Final minutes of the GA(94)026 2nd TERENA General Assembly 06.12.94 Marieke Dekker University of London Computer Centre 20 Guilford Street London WC 1N 1DZ 2 December 1994 8:30 - 15:30 1. Welcome and Apologies Participants National members Austria Peter Rastl (+ TERENA EC) Azerbaijan Faik Farmanov Belgium Pierre Bruyere Bulgaria Kiril Boyanov Croatia Predrag Pale Cyprus Agathoclis Stylianou Czech Republic Jan Gruntorad Denmark Frode Greisen (President) Egypt Adeeb Ghonaimy Finland Matti Ihamuotila (by proxy) FYRM Margita Kon-Popovska Germany Klaus Ullmann Hungary Lajos Balint Iceland Sven Tafvelin (non-voting, see Sweden) Iran Ebrahim Mashayakh Ireland Dennis Jennings Israel Steve Druck (+ Vice-President Services) Italy Enzo Valente Luxembourg Antoine Barthel Netherlands Kees Neggers Norway Petter Kongshaug Poland Tomasz Hofmokl Portugal Pedro Amorim Roumania Adrian Toia Slovakia Jaroslav Bobovsky Slovenia Marko Bonac Spain Manuel Rincon Sweden Sven Tafvelin (by proxy; + Vice-President Technical Programme) Switzerland Thedi Hatt Turkey Mehmet Okur United Kingdom James Hutton International member CERN Olivier Martin Observers Executive Committee: Brian Gilmore, Bernhard Plattner (Vice- President Conferences), Marco Sommani (Treasurer), Paul Van Binst. Further observers: Hans Frese (HEPnet), Michael R. Gettes (CREN), Jasenka Gojsic (Croatia), Juergen Harms (Switzerland), Simon Holland (EC), Ilya Mafter (ISF), Viacheslav Shkavupin (ISF), Eugenie Staicut (Roumania), Martin Wilhelm (Germany), Gordon Young (Ireland). Staff: Daniele Bovio, Marieke Dekker (minutes) and Tomaz Kalin. Apologies voting members: Greece - Alexis Arvillias ECMWF - Geerd Hoffmann Executive Committee: Peter Bakonyi non-voting members: NORDUnet is represented by Sven Tafvelin 107 votes were represented At the start of the meeting several GA members expressed concern about the lack of a separate paper on the plans for the transition to a lower budget operation of the Association. 2. Approval of Agenda The following agenda was approved: 3. Minutes and Action List of Previous Meeting a) Minutes of the 1st TERENA General Assembly meeting, 20/21 October 1994, Amsterdam b) GA Action list update c) membership matters: * Albania 4. TERENA Rules and Regulations - updated 5. TERENA Mission Statement 6. TERENA activity plan 1995 6.5 Report from EARN BoD meeting 7. TERENA Financial Matters a) Discussion budget 1995 - 1997 b) Decision budget 1995 c) Decision Membership fees 1995 8. TERENA Technical Programme a) TERENA Technical Committee b) TERENA Project Proposals 9. TERENA Services a) RIPE NCC b) GUM-NCC / NJE NCC 10. Next Meetings GA 3 Tel Aviv, 18/19 May 1995 GA 4 t.b.d. 11. Any Other Business 3. Minutes and Action List of Previous Meeting 3 a) Minutes of the 1st TERENA General Assembly meeting, 20/21 October 1994, Amsterdam D02-01 The minutes of the 1st TERENA General Assembly meeting were approved after incorporation of the correction provided before the meeting, ie the fact that membership category 5 has a membership fee factor of 8 and the correction tabled at the meeting that SURFnet had not been the EARN member, rather the EARN representative in the BoD. 3 b) GA Action list update A01-01 The TERENA Executive Committee to come to a recommendation on Russian representation for the next General Assembly meeting. * open, the 'next GA meeting' was thought to be the May 1995 meeting when this action was decided. The Executive has already made contact with the Russian representatives. * A01-02 TERENA Executive to revise the Mission Statement and submit it to the next GA meeting. * done, agenda item 5 * A01-03 TERENA Executive to revise Activity plan before next GA meeting. * done, agenda item 6 * A01-04 TSec to send out a matrix to the GA on 24 October encompassing the projects proposed, with a questionnaire (to be answered by the GA within 2 weeks) about which projects the GA members deem interesting enough to possibly commit funding for. * done by TSec; not all GA members have submitted their selection * A01-05 The GA to present its wishes on the budget within the next days for the TERENA Executive to work on. * done and overtaken * A01-06 The TERENA Executive to investigate whether or not ISOC is interested in a combined European Conference in 1997. * open * 3 c) membership matters: * Albania Since no written material could be provided to the meeting, the agenda item was postponed to the next GA meeting in May. The same holds for the application of DEC, which arrived shortly before the meeting. This application will also be treated at the next GA meeting. A02-01 Executive to put Albania and Digital membership application on agenda for GA03. 4. TERENA Rules and Regulations - updated The updated R&R, incorporating the correction on page 5: ' the fee for members in category 5 shall be eight Units', were accepted without comment. 5. TERENA Mission Statement The reworked Mission Statement was well received and gave rise to further sugggestions for improvements; Dennis Jennings offered to assist Brian Gilmore with the drafting of the update. The Executive will send out the final version as soon as possible, for use by all GA members in order to make the TERENA goals knows as widely as possible. A02-02 Executive to send the updated M&O to the GA list immediately after the next Executive meeting on 21 December. 