[chapter-delegates] ISOC Chapters/members meeting - Mar del Plata Argentina

[Lynn St.Amour]

All,

A meeting was held during the ICANN Argentina 
meeting with the following chapters/members.  The 
minutes below were approved by those individuals 
in attendance.

Best regards,

Lynn

--------------------

ATTENDEES:

Chapter Reps:
Richard Delmas - ISOC Belgium - Wallonie
Sebastian Bachollet - ISOC France
Abdel Aziz Hilali - ISOC  Morocco
Richard St.Clair - ISOC Pacific Islands
Stefano Trumpy - ISOC Italy
Alan Levin - ISOC South Africa
Östen Frånberg - ISOC Sweden
Calvin Browne - ISOC South Africa

Trustees:
Veni Markovski (and ISOC Bulgaria)
Desiree Miloshevic (and ISOC England)
Patrick Van de Walle (and ISOC Luxembourg)
Lynn St.Amour (and ISOC Geneva)

Trustees Emeritus:
George Sadowsky

There were introductions and then Lynn called for 
specific items the individuals present might like 
to address.   Lynn asked specifically if there 
was anything to discuss re recent postings on the 
chapter delegates list?  There were some 
suggestions for discussion (included below), and 
at this point it was largely information 
gathering not discussion:

- Role of ISOC within or with ICANN?  What might 
the role be?  What might our role be with ALAC?

- Question on why more ISOC Chapters are not 
participating more actively in the affairs of 
ISOC?

- A question:  previous ISOC Surveys have 
disappeared from the web site, yet the old 
results were useful.  Can they be re-posted? Lynn 
said she would work with Staff to try and do so. 
David McAuley to follow up.

- The point was made that the re-introduction of 
the Paying Membership Program was not introduced 
as well as it could have been, and that chapters 
should have been surveyed.  In response the point 
was made that the chapters and members had been 
surveyed quite extensively, but that the time 
between the surveys, the proposal, and the 
implementation was too long and therefore there 
were new members and chapters, and others who had 
forgotten the earlier surveys.  As part of this 
discussion, some individuals expressed interest 
in creating an integrated mailing list with 
contact detail and others were interested in Fred 
Baker's recent suggestion that we offer hosting 
for chapters.  A suggestion was also made that a 
separate list be created for project discussions 
only.

- Lynn noted that some of the behavior on the 
Chapter delegates list was concerning and there 
was some discussion over the impacts and then how 
to improve it.  The ISOC trustees have received 
comments that the behavior on list limits 
participation from other chapters/individuals who 
are not used to the aggressive behavior.   There 
were lots of heads nodding around the table at 
this, as well as comments discussing cultural 
differences and what might be appropriate or not 
on lists.

- Richard Delmas (ISOC Belgium - Wallonie) 
commented that members don't just join ISOC 
casually, they are looking for a reference 
source, for a reliable website where one can find 
usage info, main trends on the Internet, 
communities, etc..

- Sebastian  Bachollet (ISOC France) commented 
that communications between HQ and Chapters 
should be improved as he found out about SeINIT's 
meeting in Paris from ISOC's newsletter, rather 
than being notified/involved more directly.  The 
IETF Meeting in France was also mentioned and 
Sebastian commented that more effort on the part 
of Staff to inform chapters/work with them on 
such events would be helpful.  Östen Frånberg 
(ISOC Sweden) commented that in Sweden, ISOC 
began holding Internet conferences and that the 
Swedish chapter took it a step at a time and 
built up their reputation as the place to go for 
Internet information over several years.   He 
also commented that Sweden recently wrote a book 
on the Internet history in Sweden.  He closed by 
offering to help other chapters do similar things.

- Alan Levin (ISOC South Africa) stated that they 
will be holding their first Internet Fiesta and 
it has been a fantastic experience.  He also 
mentioned that they focus on 3 pillars but not 
too much on Standards.  Osten mentioned that in 
some places there is no longer a need for 
Internet Fiestas while in others they are pretty 
successful.

Patrick Van de Walle (ISOC Trustee and Luxembourg 
chapter) commented that local policy activities 
are best and that the role of ISOC is to 
propagate policy to chapters.  He also commented 
that the chapters should be the default partner 
of ISOC for local matters, be it for meetings 
like IETF or policy activities, as they know the 
local context best.

