[Chapter-delegates] Application to form a Chapter in Belgrade, Serbia

[Vittorio Bertola]

Alan Levin ha scritto:
> Dear Sabrina and others,
> 
> My apologies that this is a day late, hopefully it still counts.

I am catching up with the list and I just discovered this story. It is 
now too late to submit comments, but to me this episode seems to suggest 
that there could be some attempt to bridge differences, or, at least, 
that the claims of Dr. Vasiljevic should be investigated. It would be 
very dangerous to ISOC if anyone could even just claim that ISOC-HQ has 
interfered with matters pertaining to delegation of a ccTLD in a 
sovereign country, especially in an international context which is 
politically very delicate, with Kosovo just getting independent from 
Serbia with the support of the US. I know Desiree and I have absolute 
trust in what she does, and one could imagine (even if this is just a 
guess) that this is a case of different mindsets and that if people are 
forming a new chapter it is because they really don't get well along 
with the existing one, but whatever ISOC does in this case, be sure that 
it cannot be used to fire back against ISOC in contexts such as the IGF, 
or suggest that ISOC-HQ is helping to "take away" an existing ccTLD.

Generally speaking, it is true that, in many countries, forming a "city 
chapter" might be a way to pursue personal agendas. For example, you 
want to become Chairman of the national chapter, you fail, and as a 
retaliation you gather some friends and form another chapter calling it 
a "city chapter". Or, you realize that the national chapter, drawing on 
its work and on the overall prestige of ISOC, has gained a reputation 
with the government, so you form your own chapter to gain credibility 
with politicians and seek political support for your career or your 
business.

In the end, this is damaging for ISOC and for the local Internet 
community, and so I think that in these cases HQ should first of all 
seek support by the national chapter (in normal situations, that would 
be the case); if this cannot be obtained, it should foster dialogue 
between the existing national chapter and the proposers of the new 
chapter to see whether an agreement can be reached; in the end, it 
should create the new chapter only if there is really no chance to 
reconcile the positions and if strong local support - not just a couple 
of people getting 20 unaware friends to sign up - can be verified.
-- 
vb.                   Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu   <--------
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