6. TERENA activity plan 1995 Comments were made by the GA members, resulting in several suggestions for change of the text. The responsible Vice-Presidents introduced their chapter of the Activity plan 1995. I. The Technical Structure has three major parts: - The WGs in which (soon to be) experts cooperate and exchange information and generate ideas for projects. The idea of stimulating WG members to participate in the technical activities of other bodies does not include sponsoring; sponsoring of WG members to go to eg IETF meetings will be done via the relevant projects. - The Projects are designed to solve pressing problems and are selected and shared by the members. For 1995 part of the permanent staff is foreseen to be used in the projects. However the GA feels that the Projects should be managed by the permanent staff and not executed by permanent staff unless the staff member is an expert in the particular technical area and the project is small. It is planned that in the longer term suitable staff is attracted on a per project basis. A detailed budget for the projects' execution cannot be provided since many GA members have not submitted information on their selection of projects. - The TERENA Technical Committee which oversees the above and provides its management, and furthermore takes initiatives in European networking issues. II. Conferences, seminars Conferences are in principle self-financing. The NSC'94 went well and will at least break even. The JENC6 preparation is on track. That the idea of organizing a WG-week was scratched is questioned: the previous RARE Executive considerd a WG-week to be crucial for cross-stimulation between the WGs. If an NSC '95 should be organized a host should be found asap. The Autumn 1995 GA will then be attached to the NSC. Several members feel that organizing two conferences, with their different focus, is useful. Several others however object to organizing more than one conference per year. Concern was raised re. the cash-flow impact of the organization of conferences, since quite large sums may have to be paid out long before the conference and the pay-back and possible profits do not appear earlier than half a year after the conference. It was agreed to postpone the decision on organizing NSC '95 until later in the meeting. III. Services TERENA administers two services , RIPE NCC and GUM NCC. The RIPE NCC is working as separate cost-center and the same will happen to the NJE coordination, for which the Vice-President Services is planning to issue a competitive call for tender. Several members raised their concern regarding the high management effort foreseen for the organization of a European CERT and felt that TERENA should not engage in this except on a project basis. Similarly, TERENA should not be involved in end-user services , except on a project basis. Tomaz Kalin introduced the remainder of the Activity plan. IV. PR, Publications CNRE is part of the basic budget and the contract with Elsevier runs for the whole of 1995. An extension of the contract into 1996 can be cancelled in May 1995. It is important to be able to show paper output of TERENA and CNRE could serve well for the publication of policy papers. Important for TERENA is a good WWW server, which should provide all PR as well. Outsourcing of parts of the publication effort will be investigated. A02-03 Executive to investigate outsourcing of publication effort. V. Memberships and liaisons Memberships and liaisons are seen as an important means of influencing developments in related organizations. To get better results from this activity, an effort should be made to formalize it, to submit policy papers to these organizations and report back on the results to the GA. The EC observer remarks that the bullet on optimization of the utilization of development aid should be expanded upon in the paper, since his understanding is that the funders coordinate this with CEENet. An example of result from a membership activity is EWOS. DG III, with the support of EWOS, organized a workshop on 28-30 November to address standardization in information and communication technology areas, which at present is the responsibility of CEN, CENELEC and ETSI. The preliminary conclusions of the workshop, attended by 400 people, are that the approach to standardization should be market- and user-oriented and implemented through a workshop structure (as currently in ETSI and EWOS) rather than via representation of national administrations (as currently in CEN/CENELEC). The highest advisory body to the EC, SOGITS, is endorsing these conclusions. EEMA is no longer present in the Activity plan; some GA members feel that EEMA should be a member of TERENA rather than the other way around. A02-04 Sven Tafvelin to assess pro's and con's of TERENA being EEMA member and report back to the GA. EuroCAIRN: The TERENA President is no longer automatically invited as observer to the meeting, the EuroCAIRN members are addressing this invitation in their next meeting. DANTE is not mentioned as liaison organization since the Executive felt that members of TERENA did not warrant to be mentioned specially. The UK requests a paragraph on TERENA liaising with DANTE as a TERENA purpose is to enhance cooperation within Europe between all players and DANTE is an important player. Several GA representatives support this position. During the discussion it appeared that