his name forward. Gives me a reason to sign in and vote for the other 2. Maybe he is there deliberately to encourage more people to take part

 

[invincible]

I've posted here, for anyone who hasn't seen.

I don't 100% relish potentially going on the board again (but I am fully prepared to commit to doing so), because as has been said by others on this forum previously it's almost impossible to do it and to stay being liked. On that basis, if you dislike me then maybe I am the obvious candidate! (just joking).

I stood for the position because I wanted to ensure that someone with a domain name investor background did stand for issues that I and others who are portfolio holders consider to be important. It turns out there are only three candidates this year including me (I wasn't aware of the other two candidates' intentions to stand before I submitted my application) and I am the only candidate with both previous Nominet board experience and about twenty years of domain name investment experience.

Vote as you prefer.

 

[Nigel]

imo the uk domain market is at an all time low - there are occasional decent sales reported, and no doubt many that go unreported, but you only need to look at the dnjournal sales report each week to see the strength of other cctlds compared to ours. Trying to squeeze a decent profit, after reg fees, from a fairly large portfolio is nigh on impossible. Of course the introduction of .uk has been the main cause of that - the need to often double the reg fee on many domains combined with the weakened price effect on domain sales - has dampened our market. So for us reg fees, and the promotion of the uk domain space is the main issue when considering voting in these elections.

I listened to the other two candidates and enjoyed their presentations - very professional - but have to say David is the only one who has focused on reg fees and possibility of a future promotional offer. Now we could say David is electioneering but this para from his link was important info for our company:

"I am a domain name investor and have advocated for domain name price promotions in the past. After the 2021 EGM you may remember Nominet offered registrars a price freeze and both registration and renewal promotions. I was on the board at that time. I know this is a very important issue for many portfolio holders. I will continuously advocate for Nominet to offer quality domain name price promotions."

So David I take it that you will raise the issue of reg fee promotions, inc renewals if re-elected. Did you have a say in the price promotion that was offered in 2021? Are there other board members who will support this? I understand total nominet registrations are now in decline - so I would hope this could be agreed quite quickly.

If either of the other two candidates want to comment here it would be good to hear their views. We don't intend to vote until the last few days.

 

[webber]

David is the only one who has focused on reg fees

That in isolation is actually true.
The last few price increases happened with his approval while he was on the Board, in order to build a merger and acquisitions budget or for vanity book publishing deals for the CEO.
Just saying...

 

[invincible]

So David I take it that you will raise the issue of reg fee promotions, inc renewals if re-elected. Did you have a say in the price promotion that was offered in 2021? Are there other board members who will support this? I understand total nominet registrations are now in decline - so I would hope this could be agreed quite quickly.

If either of the other two candidates want to comment here it would be good to hear their views. We don't intend to vote until the last few days.

@Nigel yes I contributed to the discussion on promotions that came along after the 2021 EGM and very specifically ensured that the idea of renewal price promotions was tabled and considered, because portfolio holders don't [just] want to consider taking advantage of promotions for new registrations. Obviously I was conflicted given my position as a domain name investor and registrar but that didn't mean I couldn't raise the issue at the time, as I did.

This is the kind of insight that I know I have and believe is very important. I talk to domain name investors (mostly directly these days rather than on forums) and I am a domain name investor myself. If you don't come from the industry and don't have the background and insight from years of experience with the .uk registry it's likely you'll miss something important and relevant.

Prior to when the zone files began to be openly published, the proposal was only to release the standard zone files. I told the then CEO and the then COO that they should also release what Version call "the base" which is a file of all registered domain names including those that aren't in a zone (e.g. because they have no name servers configured or are suspended). Following that, we got this "base" as well as the standard set of zone files for .co.uk, .uk, .org.uk etc. Without that it would have been difficult for those producing drop lists from the initial launch to know what was suspended because the ordinary zone files only contain domain names that are active and have name servers configured.

