<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">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">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,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></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:<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></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)"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></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">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)">
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></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.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></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)"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><br>
Best,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)">Richard<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)"><u></u> <u></u></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">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">https://www.isoc.bg</a>
pgp:5BA1366E <a href="mailto:veni@veni.com" target="_blank">veni@veni.com</a>
</pre>
</div>
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