Lynn commented that the activities in WGIG/WSIS 
especially those with respect to Internet 
Governance and Digital Divide were very important 
to the Internet, the Internet community and ISOC 
and that ISOC was putting a lot of effort into 
this.  She commented that she would like to see 
the chapters more involved and asked how this 
might be accomplished.  Alan responded that the 
chapters needed to be convinced that ISOC cared 
about them and that ISOC HQ listens to the 
chapters but does not seem to hear them.  Lynn 
also stated that there seemed to be a 
misunderstanding that ISOC focuses on Standards 
and largely ignores policy.

Stefano Trumpy (ISOC Italy) said that the work on 
standards is indeed a central priority for 
Internet and that the organizational members, 
representing the major stable  financial resource 
for ISOC are all in support of this priority. He 
added that, under pressure of the ongoing debate 
on internet governance in WSIS/WGIG, ISOC is 
recognized as the more accredited representative 
of the Internet orthodoxy and, in the same time, 
the public policy and societal aspects gained 
much more relevance. The chapters are 
interpreting the needs/expectations of the local 
Internet communities and have the chance to 
interpret a role similar to the "at large 
membership" of ICANN, in coordination with ISOC 
HQ.  The recent discussion on the 
re-establishment of the paying individual 
membership in ISOC that configures a new 
constituency to be represented in the board is a 
signal of unease of the chapters that feel 
themselves as too marginal in the present 
organizational infrastructure of ISOC. The 
chapters may provide to ISOC an image more 
decentralized compared to the image that ISOC has 
today, like an organization too much US centric. 
We have to work in order to improve the relation 
of the chapters with the HQs.

A discussion on reinstatement of paying members 
and how ISOC's leadership is constituted ensued. 
There was concern about paying members having 
seats on the board giving rise to a digital 
divide.  Lynn reviewed the Board's discussion at 
the last Board meeting and said that management 
was reviewing the issues identified and possible 
resolutions with chapters and the Board.  Also 
discussed was how the funding model of chapters 
changed after the $35 fee disappeared as some 
chapters who had collected the funds locally 
(plus some extra) had lost these extra funds.

Sebastian Bachollet (ISOC France) asked how he 
could convince people to become members?  Maybe 
HQ could help local chapters with value 
proposition?  He also asked if ISOC had thought 
about having all members go through chapters only 
(with virtual and special interest chapters as 
well as geographic chapters).  Lynn responded yes 
but that the Board did not feel this was 
appropriate in light of previously stated 
principles that a percentage of the Trustees 
should be directly elected by Individual members. 
She also pointed out (later in the meeting) that 
there seemed to be some confusion over ISOC's 
model and that ISOC is not following a 
Constituency model.

Many asked that HQ work to be better connected to 
chapters and try to ensure diversity in our 
approaches.  A suggestion was made that we make 
more frequent use of survey tools to ensure that 
chapters and members have more of a voice. 
There was also a request that ISOC do more with 
multiple languages.

Richard St.Clair (ISOC Pacific Islands) stressed 
that we need to take into account developing 
country viewpoints in all we do.  There was 
strong agreement with this point.

Östen Frånberg (ISOC Sweden) stated that ECC was 
a good sisterhood effort and chapters should look 
for more similar opportunities for partnership.

Abdel Aziz Hilali (ISOC  Morocco) commented that 
he was founding member of Moroccan chapter and 
stated that it was difficult to find method to 
get money to HQ, and that this is often a bigger 
problem than the amount.  He also said that he 
gets questions wrt what the value is to the 
member of the $75 payment.  He also mentioned 
that ISOC Morocco has  300 - 400 members.

Veni Markovski (ISOC Trustee and ISOC Bulgaria) 
proposed that ISOC European chapters should work 
together, in consortiums, to apply for funding 
from the EU programs and also suggested that the 
Geneva office staff up to do the proposal writing 
rather than chapters.

The meeting closed with thanks to all who were 
present (especially given the very early start). 
It was also suggested by a Chapter member that 
while the open format was appropriate given 
recent activities; in future it would be more 
helpful to have specific agendas so that we could 
make concrete progress on key items.

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