auDA AGM 2004 Minutes
Monday 8 November 2004 10.30am
Parmelia Hilton Perth, Mill
Street, Perth
Chair:Tony Staley
Secretary: Elspeth Ross
Returning Officer: Chris
Disspain
Apologies: Greg Crew, Kim Davies, Greg Watson, Joshua Rowe, Peter Nissen, Ric da Paz
Introduction and Welcome by the Chair
Motion (moved TS, seconded Craig Ng): The Notice of AGM is to be taken as read. Carried.
Quorum (7 members) present. Meeting declared open.
Secretary advised that 12 proxies were received and all were in Demand Class.
1. AGM 2003 Minutes
Motion (moved TS, seconded Craig Ng): Approve the minutes of the AGM 2003. Carried.
2. Report from the Chair on auDA Activities and Progress
Report delivered by the CEO (below).
3. 2003-2004 Audited Accounts
Motion (moved TS, seconded Cheryl Langdon-Orr): Accept the audited 2003-2004 accounts. Carried.
4. Independent Directors Fees
Motion (moved KH, seconded Craig Ng): To ratify the Board's resolution made at its meeting in October 2004 to increase the amount payable to the independent Directors appointed under Article 18.2(f) to an amount not exceeding the sum of $60,000 in aggregate per annum such amount to be distributed amongst the said directors at the discretion of the Board. Carried.
5. Change of Auditor
Motion (moved TS, seconded CLO): To reflect the change of nominated auditor to the company from Meagher Howard Wright, it is resolved to accept the resignation as auditor of R W Meagher and the appointment as auditor of K J Wright. Carried.
6. Resignation from Board of Retiring Directors.
Cheryl Langdon-Orr (Demand), Ric da Paz (Supply), Peter Shilling (Supply) and Greg Watson (Rep Assoc) resigned from the Board. RdP did not stand for re-election. TS thanked RdP for his service to auDA.
7. Election of new Directors to the Board.
Election supervised by Craig Ng, Maddocks.
a. Supply Class (2 positions)
Nominees: Peter Shilling, Bennett Oprysa
Elected: Peter Shilling, Bennett Oprysa
b. Demand Class (1 position)
Nominees: Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Peter Fawkes
Elected: Cheryl Langdon-Orr
c. Representative Associations Class (2 positions)
Nominees: Kim Heitman, Greg Watson
Elected: Kim Heitman, Greg Watson
8. Other Business
There was no other business.
9. Close of Business
Meeting closed at 10:18am.
CEO's Report on auDA Activities and Progress, 2003-2004
The last 12 months can, perhaps, best be described as a time of consolidation for auDA. Two major policy reviews have taken place. The Names Panel has considered making some changes to the eligibility criteria and domain name licence periods. The Competition Panel has worked on the principle of competition at the registry level and developing a policy framework for the introduction of new second level domains from a registry services point of view. The final reports of both panels have now been completed and will be considered by the Board at the next meeting.
Over the last 12 moths, 3 pilot projects have been run to test the viability of the geographic community names. The independent report on the pilots has raised some interesting sustainability issues that indicate the release of the names will require a level of facilitation, guidance and support that is beyond auDA's scope. The Board has agreed in principle to release the names and is currently considering a number of alternative methods to ensure the required community support can be provided. In the meantime, the Board has agreed to lift the prohibition on geographic place names in com.au and net.au and are considering various ways to manage that process.
We continue to work closely with our registrars to assist in the development of the industry. The number of registrars continues to increase albeit at a slower rate. We held a well attended and successful second annual registrars conference at which it was encouraging to see vigorous debate on various issues.
We have started to take a more proactive role in the reseller area and are currently conducting a series of reseller web site audits to judge the level of compliance with auDA's basic reseller requirements.
Management of the closed domain, gov.au and edu.au, has settled down with both managing bodies beginning to find their feet. There are a number of issues in edu.au with certain states attempting to create their own registry systems. However we are working closely with AICTEC to solve these problems.
Throughout the year we have continued to pursue Domain Names Australia. We obtained judgement against the company and its director and their appeal against that judgement was dismissed. Our next court attendance will be to seek orders in respect to the class action.
The formation and funding of the auDA Foundation has been completed and we anticipate that the first call for grant applications will be made in early 2005.
The prudent management of auDA's finances and the increase in the number of domain names being licensed meant that during the year we were able to reduce auDA's domain name fee by 25% from $10 to $7.50. This means that since the start of the new regime in July 2002 the com.au and net.au wholesale price to registrars has dropped by a total of $7.50. A further $5 reduction in the price to registrars is due when the combined total of com.au and net.au domain names reaches 475,000. This is expected to occur in February 2005.
Thank you.
