MINUTES of the Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) of members of Canadian Internet Registration Authority held at the Centre Mont-Royal, Montréal, Québec on September 16, 2013 at 1:30 p.m.
It was moved by the Chair and seconded by the President and CEO of CIRA that the CIRA Community acknowledge and honour Richard Wong for his outstanding contributions to the .CA and thank him for his tireless work in advancing the mission of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority. Motion passed by acclamation.
MINUTES of the Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) of members of Canadian Internet Registration Authority held at the Centre Mont-Royal, Montréal, Québec on September 16, 2013 at 1:30 p.m.
It was moved by the Chair and seconded by the President and CEO of CIRA that the CIRA Community acknowledge and honour Richard Wong for his outstanding contributions to the .CA and thank him for his tireless work in advancing the mission of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority. Motion passed by acclamation.
1. Call to Order and Approval of the Agenda: Paul Andersen, the Chair of CIRA, called the meeting to order and acted as Chair of the meeting, and Carole Mackaay, Corporate Secretary of CIRA, acted as Secretary of the meeting.
The Chair declared that notice of this meeting had been duly given to all CIRA members in good standing in accordance with CIRA’s By-law No. 1, that there was a quorum present and that the meeting was duly constituted for the transaction of business. For the agenda, the Chair noted a change in the order of items 5 and 6.
2. Verification of the 2012 Annual General Meeting Minutes: There being no corrections or additions to the minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on September 18, 2012, the Chair noted that the minutes stood as approved.
3. Report of the Board of Directors: Paul Andersen, CIRA’s Chair, delivered the report of CIRA’s Board of Directors. This past year CIRA made significant advancements toward a more secure .CA domain with DNSSEC. CIRA completed the foundational work to offer our customers a signed .CA zone, a long and challenging process; and successful. Looking ahead, CIRA will work with its partners to begin offering DNSSEC-enabled .CA domain names.
CIRA has also seen the .CA domain become truly national with the introduction of French accented domain names this past year. As our nation’s online identifier, .CA now encompasses both of Canada’s official languages. This brings .CA to all Canadians, French and English. This feature is available now through our channel partners.
And in terms of making our piece of the Internet more Canadian, CIRA was recently in Montreal to celebrate the launch of the Montreal Internet Exchange – or QIX as it is known. QIX is Canada’s newest Internet Exchange Point. An IXP is, in essence, a local switch for routing Internet traffic. By establishing an IXP in Montreal, we are able to keep more local Internet traffic in Montreal – and not have it transit outside of Canada’s borders. It will also help solidify Montreal as one of Canada’s most technologically advanced cities. We have also been working with community-based groups in Winnipeg and Vancouver to establish IXPs there as well. Later this month, we will be attending an event to launch the Winnipeg IXP. We are also working with a team in Vancouver to host a town hall about Internet Exchanges in BC.
This past year, we finalized and began implementing a strategic plan that will see the organization through to 2016. The driving goal of the new plan is to make .CA a recognized leader and trusted voice in the Canadian Internet community, all the while ensuring the safe and secure operation of the .CA registry and the DNS that supports it.
In my 13 years with CIRA, I have seen it go from a small country code top-level domain to a global leader. A leader both in terms of being a technical leader in Canada, but also in terms of advancing the Internet from a governance and policy perspective.
On the international stage, I am the current vice-chair of the American Registry for Internet Numbers, or ARIN. ARIN is the Regional Internet Registry for Canada, the United States, and many Caribbean and North Atlantic islands. CIRA’s president and CEO, Byron Holland, is the Chair of the Country Code Names Supporting Organization. And numerous CIRA staff and Board members sit on a variety of international committees and working groups to advance the Internet. As the digital world becomes more and more important to the social and economic well-being of the globe, .CA is a modern national treasure.
As mentioned, .CA already punches above its weight on the international stage and the time has come to bring that influence home to the discussion tables in Canada. I am proud to be able to make an announcement about a new program I am particularly proud of. As a Board, we recently formed a Committee that will guide our activities under the Community Investment Program banner. Since CIRA’s mandate was expanded to include work that enhances the Internet in Canada, three years ago we launched an initiative to fund a variety of programs and initiatives. Today’s event, the Canadian Internet Forum, is funded through this initiative. It has also allowed us to fund organizations like MediaSmarts, Canada’s digital literacy experts. Today we evolve this program. I am here to announce that we are going to bring the Community Investment Program to more Canadians. With the changes I will announce today, we will make the CIP more relevant to the Canadian Internet community. The Board of Directors recently decided to establish a Committee comprised of Board members and community stakeholders to make decisions about strategic investments to encourage community projects and educational and research activities that will enhance the Internet for Canadians. Over the next calendar year, we will be funding Canadian organizations to the tune of one million dollars to do good things for the Internet in Canada. We will begin accepting applications later this year from community groups, academics, and not-for-profits for funding for projects that will make the Internet even better for all Canadians. We will fund projects, big and small, that fall under the following categories: digital literacy; soft infrastructure; governance; and, security and stability. We believe that by funding projects in these areas of focus, CIRA will facilitate a stronger Internet, built by the people and organizations that work on the frontlines and know what the needs are. I think it’s also important to note that the Committee will be comprised mostly of outside independent subject matter experts. Dr. Michael Geist, an accomplished Internet academic who you heard from earlier today, will head up this committee. And I personally believe this will have a lasting positive impact on how Canadians access and use the Internet for the foreseeable future.
4. President’s Report: Byron Holland, CIRA’s President and CEO, took this opportunity to thank CIRA’s Chair, Paul Andersen, as this was his last Annual General Meeting.
P. Andersen was elected to the Board on the very first Board of Directors’ election and is also CIRA’s longest serving Chair. When asking a few of the longer term staff and Board members at CIRA for their memories of Paul, two words kept coming up: perseverance and drive. As you know, we have always done our best to bring to our AGM to as many Canadians as possible, which includes webcasting as we are doing today. However, 12 years ago, this was not an easy task, especially for CIRA’s first AGM. Not content with this, Paul, an enterprising young owner of an Internet service provider and new Board member took it upon himself to ensure the necessary infrastructure was in place for the meeting. As a Board member and executive, he was not afraid to roll up his sleeves to make sure the AGM was a success. This commitment to ensuring the organization succeeded has been a hallmark of Paul’s entire tenure as a Director. On behalf of the Board and staff, B. Holland thanked Paul for his commitment to CIRA and his leadership for more than a decade.
5. Summary of the Financial Statements for fiscal year ending March 31, 2013:
Rowena Liang, CIRA’s Chair of the Audit Committee presented the financial statements for the fiscal year March 31, 2013, a copy of the Auditor’s Report and the financial statements can be viewed on CIRA’s web site at https://www.cira.ca/annual-reports/2013/en/financials.html.
6. Appointment of Auditors: It was moved by Jeanne Estelle Thebault, seconded by Christian Tacit, and motion carried, that KPMG be appointed as Auditors of CIRA, to hold office until the next Annual General Meeting or until their successors are duly appointed and that the Board of Directors be authorized to fix the remunerations of the Auditors.
7. Questions from Members:
Questions from Members can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQdys6BcncY&list=UU2GRMephTIFKb0x6VElMUw.
8. Adjournment
On motion by Joe Abley and seconded by Jeanne Estelle Thebault, the meeting was concluded at 2:45 p.m.
