[Chapter-delegates] Notes from Chapter and Members Meeting, Lisbon 29th March

Franck Martin franck at sopac.org
Thu Apr 12 04:27:44 PDT 2007


Interesting minutes, but who was this "it" ?

And this ISOC, is that ISOC, or ISOC Secretariat, or ISOC Staff ?

Thanks to clarify the minutes.

Anne Lord wrote:
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> Attached below are the notes from the recent Chapter and Members  
> Meeting on 29th March in Lisbon, Portugal. Thank you to all those who  
> participated in the meeting. Comments are welcome.  I will also post  
> the notes from the Prague meeting very soon.  Both sets of notes will  
> also be available on the wiki.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Anne
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Anne Lord, Senior Manager                             <lord at isoc.org>
> Chapter & Individual Memberships                  http://www.isoc.org
> Internet Society (ISOC)                "The Internet is for everyone"
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Chapters and Members Meeting
> Lisbon, 29 March 2007
>
> Attendees:
>
> ISOC
> 	Karen Rose,
> 	Sebastian Bellagamba
> 	Anne Lord (by phone)
>
> ISOC chapters
> 	Alejandro Pisanty, (ISOC Mexico)
> 	Veni Markovski (ISOC Bulgaria)
> 	Sebastian Bachollet  (ISOC France)
> 	Rudi Vansnick  (ISOC Belgium)
> 	Victor Ciza (ISOC Burundi)
> 	Didier Kasole (ISOC DRC)
> 	Baudouin Schombe (ISOC DRC)
> 	Aziz Hilali  (ISOC Morocco)
> 	Christopher Wilkinson  (ISOC Wallonie)
> 	Norbert Klein  (ISOC-Cambodia In formation)
> 	Patrick Vande Walle  (ISOC Luxembourg)
> 	Yaovi Atohoun  (ISOC Benin)
> 	Khaled Koubaa  (ISOC Tunisia)
> 	Osten Franberg (ISOC Sweden)
> 	Stefano Trumpy (ISOC Italy)
> 	Peter Koch (ISOC Germany – by phone)
> 	Hans Dittler (ISOC Germany – by phone)
>
> Apologies
> Lynn St.Amour was unable to attend as she was required at a PIR  
> meeting and the conflict was unavoidable.
> Note: Those joining by phone were not connected until after the  
> meeting had commenced.
>
> 1. Welcome and introductions
>
> All those present at the meeting briefly introduced themselves by  
> stating their name and affiliation.
>
> 2. Update on ISOC priorities for 2007 – Karen Rose
>
> Karen Rose gave a presentation on the priorities for ISOC in 2007 and  
> opened the floor for questions.
>
> 3. Comments and questions
>
> During the presentation the educational project to translate key ISOC  
> documents was introduced. While the project was met with support,  
> concern was expressed about the cost of translations. It was  
> explained that working group(s) would be formed and it was the task  
> of the working group(s) to identify which documents have priority to  
> be translated and (hopefully) that there would also be volunteers to  
> assist with actual translations.
>
> There was a comment that the project did not have to translate all  
> the material at once, and that it would be a step-by-step approach.   
> It was suggested to use small face to face working group meetings  
> with chapters to help to try to focus on the work over for example a  
> three day period. It was observed that there was considerable energy  
> from the chapters to assist with multi-lingualism projects and that  
> this was appreciated.
>
> There was a comment that it will be essential for the educational  
> translation project to not only addresses the translation of key ISOC  
> documents, but also the use of training, informative, and educational  
> materials produced by the Chapters or identified by the Chapters in  
> their environment, thus inviting a more proactive participation by  
> the Chapters themselves and the chance to showcase their resources.
>
> There was a question as to the budget for chapter development. This  
> was not answered at the time as it was not known by the ISOC staff  
> present and it will be followed up in a separate email to the chapter  
> delegates list.
>
> Action: Anne to mail the chapter delegates list concerning the budget  
> for chapter development.
>
> It was commented that there has been a lot of ‘history’ with respect  
> to ISOC and the chapters, and that it was recognised that  
> collectively (both the Secretariat staff and the Chapters) ISOC is  
> now more ably placed to deliver.  There was specific mention of the  
> ISOC membership system and hope was expressed that ISOC and the  
> chapters are able to work closely in partnership going forward.
>
> ISOC responded by confirming that there is a commitment from staff to  
> provide value to chapters and to work closely with chapters. It was  
> commented that there was no quick fix, but rather an incremental and  
> step-by-step approach would be needed with equal participation from  
> both chapters and from ISOC staff in partnership.
>
> Action: Anne to mail the chapter delegates list concerning intentions  
> regarding the membership system and project plans.
>
> It was commented that a number of chapters have joined the ICANN  
> RALO’s – out  of 11 (ALS) organizations in the African RALO, 9 were  
> ISOC Chapters.
>
> There was a request to allow participants to speak in their native  
> language at the meeting with offers of those present to translate at  
> the mike.
>
> It was commented that it was important for everyone to work together  
> more effectively to exchange information etc. to work towards a  
> stronger ISOC in the future. It was reaffirmed from staff that this  
