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<p>Thank you Olivier and Dave. +1 <br>
</p>
<p>WYn<br>
<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9 Mar 2024 2:13 AM, Dave Burstein
via Chapter-delegates wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAAUuzMSZxxm5VxDgancB6EeByD6pgd+G_3MgR+Jf=7K2Nc2jOw@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif">Partial answer to
your question from Andrew Sullivan</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif">"<span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">For whatever
it’s worth, I have not given notice of my resignation to the
board or anyone else."</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">(in response
to a question from NY, trying to understand why the board
was apparently acting urgently but not answering questions.)</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif">-------</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">The Zoom link
for the observer sessions is at </span><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><a
href="https://www.internetsociety.org/board-of-trustees/meetings/observer-guidelines/"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.internetsociety.org/board-of-trustees/meetings/observer-guidelines/</a>
. You must agree not to record the session, but Ted reminds
me they will be on </span><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"> </span><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=internet+society+board+of+trustees"
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=internet+society+board+of+trustees</a><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"> </span><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">. </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">---------------</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">My opinion: </span><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Thank you UK
chapter for speaking publicly. </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">I believe
nearly all the issues here would be resolved if ISOC created
an important, role for the chapters & members and lived
up to our promises of the funding needed. We also must have
transparency and openness. We have to find a way across the
North/South battle because 2/3rds of Internet users are in
the South. </span><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">One result is
our growth is far behind the growth of the Internet. </span><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Ted: With so
much in private, <b>it's time for you to have once a month
zoom for questions from chapters.</b> It's a minimal
requirement of the Chair to listen to the members, in an
organized fashion to minimize the time and cost. If you
don't have the time, someone like Pepper or Charles Mok
might be a good substitute. </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">I know
several of the board members personally and my experience is
almost all the board members are responsive to email. You
and Andrew have been helpful even when we disagree. But most
of the chapter leaders don't realize how to connect
directly. It's a good idea to make it easy. </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"> </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">You should
also simply say, in your role as Board Chair, that all ISOC
staff should do their best to answer questions from
chapters, except on personnel decisions or when there is an
important reason for secrecy. </span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br>
</span></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span
style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Dave Burstein</span></div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Mar 8, 2024 at 8:43 AM
Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond 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>>
wrote:<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> Att: Ted Hardie - Internet Society Board Chair<br>
CC: Chapter Delegates Mailing List<br>
<br>
Dear Ted,<br>
<br>
Andrew Sullivan had a meeting with members of the ISOC UK
England Chapter leadership on Tuesday 20 February 2024.<br>
Prior to that meeting, we sent Andrew a list of
questions/topics to be addressed. Whilst we had a very
friendly and productive meeting indeed, Andrew felt that
some of the questions we asked were better aimed at the ISOC
Board of Trustees directly.<br>
<br>
Please be so kind to find these questions below, along with
additional questions that we have in relation to issues that
would most likely fall into the category of matters that
should be addressed by the Board.<br>
<br>
We submit these questions to you in writing but would also
be able to arrange for a call of our Leadership Team with
you and any of your colleagues if you consider this to be
appropriate.<br>
<br>
In order to put some structure in our discussions, there are
four main section topics:<br>
<br>
1. CEO renewal<br>
2. Internet Society Foundation<br>
3. ISOC's future<br>
4. Operational Issues<br>
5. Future Role of Chapters<br>
<br>
Topic 1: CEO renewal<br>
<br>
Given the need to expand the global reputation and footprint
of the Internet Society, the search for the next CEO should
respect the processes set in the past as well as well
current accepted good practice adopted by other significant
top tier Internet organisations.<br>
<br>
This process needs to comply by ISOC Bylaws.<br>
It should be tasked by the BoT to improve awareness and
engagement of the global communities in the Internet Society
and its operations and ensure to the community that basic
principles of good governance including transparency are
evident.<br>
<br>
We therefore have the following questions relating to the
topic of CEO renewal:<br>
<br>
1.1 Has the Board already considered whether it would renew
Andrew Sullivan's contract, given that it is due to expire
in August 2024 (5 months away)<br>
<br>
1.2 If it is decided, by any of the parties that the
contract will not be renewed, when will the process for the
CEO search be started?<br>
<br>
1.3 Is there an already existing process in place for the
search of the next CEO?<br>
1.3.1 if yes, then is it based on the last search for ISOC
CEO which used a global selection process open to
qualification by non-US residents?<br>
1.3.2 if no, then will the community be asked for:<br>
a. best practices relating to the actual search for a CEO?<br>
b. the list of qualities required in the next CEO?<br>
(as is already common process in other I* organisations?)<br>
<br>
1.4 In the current climate of Government regulation
worldwide would you agree that people with known close ties
to governments should be excluded from being candidates as
they are unlikely to inspire confidence in ISOC's
independence in representative roles other than purely
secretariat? Ditto for other individuals who might come from
organisations that might be perceived as having a strong
conflict of interest?<br>
<br>
1.5 Currently the Board Succession Planning Committee is
made of:<br>
Ramanou Biaou - Chapters<br>
Luis Martinez - Chapters<br>
Brian Haberman - IETF<br>
Ted Hardie - Organisation<br>
Barry Leiba - Organisation<br>
Robert Pepper - Organisation<br>
Andrew Sullivan - Ex-Officio<br>
<br>
This, if it is indeed the next CEO Search Committee, appears
unbalanced between Chapters, IETF and Organisation members?