several GA members had a different view on what DANTE is, ie service provider or not. The discussion on liaison with DANTE is postponed until later in the meeting. With the above amendments and pending a conclusion/decision on DANTE, EEMA, NSC'95 the 1995 TERENA Activity plan is accepted with 75 votes in favour, 0 against, 32 abstaining. Since in particular the Activity plan ought to be the subject of consensus within TERENA the members abstaining were asked to set out their reasons. This was mostly due to the lack of clarity about the budget associated with these activities and the funding thereof. The UK's further reason is the lack of mentioning a liaison with DANTE. A02-05 Executive to revise and finalize 1995 Activity plan 6.5 Report from EARN BoD meeting The EARN BoD met on 30 November and 1 December. The meeting ratified the Heads of Agreement and decided that the merger had taken place in full on 20 October, with the result that EARN should from now be regarded as an empty shell. An Executive was elected consisting of Frode Greisen, President, Marco Sommani, Treasurer and Jean-Loic Delhaye as Secretary General. This Executive will call the General Assembly to dissolve EARN. Meanwhile the Executive will transfer assets and liabilities into TERENA as soon as possible, preferably before 31 December 1994. It may be that not all EARN assets can be made liquid in so short a time-scale, but the President agreed that an advance payment of about half of the estimated reserves seemed possible if needed. 7. TERENA Financial Matters 7a) Discussion budget 1995 - 1997 Marco Sommani introduced the various papers relating to the financial situation of TERENA in 1995. Only one GA member had submitted his requirements for the financial planning of TERENA and the treasurer explained that the Executive had treated these seriously; the plan is to arrive at a basic budget of 500 k ECU in 1997. 1995 will see major restructuring, particularly with regard to the rationalization of staff. From 1996 onwards the technical programme is expected to be funded by subscriptions. For the RIPE NCC, completely funded by its customers, an expansion is expected for 1996. The EARN BoD members and CREN have committed to contribute to the GUM NCC for 1995. The budget as drafted includes all current staff at a cost of 1172 k ECU, also the short term contracts (at 180 k ECU). The table called 'estimate of net assets per 01.01.95 is in fact a balance statement as it include receivables. The most uncertain item in the budget is the 'projects' line at a budget of 600 k ECU. Since about 1/4 of the GA members have thus far expressed their interest in projects, at an estimated commitment of some 1/4 of the projects' cost, the Executive feels that while the current known risk is 450 k ECU, in practice the situation will be much healthier. UK: Fundamental concern is the cash flow situation, in particular if the EARN reserves are not tranferred soon. The lack of a good definition of the projects will delay commitment of monies towards these projects. Another fundamental concern is the fact that there is no commitment from the Executive that the Paris office will be closed as per 31 March 1995. Another concern is that the budget assumes that all members pay the fee as listed. This is not realistic since e.g. the UK can only commit to paying the Associate membership fee unless the above concerns are satisfactorily resolved. These concerns are shared by several other GA members, some might likewise might opt for Associate membership. Some members support all statements pleading for cutting expenditure immediately. The organization needs to be restructured and needs to have resources matched to the activities rather than the other way around. The GA would like to understand how the Executive plans to arrive at the budget as proposed, since there are no business plans available. The GA requests an assessment of the risks involved with the various budget headings. Services will only be executed on demand of the customres, hence the risks are small. RIPE NCC: the Secretary General reports that some 260 k ECU is committed and the budget can be cut in order to match the foreseen income. The risk level consists of a possible cash-flow problem unless the NCC moves to the Singel. GUM NCC: while the BoD committed to funding, the customers still need reassurance on its business plan. A cheaper solution might be the outsourcing of the GUM service. In the case of outsourcing, about one FTE would become redundant. The cost of termination of most staff contracts is around 3 months pay in Paris and 6 months in Amsterdam. The GA agrees that the TERENA services need to be ran as cost- effective as possible. The GA suggests that the budgets for TERENA services include the risks TERENA incurrs ie the costs of a potential discontinuation should be budgeted and borne by the service customers, not by TERENA. Services risks should not exceed 100 k ECU. A02-06 Executive to include in next version of services ' budgets the figures (as a contigency) that eventual discontinuation of the service would cost. Secretariat: There is one basic Secretariat in Amsterdam, with various people in other locations working on specific activities. The risk involved includes empty floor space and unused equipment, plus of course the costs of discontinuation of employment contracts. A