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<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Thanks, Alexander.<br>
Very good observation, and quite on the spot, in response to
people, who claim that chapters are getting (much) more (than they
deserve?). <br>
I have to admit that I don't remember what projects ISOC Bulgaria
has submitted through the years, but I believe that perhaps the
only one that got funding was a very tiny one last year, on
tackling covid-19 disinformation. I believe ISOC tweeted the
results, which I shared in the list as well. <br>
Few years ago (I hate saying that, because I know what Andrew will
respond with regards to the time "before him as the CEO") we
submitted some common project, with other chapters, and it was
rejected. We got the funding through other sources, and managed to
do some good work for the global Internet development. <br>
While one could understand ISOC being cautious not to fund
anything that may jeopardize their non-profit status, I still hope
(though these hopes are not high...) that they may come with some
possible solution to understand - both at BoT and staff level,
that "supporting the chapters" doesn't mean "pay the chapters",
but it means supporting the open, interoperable development of the
Internet for the good of all users. In some cases - nationally, in
some - regionally, and in some - globally. <br>
<br>
Alexander, <br>
While Andrew asked me few days ago to provide him with ideas that
are workable, here's one: find different lawyers, who would
consult ISOC how something could be done, and not how something
cannot be done. It sometimes depends on the question asked: ISOC
should find the right question, if they want to get the right
answer; a wrong question always would lead to a wrong answer.
None of us, chapter leaders, is in the position of ISOC, with tens
of millions of dollars budget, and opportunity to seek legal
advice from the top lawyers around the world, so it's kind of a
stretch to ask us for suggestion what to do. I know what could be
done in Bulgaria, you probably know what is possible in the
Netherlands. I am sure that none of us would ask ISOC to do what's
impossible. <br>
<br>
Anyway, this is a good discussion, and I hope George and Muhammad
will use the information shared here for the good of ISOC.<br>
<br>
v/<br>
<br>
<br>
</font><br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9/27/21 10:16, Alexander Blom wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAKSPDUoL0VAVRTzFnG_SLFOVFfRYYe5D+u-cstUpJsKmcGLWNA@mail.gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">Hi everyone,</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">In this respect it is interesting to take a
look at <a
href="https://www.isocfoundation.org/about/our-projects/"
target="_blank"
style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14.6667px"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.isocfoundation.org/about/our-projects/</a> which
confirms that from the 4+ million in grants in 2020, roughly
10% of ISOC's grants go to chapter activities; the rest goes
to outside parties. To all probability, the foundation
spends more on itself than on chapter grants. Then on top of
that there is the 600k for the NSRC, another cause that ISOC
spends more on than on chapter grants. To sum it up:
chapters are at the bottom of the list.</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div>My chapter was refused a grant 4 times, and so we have
given up on the foundation more or less, which, unless we
are able to find other means, reduces us to a chapter that
writes clever letters and participates in public
consultations but not much else.</div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
</div>
<div>Some possible fixes (very much coloured by my chapters'
experience I am afraid): </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>institute the possibility to appeal a decision by the
foundation to reject a grant application. Currently, three
anonymous judges can render hours and hours of volunteer
work useless in a matter of a few sentences, whether they
misunderstood aspects of a proposal, use inappropriate
standards or show themselves to be human in another way:
an appeal procedure could do a lot of good here.</li>
<li>Judge a grant application from a chapter on all its
merits; not only for what it can do for ISOC.org itself
but also how it strengthens a chapter, what it does for
the local community etc.</li>
<li>Involve the regional chapter managers: they are based
locally and often know the people within the chapters much
better. </li>
<li>Spend more money on chapter grants: 10% is NOT enough.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div dir="ltr">Second of all, I very much appreciate the effort
by George and Muhammed to get feedback from the chapters
directly instead of going through the official 10
step process. Does the latter needs to change? Let's keep in
touch!</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br clear="all">
<div>
<div dir="ltr" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">Met vriendelijke groet,<br>
Kind regards<br>
<br>
<div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><span>Alexander
Blom</span><span></span></font></div>
<div>ISOCNL</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">Op ma 27 sep. 2021 om 14:13
schreef Veni Markovski via Chapter-delegates <<a
href="mailto:chapter-delegates@elists.isoc.org"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">chapter-delegates@elists.isoc.org</a>>:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div> <font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Hi,
everyone.<br>
There's a lot in Richard's words, which could be used
for the good of ISOC *and* the Chapters. I hope it will
be, and won't remain only as a possibility. See some
comments below (warning - it's a long read). </font><br>
<br>
<div>On 9/25/21 10:40, Richard Hill via Chapter-delegates
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Dear
George and Muhammed,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Here
are my thoughts regarding your two questions:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">1.