Wouldn't good practise mean balancing this out by having two
members from each IETF, Chapters and Organisation?<br>
<br>
1.6 Will the whole Board interview candidates or will it
just be the Board Succession Planning Committee? Are there
operating rules in relation to this?<br>
<br>
1.7 Will the whole Board be voting on the final
candidate(s), given that this has been a vital task of the
Board in past CEO selections?<br>
<br>
<br>
Topic 2: Internet Society Foundation<br>
<br>
Our understanding of ISOC's intentions during the formation
of the Foundation was to establish a separate Board and
governance for the Foundation. It was proposed that the
current arrangement of ISOC trustees also all being
Foundation Trustees, as only viable as a stop gap. The
evolution of the governance of the Foundation appears to
have stalled since the attempted sale of PIR.<br>
<br>
Given that the current arrangement causes a serious conflict
of interest between the organisations:<br>
<br>
2.1 What are the current steps being made to move this
along? When will a new Board be selected for the Foundation?<br>
<br>
2.2 What processes to involve the broader community are
being undertaken?<br>
<br>
[ For your information, Andrew Sullivan did not feel there
was a conflict of interest in having the same Board members
for both the Foundation and the Internet Society itself. He
also was not around when the Internet Society Foundation was
created thus was not aware of the "interim Board"
arrangement - thus it would be good to shed some light on
this matter. ]<br>
<br>
<br>
Topic 3: ISOC's future<br>
<br>
It is notable that in relation to other Internet
organisations referred to as I* including IETF, ICANN, IAB,
Regional Internet Registries. ISOC alone today has no
operational powers or responsibilities for Internet
resources, networks, or governance communities including
Chapters. This has frequently led to comments by operators
in those communities to ask "What is the point of ISOC"?<br>
<br>
3.1 What is the Point of ISOC today and into the next five
years in the Board's view?<br>
3.1.1 Is there a 5 year strategic plan in place?<br>
<br>
[ Andrew told us that there was indeed a new 5 year plan in
the works. However, our observation is that it looks like it
has not been shared yet and whilst the previous plan had
included involvement of communities with dedicated staff
members in charge, these staff members coordinating these
consultations have since been laid off, thus what is the
current status? <br>
How is this plan being developed? <br>
What is the time scale for this development? <br>
What is the position with regards to input into the decision
making process from Chapters? ]<br>
<br>
[ 3.2 answered by Andrew ]<br>
<br>
3.3 ISOC Financials<br>
<a
href="https://www.internetsociety.org/about-internet-society/organization-reports/#financial-reports"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.internetsociety.org/about-internet-society/organization-reports/#financial-reports</a><br>
2022 Financial Statements show the Internet Society making a
loss for that year.<br>
<br>
[ Andrew mentioned that this was due to financial markets
but profit would return in 2023. ]<br>
<br>
3.3.1 Is there oversight and reporting that is specific to
keeping track of the proportion of .org revenues being spent
on internal administration and staff compared to funding
community works?<br>
The annual financial statements do not show this.<br>
3.3.2 With other I* organisations providing detailed
information about the management of their projects as well
as per department cross-referencing, is ISOC prepared to
rise up to the levels of transparency that are now expected
in public benefit entities and to produce an annual
financial report that provides more information than its
minimal published financial statement?<br>
3.3.3 Is ISOC ready to publish its financials on multi-year
projects including its forecasts going forward? Scrutiny of
Form 990 appears to show random continuity year on year and
there is no way to find out what is happening?<br>
<br>
3.4 MANRS<br>
ISOC made a total divestment of its MANRS project to a US
not-for-profit, The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) - and
Andrew's response was that this was needed because "ISOC is
a good incubator but terrible at running long term
projects".<br>
<br>
3.4.1 Why was this divestiture effected given that this was
a successful project which comforted the ISOC brand as being
pertinent?<br>
<br>
3.4.2 Was a risk assessment done prior to moving MANRS
elsewhere to an organisation so close to law enforcement as
to ensuring that the Internet Society goals and principles
in this important area remain at the top of the routing
security agenda?<br>
<br>
3.4.3 By what criteria was the GCA chosen as an suitable
organisation to run the MANRS project? Were there conditions
imposed on Goals?<br>
<br>
3.4.4 Are there Performance Agreements (SLAs) in place for
the ongoing conditional funding of the GCA?<br>
3.4.4.1 If yes, are there clauses to cancel the GCA
Secretarial and Operational duties, should it fail in its
SLAs?<br>
<br>
Topic 4: Operational Issues<br>
<br>
4.1 New Chapter Membership Administration System<br>
<br>
Many Chapters have complained about the inadequacy of the
new Membership System.<br>