 

[DJ]

I wasn't going to vote as I'm disillusioned by nominet, the false promises, and the toying the company line culture.

I then thought I would vote when I saw David was running, to make sure he didn't get elected.

Now I'm thinking I will vote for David, just so the current board have to deal with him , payback can be a bitch.

@invincible I notice your tone is a lot more pleasant now you are seeking election. It is a shame that your past comments and actions will come back to haunt you, as you probably do in fact have a lot in common with most of the small registrars on this forum. Sadly though, most of us have seen your true colours already or been a victim of your outbursts previously.

 

[invincible]

That in isolation is actually true.
The last few price increases happened with his approval while he was on the Board, in order to build a merger and acquisitions budget or for vanity book publishing deals for the CEO.
Just saying...

The price rises really weren't for either of those reasons. Nominet had north of £80 million in an investment fund I believe and it went over £100 million eventually.

What'll you say if there's a price rise following the forthcoming 2023 AGM as there is strongly rumoured to be not far down the road?

 

[invincible]

@invincible I notice your tone is a lot more pleasant now you are seeking election. It is a shame that your past comments and actions will come back to haunt you, as you probably do in fact have a lot in common with most of the small registrars on this forum. Sadly though, most of us have seen your true colours already or been a victim of your outbursts previously.

I was elected a second time in 2018, with a greater number of votes than in 2015, I believe, despite by then having likely been called all manner of things I won't bother researching and repeating. Am I entitled to claim to be a victim of other forum posters outbursts too?

This is simply about the .uk registry and the .uk domain name business for me. That's why I am still involved and seeking election to gain an insight and influence over it's direction but bringing all the past insight and experience I have to a board that possibly has very little pure domain name industry experience, aside from one retail/wholesale registrar, and zero from the secondary market.

Like I said, please vote as you wish.

 

[Nigel]

Thanks the info David. I'm going to be pragmatic and vote according to the best outcome for our company. I know that renewal promotion was a welcome relief to a pretty dire period. Saved us over £10k over two years. Meant we could renew domains, and keep our portfolio strong until the better days come again....!!

 

[DJ]

Thanks the info David. I'm going to be pragmatic and vote according to the best outcome for our company. I know that renewal promotion was a welcome relief to a pretty dire period. Saved us over £10k over two years. Meant we could renew domains, and keep our portfolio strong until the better days come again....!!

Just to point out that Simon Blackler was elected with a promise to reduce prices. Nothing happened, and now it would appear that they are looking at increasing prices rather than reducing them. Inflation will be the ready made excuse that they need to justify their actions. Or they will try to sell the idea that a price freeze is a real world reduction.

 

[Nigel]

Just to point out that Simon Blackler was elected with a promise to reduce prices. Nothing happened, and now it would appear that they are looking at increasing prices rather than reducing them. Inflation will be the ready made excuse that they need to justify their actions. Or they will try to sell the idea that a price freeze is a real world reduction.

Agree - that was one of the main reasons I voted for him. Very disappointed. But if we can get a freeze and a renewal promotion that would be something.

 

[webber]

Simon is / David would be just one of nine Board members.
It doesn't matter what they say or want if the others disagree.
Even if all four NEDs would be voting in favour of lowering prices, they don't have a majority on their own so can't get anything passed.
They need to work together and build consensus, compromise in one place to get something in another.

I will vote for David, just so the current board have to deal with him , payback can be a bitch.

As you say, do you see him achieving anything with the rest of the board or just being a joker who everyone ignores but cashes in his flight expenses?

 

[DJ]

Simon is/David would be just one of nine Board members.
It doesn't matter what they say or want if the others disagree.
Even if all four NEDs would be voting in favour of lowering prices, they don't have a majority on their own so can't get anything passed.
They need to work together and build consensus, compromise in one place to get something in another.

As you say, do you see him achieving anything with the rest of the board or just being a joker who everyone ignores but cashes in his flight expenses?

