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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">+1, our experience is similar.</div>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Borka</div>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">ISOC.SI</div>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Alexander Blom via Chapter-delegates je
27. 09. 2021 ob 16:16 napisal:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAKSPDUoL0VAVRTzFnG_SLFOVFfRYYe5D+u-cstUpJsKmcGLWNA@mail.gmail.com">
<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" moz-do-not-send="true">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>
<div>
<div dir="ltr" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">Met vriendelijke groet,<br>
Kind regards<br>
<br>
<div><span>Alexander Blom</span><span></span></div>
<div>ISOCNL</div>
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<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">chapter-delegates@elists.isoc.org</a>>:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote">
<div> 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). <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>Dear George and Muhammed,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Here are my thoughts
regarding your two questions:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>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></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>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">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> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>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>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> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>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></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><br>
Best,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Richard</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span>From:</span></b><span>
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">https://www.isoc.bg</a>
pgp:5BA1366E <a href="mailto:veni@veni.com" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">veni@veni.com</a>
</pre>
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</pre>
</blockquote>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Prof.dr.Borka Jerman-Blažič
Ex-Head, Laboratory for Open systems and Networks
Jožef Stefan Institute and
Faculty of Economics, Ljubljana University
Slovenia
tel. +386 1 477 3408
tel. +386 1 477 3756
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