> is a goal and that ISOC is now better staffed than ever before.
>
> There was a comment that ISOC France had supported ISOC Benin in 2002  
> with finance and that it is necessary to think how the ISOC chapters  
> can be different from other associations. Once a chapter is approved,  
> how can it be ensured that they become strong and vibrant.  It was  
> suggested that there should be a requirement for a chapter to have a  
> minimum amount of activity or a minimum set of requirements to adhere  
> too, such as one to two meetings a year.
>
> It was commented that it is important for the logos of the chapters  
> to be standardised.  As part of a professional organization we need  
> to have a consistent look and feel – it is very important.
>
> In reviewing these minutes, Lynn St Amour wished to add that there is  
> a standard logo and trademark policy and failure to use that could  
> invalidate the ISOC trademark. These will be put on-line.
>
> Related to this it was mentioned that it has been suggested in the  
> past that there could be an “Awards” programme for example for the  
> best chapter of the year and that this could motivate chapters.
>
> ISOC commented that the need for greater communication between the  
> chapters and the Secretariat is recognised. She also asked how the  
> chapters manage communications to their members and how inter-chapter  
> communication can be best facilitated?  There was a comment that  
> there was a need to provide training to use tools like the ‘wiki’s  
> and ‘marratech’.  It was observed that it would be good to  
> standardise on communications tools used.
>
> Christopher Wilkinson (ISOC Belgium Wallonia) referred to the recent  
> request from the ISOC Chair concerning up-dating the Internet Briefs  
> and suggested that it would be useful to publish a new Internet Brief  
> on Communication Tools, because many individual members (including  
> himself) did not have access to up-to-date tools or know how to use  
> them. In Prague  ‘Marratech’ – remote conferencing software was used  
> and this was successful. There was a query as to why it was not used  
> at this meeting. It was answered that ‘Marratech’ was actually in  
> test and had not been officially deployed yet. However, if the  
> testing is successful then it will certainly be used to facilitate  
> remote participation with other meetings during the year.
>
> ISOC is trying to address some of these areas with the Regional  
> Bureau approach which allow for a far higher level of personal  
> contact and communication in languages other than English with the  
> chapters. It is early days but the results are good so far!
>
> There was a suggestion to hold a general meeting of all chapter  
> delegates at Rio or before. It was suggested that one individual from  
> each chapter could be paid for at the IGF meeting.  This is currently  
> being investigated.  There was a question regarding the coordination  
> of chapters in preparation for the IGF meeting in Rio de Janeiro in  
> November.   Matthew Shears (who is currently working part time) will  
> be co-ordinating this.
>
> It was suggested that it would be good to share information about  
> local chapter activities and the chapter wiki is a medium for this.  
> Email will be sent soon by the Education team to ask for volunteers  
> from among the chapters to be part of a project (mentioned at the  
> beginning of the meeting) which will look at how we collectively  
> manage the information resources that are available to us with a view  
> to translating these materials to make them more accessible.
>
> It was noted that Chapters are volunteer organisations many of whom  
> have membership fees and many that do not. However it was commented  
> that funding is often an issue as chapters have expenses that exceed  
> revenues in connection with running their chapters: expenses often  
> associated with running events, developing promotional materials,  
> sending mailouts, administering membership dues etc. It was felt that  
> this was an important issue and there was a need for ISOC to consider  
> the issue of funding to chapters.
>
> ISOC (Karen Rose) summarised by thanking everyone for attending the  
> meeting and contributing to a very useful discussion. She also  
> commented that she felt the real value of the meeting was the open  
> dialogue between chapters that was facilitated. The dialogue had been  
> wide ranging with discussions on everything from standards,  
> relationships and multilingualism. There were many process and  
> content issues highlighted along with many differing views. She  
> commented that it was necessary to ‘bed down’ some of the mechanisms  
> for communications which may then improve things on a number of  
> levels as we go forward together.
>
> 4. Next meeting
>
> There will be chapter meetings in conjunction with the upcoming  
> Afrinic and LACNIC meetings.  There will also be a chapter meeting  
> around the June ICANN meeting in Puerto Rico.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chapter-delegates mailing list
> Chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
> http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates
>   

-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Franck Martin
franck at sopac.org
"Toute connaissance est une réponse à une question"
G. Bachelard





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