cost-effectiveness plan of people collaborating in one versus many locations might be helpful for the GA. Projects risk assessment: The Ebone support and WWW projects are secure. The Conferences are in principle secure, however do entail a considerable cash-flow risk. The Technical projects are the most at risk, the extent of which is not known since many members did not submit their preferences. Moreover, there is a risk associated with the preference of the GA that the existing technical staff should not automatically be used for the work in the projects, rather manage these projects. Nevertheless it is felt that with proper management of the projects and well defined proposals, probably no staff would be at risk. Again it is suggested that no more than 100 k ECU risk money is to be budgeted. The GA accepted that a transition from the current situation to a new organization may costs money; however, the GA stressed that should transition not take place soon, all staff may be at risk. The GA accepts that the reserves may have to be used for transition purposes. The GA understands that in the case that the Association itself would be dissolved the members have to cover eventual debts pro rata of the membership fee. Summary by the President: * The Executive will work on lower costs business plans, in order to cut resources; * In the business plan it will not be automatically assumed that TERENA staff is used for the execution of the projects. * The reserves of TERENA should be as high as the costs of dissolving the organization IT makes a proposal to keep TERENA alive, since there is no time to have another meeting with another budget proposal before 1995, and since EARN is formally still alive and may have problems transferring the assets. The proposal is for a transition phase of 6 months, encompassing: * approval of 50 % of the budget, with the understanding that the Executive prepares detailed refinements of the budget and business plans in the meantime; * invoicing only half of the membership fee, with the exception of the countries with a discounted membership fee; these should be invoiced in full. * members that have not paid on 1 April 1995 will not have voting rights in the GA meeting in May. The proposal is met with general approval, with the further requirement that the cutting down of expenditure starts immediately and that the EARN assets are transferred asap to TERENA. Some members further require that the Paris office is closed on 31 March 1995 and that the conflict of interest caused by the fact that the TERENA President also holds the position (through a contract with UNI-C) of Ebone General Manager be resolved. Furthermore, a plan, detailing the assignment of staff, possible staff termination planning and an overall financial plan are necessary. The GA feels that these should be available well in advance of the May GA meeting for early circulation to the GA. Another requirement is the availability of a plan to increase the reserves from 1996 onwards. During the discussion the issue of the respective responsibilities of the Executive and the Secretary General was raised. Some GA members inquire whether the Executive has entrusted its day to day business to a Secretariat, headed by a Secretary General (as per Article 13 of the Statutes), with the implication that there is no direct involvement between Executive members and staff. The Executive has not formally done so, however, the President confirms that de facto the Secretary General has the day to day management of staff and Secretariat. A02-07 Secretary General and Executive to provide the business plans and a proposal to increase the reserves and to submit these in draft to the GA well in advance of the next GA meeting. 7b) Decision budget 1995 D02-02 The GA decided that 50 % of the 1995 budget, ie half of the budgeted 600 k ECU for the basic secretariat and 200 k ECU for the basic Technical Programme, is approved and that in total and additional 300 k ECU is available for transition expenditure. Moreover, the technical projects may not assume to use TERENA resources and will be invoiced on a per projects basis; the services are self-contained. Vote: 100 votes in favour, 0 against, 7 votes abstention: The UK abstained as it seeks reassurance that the Paris office is closed as of 31 March 1995, that the EARN assets are transferred in full to TERENA, that DANTE be recognized as a valid liaison partner and mentioned in the Activity plan and that the TERENA President separates himself from Ebone. D02-03 The GA further agrees that the RIPE NCC fee may be invoiced for the full year. 7c) Decision Membership fees 1995 The R&R allow to grant new members a step-up, irrespective of the geographic location of these members. Hence all new members have been granted a step-up, including Iran. D02-04 The GA approves the Unit factor of 4400 for the full year and mandates the Executive to invoice for 50 % of the 1995 membership fee. Votes: 96 votes in favour, 0 against, 11 votes abstaining: The UK position is explained in 7b). The foreseen TERENA membership fee for Portugal is higher than the combined membership fees of RARE and EARN in 1994; nevertheless Portugal did not vote against the fee, since any further reduction of the budget would likely suffocate TERENA. 