[chapter-delegates] Results of the board discussion on membership

[Andres Oliva]

The Catalan Chapter of ISOC (ISOC-CAT) wants to express its standpoint about
the new membership level of ISOC.

We are not against Individual Membership, we actually think Internet is a
great tool to foster citizens' direct participation in the decision-taking
procedures. Nevertheless, this direct participation shouldn't be, by no
means, associated to a fee.

We understand the need of ISOC to identify voters. Nevertheless, to continue
the pioneering tradition of ISOC, we should keep looking for other means of
global/international identification other than credit cards. The future of
the internet as a privileged tool to foster democracy at all levels is at
stake. We understand that the Chapters could have a significant role here,
that is, to guarantee the identity of voters. We are already working on
voting/identification procedures and we express our willingness to
collaborate with ISOC HQ in this sense.

In the context of the WSIS process, this new membership policy could have
very negative consequences for the image of ISOC. We believe that ISOC can
face this process only through democratisation and decentralization of its
own structure and procedures. Otherwise, governments, with a growing support
from civil society, will have fair reasons to fight to extend their power on
the Internet governance issues, since most of them have been elected and
better represent society.

Therefore we ask the Trustees of ISOC:

.	To eliminate the "pay for vote" system for the individual membership.
.	To re-establish the downgraded "associate members" to the "global or
chapter members" level.
.	To work together with the chapters in order to research, discuss, test and
apply identification systems to launch the individual membership level,
guaranteeing that every interested citizen will have the right to one, and
only one, vote (for free, of course).

We consider that all citizens that are affected by the Internet shall have
the right to participate in the decision taking procedures regarding the
Internet Governance. Internet is a great tool to foster direct democracy,
and ISOC shall keep its pioneer work and become an example to follow in this
sense. Therefore, for the benefit of the whole organization, we hope our
demands will be considered by ISOC Trustees and staff.

Best regards,

	Board of ISOC-CAT
	Catalan Chapter of ISOC.

> -----Mensaje original-----
> De: James M Galvin [mailto:galvin at elistx.com]
> Enviado el: domingo, 13 de marzo de 2005 17:57
> Para: chapter-delegates at lists.isoc.org
> Asunto: Re: [chapter-delegates] Results of the board discussion on
> membership
>
>
> First, let me thank Rosa, Veni, and Patrick for sending their summary of
> the Board discussions.  The staff specifically asked the Board to
> consider the question of whether they wanted individual paying members
> who would be eligible to elect trustees.  Not only did the Board devote
> considerable time to the question but I know that many of the trustees (I
> did not confirm with all so I do not know about all the Trustees) did
> read the archive of this list.  You can be sure they were quite familiar
> with the issues.
>
> As they stated, the Board did not take any formal action, which simply
> means they did not wish to change any of the decisions of the last 3
> years.  It is now the staff's responsibility to respond to the Chapters'
> reactions, within the requirements set by the Board over the last 3 years.
>
> Second, the staff message will come out tomorrow.  We need more time
> because as the Trustees already noted, we told the Board we would revisit
> some of the details of the program with the Chapters.  It is our
> intention to get that process started with our message tomorrow and we
> need time to prepare for that.
>
> The only thing I would like to add to the summary posted is a reminder
> that Chapters and Individual Members are not the only community of
> interest that the Board must consider.  Certainly we all want the
> Individual and Chapter Programs to be a "good thing" for as many people
> as possible, but they also have to be a "good thing" for all of ISOC.
> ISOC is more than the sum of its Chapters and Individual members.
>
> Jim
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --On Saturday, March 12, 2005 4:16 PM -0700 Patrick Vande Walle
> <patrick at isoc.lu> wrote:
>
> > Dear chapter delegates,
> >
> > This is a common message of Rosa, Veni and myself on the results of the
> > board discussion on membership.
> >
> > First of all, we would like to thank all those who have contributed
> > their ideas to this list.
> >
> > The board understands chapters concerns so it recognizes that we need
> > to communicate more frequently and discuss chapter and member related
> > issues with the chapters earlier in the decision process and this was
> > addressed during the BoT meeting.
> >
> > This issue  could be addressed through different channels like
> > teleconferences, online chats, etc. We need to explain in much greater
> > detail the why's and how's of the decisions taken.
> >
> > Regarding the paying membership program, the sense of the board is that
> > the program will neither be cancelled nor postponed. However, is the
> > light of your comments, ISOC will put the program under review to
> > address the issues, like the names of the different membership
> > categories.
> >
> > We encourage everyone to continue providing ideas to the
> > chapter-delegates mailing list.
> >
> > All the best,
> >
> > Rosa, Veni and Patrick
>
>
>