<div dir="ltr">I see ISOC is doing a work on Internet Future Scenarios. I think it is also great if we can do the same work on ISOC Future itself.<div>ISOC organisation has not evolved since its inception in 1995 : org members, individual members, chapters. As far as I know the only change happened was creating the free-membership back in 2003( or 2004, I am not sure ). We operate in very fast moving industry. A flat world. A member in 1995 is not the same in 2016.</div><div>We should do a self-assessment and answer question like : what is the role of each type of members ? What if we remove those types ? What if we remove chapters ? What is the role of regional bureaux ? Do we really need chapters ? How ISOC will look like in 2020 ? What governance model do we want for our organisation in the future ? Do we want ISOC to be a bottom-up organisation or a top-down one ?</div><div>Many question that we need to fix and answer now as they seems to return back again again in the discussion each time in a different ways.</div><div> </div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font color="#666666" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Khaled Koubaa</font></div><div><font size="1" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Twitter : <a href="https://twitter.com/koubaak" target="_blank">@koubaak</a></font></div><div><font size="1" face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">LinkedIn : <a href="http://lnked.in/kkoubaa" target="_blank">http://lnked.in/kkoubaa</a></font></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">2016-04-08 13:22 GMT+02:00 Veni Markovski <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:veni@veni.com" target="_blank">veni@veni.com</a>></span>:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Hi. <br>
If ISOC loses its tax exempt status, I don't why would this result
in its liquidation. There are plenty of tax-exempt organizations
that lose their status regularly. It can be obtained back, by the
way. <br>
<br>
But this sounds also strange, as many tax-exempt foundations provide
funding for projects overseas. ISOC Bulgaria has received funding
through the years in the form of grants, we have also been part of
European Framework programs, etc., and the accounting is part of
what we do to be in compliance with the national laws. <br>
<br>
Some time ago we had a discussion on one of the lists, that with 100
chapters, ISOC could easily provide $ 100,000 to each of them, on
average, and that will only be $ 10 M from its budget. But it will
empower the chapters around the world tremendously. Of course, some
chapters are not ready to spend such an amount of money, but others
can spend even more. Point is - when the chapters are the ones that
are making ISOC a global organization, they have to be supported by
the headquarters. Whether it's money, or staff support, or (we
talked about it at some time, too) by providing them web hosting
services at .<a href="http://isoc.org" target="_blank">isoc.org</a>, or, or, or - the question is to have the
desire. In some countries web hosting services are still expensive,
so even something like that may be useful for the chapters. <br>
<br>
ISOC does amazing educational outreach, helps building IXPs, engages
in public policy debates, etc., and it could - and should? - use the
chapter better, and more. More, and better. We are all like one
living organism, with different parts around the world, to keep them
all in a harmony, is a coordination effort we all have to
participate in. If we only think ISOC HQ should be the initiator of
the coordination, that won't work well enough. The biggest challenge
is the cross-cultural diversity, which we all have to keep in mind.<br>
<br>
Hope this is helpful.<br>
<br>
<br>
<div>On 04/08/16 06:52, Eric Burger wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>One of the major issues with disbursing funds is accounting
and accountability. Get one of those wong and the Internet
Society loses its tax exempt status. Losing its tax exempt
status could result, in the extreme, in the liquidation of ISOC.
At the worst, such an event, and the path to that event, would
mean lots of lawyers getting rich and those of us in chapters
getting nothing. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Tax law is specific about banning individuals from enriching
themselves from a non-profit. This is one of the structural
reasons why non profit pay is so much less than private sector
pay for the same job. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>A problem with simply paying block grants to chapters is if
ANY chapter improperly spends the money, then ALL of ISOC is at
risk. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I am not saying ISOC should not be financially supporting
Chapters. What I am saying is that if there is going to be some
sort of funding model proposed, please also propose how the
accountability mechanisms will work. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<br><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
</font></span></blockquote><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<br>
<pre cols="72">--
Best,
Veni Markovski
<a href="http://www.isoc.bg" target="_blank">http://www.isoc.bg</a></pre>
</font></span></div>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>
As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically subscribed<br>
to this list, which is regularly synchronized with the Internet Society<br>
Chapter Portal (AMS): <a href="https://portal.isoc.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://portal.isoc.org</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div>