Summary

  • ICANN’s 22 October Board slate puts Finance chair Sajid Rahman on Strategic Planning. Strategic Planning chair Amitabh Singhal also sits on Finance.
  • In February, the strategy committee asked staff to remove annual planning prioritization from its workplan and keep discussing the boundary with Finance.

ICANN has given the budget chair a seat in the strategy room. Its 22 October committee slate puts Sajid Rahman, chair of Finance, among ten Strategic Planning members. Amitabh Singhal chairs Strategic Planning and sits on Finance. Both chairs now have a badge for the other meeting.

The exchange is new on one side. The 2025 slate already placed Singhal on Finance; Rahman was not among Strategic Planning’s seven members. The October appointment closes that circuit just as the committees have been sorting out a practical question: who watches the annual list of work ICANN can afford to do?

At its February meeting, Strategic Planning heard a staff proposal to take oversight of the Planning Prioritization Process out of its workplan and align it more closely with Finance and the operating-budget cycle. The committee asked staff to remove that item and another “Other Duty.” It also wanted a further discussion about Finance’s role in the nonfinancial parts of the strategic plan. The paper boundary was being drawn while the work was still in motion.

The strategy charter gives its committee an annual check on five-year priorities and requires coordination with Finance on planning’s financial elements. The Finance charter puts budget oversight and recommendations there. Two chairs in each other’s rooms can carry a priority across the doorway. The public record will show whether it arrives with a price and an owner.