So effectively voting for any of them is pointless, which is the reason I wasn't going to vote in the first place. Part of me would just love to see their reaction if David were to win .

I doubt I'll bother though.

 

[webber]

So effectively voting for any of them is pointless

Not quite, but they certainly can not do whatever they feel like on their own. Checks and balances and all that...

Part of me would just love to see their reaction if David were to win

Weirdly, I would too. But I just can't bring back a gravy train conductor just for my selfish anarchist pleasure.

I doubt I'll bother though.

Lack of engagement from members is what the Executive and Board expects and they use that as an excuse for a lot of things. What would really surprise them or make their life more difficult would be a high vote turnout every year.

 

[DJ]

Lack of engagement from members is what the Executive and Board expects and they use that as an excuse for a lot of things. What would really surprise them or make their life more difficult would be a high vote turnout every year.

When you try to engage you are either get ignored, shut down with a company line response, or offered false promises.

April Forsyth said they would look into improving the terrible new lookup tool back in Nov 22, but nothing has been done since and it is still as shit as it was the day it launched.

 

[webber]

the terrible new lookup tool [...] is still as shit as it was the day it launched.

At least there are clean and elegant alternatives available – rdap.uk or whois.uk
But joking aside, I agree. Nothing a board member can do about it though...

 

[invincible]

Simon is / David would be just one of nine Board members.
It doesn't matter what they say or want if the others disagree.
Even if all four NEDs would be voting in favour of lowering prices, they don't have a majority on their own so can't get anything passed.
They need to work together and build consensus, compromise in one place to get something in another.

As you say, do you see him achieving anything with the rest of the board or just being a joker who everyone ignores but cashes in his flight expenses?

You seem to have a strange view of me. I was elected not just once but twice. 6 years and 7 months. I wasn't a joker.

Of course one won't achieve anything in isolation. However other board members listen to those with obvious expertise and knowledge. I believe I am the only candidate with the knowledge to very well explain how the likes of our sort of businesses work *and* can benefit the wider namespace. How do you expect a candidate who doesn't know about it to represent these views in a meeting? There's nobody talking to them through an earpiece or giving them inspiration in those moments.

As regards the flights. I only ever claimed economy flight costs from Nominet, which I put through my own travel service discount bank account perk that I had at the time which meant they often came out cheaper than Nominet could get them. My return flights throughout the time of my board tenures, pre 2020, almost always cost no more than £1000 for a return, I believe. I figured out a way to keep them low. I sat in an economy seat for 11 hours in each direction. The total door-to-door time was somewhere between 18 and 22 hours. It varied. I didn't find it delightful going through the travel on each occasion but it was fine for me to do. I certainly wasn't gaining substantially from it. My flights were paid for (but I didn't get any sort of additional financial kickback from taking them) and I actually had to sit in the economy seat for 11 hours on a plane that was sometimes full. That isn't any sort of fun. You just do it and accept it. I got to come to the UK for a short period of time but I am quite happy where I am living.

From the beginning of the pandemic we were all on video call and that remained the case throughout 2020 and until the AGM in late 2021. I didn't visit the UK for 2.5 years.

I see no major need for me to be jumping on planes to attend board meetings in this day and age. Maybe once or twice a year at most. The rest could be done via video call.

 

[invincible]

When you try to engage you are either get ignored, shut down with a company line response, or offered false promises.

April Forsyth said they would look into improving the terrible new lookup tool back in Nov 22, but nothing has been done since and it is still as shit as it was the day it launched.

It's not the only piece of crapola. Go into the WDM (if you're a registrar) and filter domain names by suspended domain names (assuming you have some). You'll see they spread them over multiple pages. The pagination is wrong. I pointed that out at least five years ago and it was acknowledged but wasn't fixed. Still hasn't been. It's easy to potentially miss suspended domain names by using this filter due to this pagination fault. Anyone else noticed this bug?

I also plan to champion getting the WDM interface improved or some alternative developed. It's the interface many of us use all the time and it's flawed in many ways.