[Chapter-delegates] ISOC Elections result

[Hans P. Dittler]

Hi all,

having read around 100 mails dealing with this topic, I finally decided
to add my impressions to the conversation:

- I think the proposal of some kind of face-to-face meeting (like the
one Khaled is proposing) for chapters (or more likely people
representing chapters) is a very good and valuable one - even if it is
hard to achieve.
I am not certain why the existing meetings around conferences like IETF,
ICANN, RIPE, NANOG or other network-centric meetings are not used by
more members and chapters. Being to nearly 10 in person and nearly the
same number of chapter-meetings via marratech or telephone-call-in, I
keep always wondering why during most of the meetings less than 5
chapters are present, sometimes only 2 or 3.
A revival of INET seems too big and loaded with too much financial risk.
I used to be part of the organizers of Internet-conferences in the
mid-90s, OPENNET with ISOC.DE and the German INTERNET-Kongress until
2001. These big events around the Internet had several 100 with a peak
of 2200 attendees, but in the end they all died of lack of interest.
Today only small and focused events localized to the area attract
people. This is even more true, when international travelling is
involved.

- there have been a lot of new projects and a lot of new (or
re-appearing) ideas around. I hope the SPHERE process will help for
better and more productive communication and better understanding
(especially - but not only - between staff and chapters).

- perhaps one of the possible results of SPHERE could be a new and
better way of making the voices of members and chapters heard by the
Board and the staff. Communication now is based to a large part on
personal or individual direct communication. With so many members and
chapters there should be better ways. 

- finally - I think the board members (including the 3 selected by
chapters) are doing their job very good. Having been as a guest to
several board-meetings (yes they are open!) and having talked to many of
them, they all have ISOC in all different aspects on their minds, and
that is a lot more than chapters only.
And as it is in every large company in the world - the board meets only
a few times a year with a very tight and packed schedule - the work
during the rest of the time is done by the staff from the inside and by
the workforce (in our case chapters and members) from the outside.
If nothing at all or impossible things are requested, there will be no
solution. If nothing is asked, there will be no answers - communication
is necessary and has improved a lot during the last years - but could
still be improved a lot more.



Hans Peter Dittler
Member of the board
ISOC.DE
Internet Society German Chapter e.V