8. TERENA Technical Programme 8a) TERENA Technical Committee The TTC is established with all WG convenors and some members at large, a.o. Brian Gilmore. The VP Technical Programme is looking for continuation of liaison with RIPE and for establishing liaison with CERN. Regarding IVth F/W activities: rumour has it that the proposals may not be based on Internet standards. However, the source (hence the relevance) of this rumour is not certain. The IVth F/W welcomes abstracts of projects to be proposed, in order to assist proposers with the drafting of the proposals. Hence sending in one Internet based abstract to test the rumour might be a good idea. 8b) TERENA Project Proposals The GA members are urged to submit their preferences in the TERENA project proposals soonest to the TTC. 9. TERENA Services 9a) RIPE NCC A new staff member joined mid November and currently no further staff is being hired for the RIPE NCC. The staff is overloaded, so from January onwards there will be non- priority service for non-paying customers. Daniel Karrenberg will present his plan how and when to move to the cheaper Singel premises to the next Executive meeting. 9 b) GUM-NCC / NJE NCC Many GA members feel the service is useful and want to continue, but it needs to be organized in the most cost-effective way. Postponed discussion items. DANTE is an AM of TERENA. The list of liaison organizations is very diverse hence there is not harm in listing DANTE as liaison organization. Likewise the Ebone Association should be mentioned there. DANTE's purpose is to act on behalf of its shareholders in order to establish services on a European basis. However, some organizations buy services from DANTE directly, in that sense DANTE is a servcice provider. The conclusion of the discussion is to list both DANTE and Ebone as liaison organizations. A02-08 Executive to include DANTE and Ebone as liaison organizations in the 1995 Activity plan. NSC The Vice-President of Conferences sees three possibilities for 1995: 1) organize a NSC, 2) take a break for 1995 and possibly make it a two-yearly event; 3) stop NSCs. His preference is for 2), given the cash-flow risk associated with conferences as well as the additional load on both Executive and Secretariat in an already overloaded year. There is the possibility of organizing a bigger JENC, incorporating a full 'innovation' stream. Croatia offers, provisionally, to host the NSC in the Autumn of 1995 and if accepted, to of-load the cash-flow problem. The offer will be confirmed within 2 weeks. The GA decides to mandate the Executive to decide on the organization of an NSC in the Autumn of 1995. A02-09 Executive to decide on the organization of a NSC in 1995. 10. Next Meetings GA 3 Tel Aviv, 18 May 14:00 - 18:00 and 19 May 09:00 - 17:00. GA 4 t.b.d. 11. Any Other Business * Mr. Walter de Backer, EC DG XIII, advisor to Michel Carpentier, will attend the JENC6 and give a key-note address. * Pronunciation of the second syllable of TERENA is as in 'rental' rather than in 'here'. SUMMARY of the 2nd TERENA General Assembly, London, 2 December 1994 DECISIONs D02-01 The minutes of the 1st TERENA General Assembly meeting were approved after incorporation of the correction provided before the meeting, ie the fact that membership category 5 has a membership fee factor of 8 and the correction tabled at the meeting that SURFnet had not been the EARN member, rather the EARN representative in the BoD. D02-02 The GA decided that 50 % of the 1995 budget, ie half of the budgeted 600 k ECU for the basic secretariat and 200 k ECU for the basic Technical Programme, is approved and that in total and additional 300 k ECU is available for transition expenditure. Moreover, the technical projects may not assume to use TERENA resources and will be invoiced on a per projects basis; the services are self-contained. D02-03 The GA further agrees that the RIPE NCC fee may be invoiced for the full year. D02-04 The GA approves the Unit factor of 4400 for the full year and mandates the Executive to invoice for 50 % of the 1995 membership fee. ACTIONS A01-01 The TERENA Executive Committee to come to a recommendation on Russian representation for the next General Assembly meeting. A01-04 revised: GA to reply asap to the questionnaire about which projects the GA members deem interesting enough to possibly commit funding for. A01-06 The TERENA Executive to investigate whether or not ISOC is interested in a combined European Conference in 1997. A02-01 Executive to put Albania and Digital membership application on the agenda for GA03. A02-02 Executive to send the updated M&O to the GA list immediately after the next Executive meeting on 21 December. A02-03 Executive to investigate outsourcing of publication effort. A02-04 Sven Tafvelin to assess pro's and con's of TERENA being EEMA member and report back to the GA. A02-05 Executive to revise and finalize 1995 Activity plan. A02-06 Executive to include in next version of services ' budgets the figures (as a contigency) that eventual discontinuation of the service would cost. A02-07 Secretary General and Executive to provide the business plans and a proposal to increase the reserves and to submit these in draft to the GA well in advance of the next GA meeting. A02-08 Executive to include DANTE and Ebone as liaison organizations in the 1995 Activity plan. A02-09 Executive to decide on the organization of a NSC in 1995.
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