The Financials of the IETF

The Financials of the IETF - 2001

Page last updated: Feb 3, 2003

The resources that are consumed by the IETF process is of two kinds:

The time and energy spent by the participants is accounted for by the participants or their organizations and is not included below.
The financial resources spent to support the IETF operations. This is described here.

The financial resources come in two groups:

Funding from the Internet Society. This is accounted for in Internet Society financial reports.
This supports (with figures for 2001):

The RFC Editor - $428,300

The IETF Chair's discretionary funds - $73,748
The expenses related to the IAB - $13,287
Insurance - $20,000

Funding from the meeting fees. This pays for the meetings and the secretariat support, and is accounted for below. There is no money moving either from ISOC to the secretariat or from the meeting fees to ISOC.

The resources consumed and accounted for by others include:

Labor invested by IESG members, IAB members, WG chairs, document editors and working group participants. These receive no money from the IETF.
Labor invested in the IETF IANA function. This is presently being contributed at no charge by ICANN.
Sponsorship of equipment, social events and connectivity to meetings ("hosting").

The numbers below are the financial numbers from Foretec for fiscal 2001.



Secretariat Labor Expense		$504,584

IETF Meeting Expenses
- Food & Beverage	$862,500
- Audio/Visual	$127,337
- Room Rental	$190,265
- Terminal Room	$0
- Other Meeting Exp	$1,925
Total IETF Meeting Expenses		$1,182,027

Non-meeting expenses
- Secretariat Travel	$39,122
- Materials & Supplies	$7,318
- Printing & Publications	$59,431
- Professional Services	$24,581
- Teleconferences & LD Charges	$54,400
- Miscellaneous	$12,003
- Equipment Rental	$4,668
Total non-meeting Expenses		$201,523

Indirect Expense		$604,990

Total Expenses		$2,493,124

Gross IETF Revenue	$2,699,239
Bank/Credit Card (Fees)	$81,365
Net IETF Revenue		$2,617,874

Gross Surplus		$124,750
Foretec 2001 performance bonus	$30,000
Net Surplus		$94,750

Notes

The terminal room cost is $0 in 2001 because all 3 IETF meetings were hosted. In 2003, we expect to have at least one, and possibly two, non-host meetings, which means that terminal room costs will come out of the secretariat's budget.

The surplus for any year is added to a reserve fund held at CNRI to cover future deficits.

"Indirect expense": Foretec allocates a percentage of its total general operating expense to each of the company's projects according to their size as determined by expenditures. The percentage is the same for all projects and is determined at the end of the year when all direct and indirect expenses have been booked. This expense is termed an "Indirect expense" and is that expense that really can not be identified as belonging to a particular project or is charged to the indirect pool by a uniform company wide policy. The "Indirect expense" includes but is not limited to the cost of the following items: the financial management of all accounts (i.e., accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, general ledger, and reconciliation of all accounts), network and computer support, general management, rent and facilities (including heat and electricity for equipment, light and air-conditioning), a CPA (to oversee Foretec's accounting record keeping and accounting procedures), a year end audit, legal services, depreciation on equipment, Internet access, recruiting, employee training, insurances, etc

The cost for "food and beverage" covers participants' breakfasts, coffe and break food at IETF events. In the US, this is one way in which hotels recover the cost of meeting rooms; in one recent query, the secretariat got a quote on meeting rooms without food for USD 238.000 (at 50% off list price). At a similar meeting where we got the meeting rooms for free, our food and beverages bill was approximately USD 250.000.
Outside the US, we are usually charged separately for the meeting rooms and the food.
In 2001, we had a total of 5.739 attendees over 3 meetings.

The salaries for 2001 covered 5.83 full time equivalents.

The Foretec performance bonus is decided by the IETF leadership on a yearly basis based on their perception of the Secretariat performance and the size of the surplus (if any).