Andrew's answer has been "ask <a
href="mailto:AMSHelp@isoc.org" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">AMSHelp@isoc.org</a>"
- but then Chapters are also told that simple features such
as setting the subject of a mailing sent to members, is
currently not possible and nobody knows when that will be
fixed. Clearly there is a problem. Can you provide the
Board's Commitment that these problems will be fixed and
give a time estimate as to by when this will be the case?<br>
<br>
4.2 Termination of contract for Joly McFie - isoc.live<br>
<br>
At the recent Chapters Advisory Council meeting, we learned
that <span>Joly McFie's services were no longer going to be
contracted for Live Streaming. The powers that be at ISOC
found that most people were watching recorded videos than
the live video streaming, which in my opinion makes sense
because live watching requires people to do it at a time T
but many people like to watch the event later - and also
when Live, many people had a preference to be on the
original Zoom channel to take an active part in asking
questions remotely. The Live Channels archive was great
for ISOC's image. A great showcase of: "This is what we
do!" - with "we" conveying the global dimension of the
Internet Society through its memorable Chapter events.<br>
<br>
It seems to have been decided unilaterally that in order
to cut on costs, Joly will not longer be contracted full
time to LiveStream and Archive events with the added
excellent professional service of adding captions and
making a recording very polished indeed and ready for
public consumption. <br>
We learned that </span><span>Joly can still be contracted
on a project basis by both ISOC teams and chapters. The
budget would come from the party who enters into the
contract with Joly. Chapters can include these costs in
their event budgets when applying for a Beyond the Net
Small<<a
href="https://www.isocfoundation.org/grant-programme/beyond-the-net-small-grants/"
style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(1,91,167)"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"><span
style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(1,91,167)"><font
color="#015BA7">https://www.isocfoundation.org/grant-programme/beyond-the-net-small-grants/</font></span></a>>
grant.<br>
<br>
ISOC will continue to record its public marquee events and
post the recordings thereof for on-demand viewing.<br>
<br>
</span><span> ISOC's messages are unclear: on the one hand
it says that it has more money to support the community
than the number of applications it receives for funding
and on the other hand it cuts a major volunteer and
chapter support programme and replaces it with yet more
bureaucracy. It is replacing an ISOC Community Resource
for everyone with an elitist on-demand selection process
with lengthy application documents that will just push
back on Chapter activity.</span><br>
<span> <br>
4.2.1 </span>Was this change in process / withdrawal of
service agreed with the Chapter Advisory Council or with
Chapters in any way?<br>
<span> 4.2.2 What will happen with the current excellent
archive of livestreams which constitute an amazing library
of Chapter events of many many years?<br>
4.2.3 Why introduce the unreasonable bureaucratic
overheads in the process of booking Joly McFie's services
with an events budget request? Some Chapters have regular
Webinars and adding an official request for an event
budget is a waste of volunteer time. Plus there is a
limitation as to how many requests a Chapter can make.
Plus all the necessary bureaucratic reports that need to
be filed afterwards.<br>
4.2.4 Couldn't the Internet Society just have an on-demand
contract with Joly McFie and make payment on a per event
basis, without needing all the bureaucracy to file for
"events budget"?<br>
</span><br>
<br>
5. Future Role of Chapters<br>
<br>
In terms of planning and operational basis and mindful of
the balance between Chapters, Organisations and IETF in the
Internet Society, have operational documents been drafted in
regards to cooperation between Chapters and HQ? We are aware
of operational requirements set on Chapters by contract but
are there other documents relating to the relationship
between Chapters and HQ especially when it comes to advocacy
in countries worldwide?<br>
<br>
--- end of questions ---<br>
<br>
<br>
These questions are sent on behalf of the UK Chapter of the
Internet Society Leadership Team - we look forward to your
responses.<br>
Best regards,<br>
<br>
Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD<br>
Chair - Internet Society UK England Chapter<br>
<br>
</div>
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</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically subscribed
to this list, which is regularly synchronized with the Internet Society Chapter Portal (AMS):
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://admin.internetsociety.org/622619/User/Login">https://admin.internetsociety.org/622619/User/Login</a>
View the Internet Society Code of Conduct: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.internetsociety.org/become-a-member/code-of-conduct/">https://www.internetsociety.org/become-a-member/code-of-conduct/</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
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