[Chapter-delegates] ISOC Business Rules

[Franck Martin]

Vittorio,

I think we all have taken our liberties in the past with ISOC rules and
regulations, because ISOC HQ was busy focusing on saving itself from
financial doom. Keeping IETF alive was the top priority.

It was a time where Chapters and Individual members were not really
listened to, because of lack of resources. We all went our separate
ways. I agree Chapters and Individual membership is not well reflected
in ISOC decision structure. This is why after the BRIMS we need to go
over the Membership value and Membership Policy, but one step at a time.

I think we all know that Membership to ISOC for an individual is
mandatory before you are a Chapter Member. However we sometimes took the
liberty of not enforcing it, for the simple reason that fees collection
was real cumbersome and that sometimes we did not have the feeling of
participating in ISOC policy process. As a trustee, I wonder how many
chapters read the board minutes and provide feedback to trustees...

Organisational membership will have to be fixed too, but that's another
story for a little later.

With a free Global membership, I think cost is not the issue anymore.
Data privacy may be one, but then, ISOC follows privacy laws, and if you
join, then you agree to a certain number of policies and even code of
ethics. This is something that will have to be even clearer on the new
membership system. I'm not even sure that hosting the data in Geneva is
the solution, because I think ISOC servers are not in Reston nor Geneva
but co-located where Internet is fast.

The purpose, is to get something unified, because for the action of ISOC
to be meaningful it needs a unified support at all levels by its
membership after due consultation. Consultations that ISOC HQ is not yet
fully used to do, but there is progress here too.

I'm glad we have this discussion, because we need to share and
communicate more between ISOC HQ, and Chapters, and even between Chapters.

Also, I'd like to point out, ISOC membership is unique, but take three
other organisations that shape the Internet:
-www.ieee.org
-www.itu.int
-www.w3c.org

You will see that their membership rules are not as permissive as the
ISOC ones and everybody goes along with them.

At the moment we have 20,000+ individual members, but I don't know if
ISOC can say they have the support of so many people. If we prune a bit,
so be it, as long as we keep the ones that support the whole of ISOC and
all its principles (no chery picking here or we may give up on say
freedom of speech on the Internet).

We sure need to go via a transition period, but I don't see the new
membership system ready before the end of the year, so time to move step
by step and be involved in the whole process.

Cheers

Vittorio Bertola wrote:
> Terry Monroe ha scritto:
>   
>> The statement that ISOC chapter members must also be members of ISOC global
>> actually is a re-statement of current ISOC policy as captured in: “Policy on
>> the Establishment and Conduct of Chapters of the Internet Society” Doc.
>> 97-02 http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/prcchp.shtml, item #6.)
>> (Board approved document).  That policy states that "all members of a
>> chapter shall also be members of ISOC."
>>
>> Erkki has made an excellent point that individuals should be asked to make
>> an affirmative decision to join both ISOC Global and an ISOC Chapter.  Under
>> 1.1, an individual wanting to join an ISOC chapter also would be required to
>> agree to become an ISOC global member.
>>     
>
> We still haven't discussed the document so this is my personal take, but 
>   the principle you talk about has never been really adopted before. Our 
> chapter has several members who have joined us locally, because of our 
> local activities, but did not join ISOC global. We might suggest them to 
> do so, but what if some of them don't want? I would feel uncomfortable 
> in kicking someone out of our organization - maybe an active and 
> esteemed member - only because he/she isn't interested in joining ISOC 
> Global as well. After all, it's two different organizations, separately 
> incorporated - it's not like the local branch of a multinational.
>
> Are you sure that the advantage of a formalized double membership is 
> worth the risk of disenfranchising several people at the local level? 
> After all, even if they don't formally join the global membership, if 
> they're chapter members they're still in the ISOC loop and we can count 
> on them.
>
>   
>> As to the suggestion that an individual should have the opporutnity to
>> become an ISOC Global member by signing up through an ISOC chapter, that is
>> something we will consider during the membership system project (the current
>> ISOC Global membership system does not have this capability).  
>>     
>
> Most of our members renew their subscription in person, whenever one of 
> the Council members meets them at this or that public event. They pick 
> some money out of their purse and hand it on the spot, and that's all; 
> most of them never get to any Web interface or form of any kind.
>
> In this case, would we be able to subscribe them to ISOC Global (of 
> course once they accept the idea) without them having to remember to go 
> to a website and fill up a form?
>
> Also, I have some questions in regard to the use of the centralized 
> membership system, as exporting personal information out of the EU is 
> strictly regulated by law. Does ISOC comply with the Safe Harbor 
> provisions?
>
> Regards,
>   

-- 
Franck Martin
ICT Specialist
franck at sopac.org
SOPAC, Fiji
GPG Key fingerprint = 44A4 8AE4 392A 3B92 FDF9  D9C6 BE79 9E60 81D9 1320
"Toute connaissance est une reponse a une question" G.Bachelard

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