Allocation of resources for activities: as far as
I can tell, an overwhelming share of the resources
is allocated to projects that are driven by staff.
I would favor allocating more resources to
chapters. I do realize that there are various
mechanisms for chapters to request grants, in
particular for projects, but I feel that it should
be simpler for chapters to obtain grants, and that
more funding should be available for chapters.</span></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
Sounds logical; I'd add - there are already criteria that
chapters cover for the admin funding. These can be
expanded, or updated, to reflect such a change. <br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">2.
Effectiveness of activities: it seems to me that
most of ISOC’s activities are US-centric. There
are a number of reasons for this: it is a US
organization, subject to US law, as Andrew
frequently reminds us. But I think that ISOC would
be more effective if it were less US-centric. That
might require a change in ISOC’s legal status, but
I understand that there is no prospect for
discussing any such change in the foreseeable
future.</span></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
Richard, there are many US-based NGOs, which do great work
overseas. <br>
An example I gave earlier, was the Global Internet Policy
Initiative or GIPI: <a
href="https://www.internetpolicy.net/" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.internetpolicy.net/</a>
<br>
<br>
What GIPI did in Bulgaria helped a lot the local Internet
community in providing expertise to the Bulgarian
Parliament in order to change some relevant laws to be
Internet-friendly. This has resulted in having 880 ISPs
today (at the peak they were about 2,000) for a country
with 7 million people population...<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">3.
Effectiveness of exchange of information: in my
view, the voice of the Chapters is not
sufficiently reflected. </span></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Agree.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">I’m
not sure how to address that. A number of
proposals were made during the early stages of the
Reform Group, but that group has been quiet for a
while, perhaps because there hasn’t been much push
from the co-chairs to restart discussions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">I
agree with Gihan’s suggestion: “ ISOC [should]
take a bottom-up approach in much of its
activities, where the chapters (and org and
individual members) initiate most of the work and
the staff implement them under the guidance of the
members. Right now, most programs are staff driven
and have little input from members.”</span></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Changing the approach will be very difficult, if not
impossible. By now ISOC is a well-established organization
with exactly the opposite approach. Chapters are not (and
IMHO should not be) in the position to dictate the staff
what work to implement, but neither should be the
organizational members. I say that, because I've heard
opinions that all members of ISOC are equal, but the org
members are more equal than the Chapters. While it may be
based on observations that I don't have access to, I
always remember one of the arguments from my time on the
Board of Trustees: chapters can't have the same say in
ISOC matters, because they don't contribute to the budget.
While this is a fact, it's also a fact that the Chapters
provide a different level of diversity, legitimacy and
international spirit of ISOC. Without the Chapters, it
will be purely US-based, US-populated organization. The
Chapters provide diversity that ISOC needs (at least
IMHO). Chapters are the ones, who elect Trustees, majority
of who are non US-based. Chapters also try to elect
equally male and female Trustees... Fun fact: when
Chapters-elected Trustee Olga Cavalli resigned earlier
this year, the Board appointed in her place a man. It's
good he is from Pakistan; few years ago, in a similar
situation, the Board appointed an American - in a Board,
which already had plenty of Americans. <br>
Today, there are 10 Trustees, who are based in the US
(including the CEO), 1 in Senegal (chapters), 1 in Mexico
(chapters), and 1 in Pakistan (appointed by the BoT).
Similar is the situation with the top leadership among the
staff, where there's only one, who is not US-based. <br>
<br>
So, to answer George and Muhammad's questions - perhaps
this is an area, where ISOC should start looking into.
Maybe change the by-laws, to make sure that Trustees are
representing the geography and gender diversity of all its
members - organizational, chapters, individuals? Maybe
something else - up to the BoT to decide.<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><br>
Best,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Richard</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"> </span></p>
<div
style="border-top:none;border-right:none;border-bottom:none;border-left:1.5pt
solid blue;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 4pt">
<div>
<div
style="border-right:none;border-bottom:none;border-left:none;border-top:1pt
solid rgb(181,196,223);padding:3pt 0cm 0cm">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">From:</span></b><span
style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"> Chapter-delegates
[<a href="mailto:chapter-delegat"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">mailto:chapter-delegat</a></span></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre cols="72">--
Best regards,
Veni
Chair of the Board
Internet Society - Bulgaria
<a href="https://www.isoc.bg" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.isoc.bg</a>
pgp:5BA1366E <a href="mailto:veni@veni.com" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">veni@veni.com</a>
</pre>
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<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Best regards,
Veni
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.veni.com">https://www.veni.com</a>
pgp:5BA1366E <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:veni@veni.com">veni@veni.com</a>
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