[Chapter-delegates] 2010 'Chapter Development' Planning

[Veni Markovski]

Thank you, Anne, and congratulations on the work done so far!
Your efforts, and the efforts of all the ISOC staff, who are dealing with
the chapters are highly appreciated (not last, because the chapters sometime
give you hard time;-)
I looked through the PDF, and wanted to contribute some ideas in the message
below.



On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 12:15 AM, Anne Lord <lord at isoc.org> wrote:

> through programme efforts like the Community Grants programme and the
> Events Funding, we have tried to promote Chapter success stories.


... in the case of ISOC DC Greater area, this was successful. Would be good
to hear news from ISOC about other regions/countries, where the Events
Funding helped.


> In 2010, we would like to continue with the priorities you identified for
> 2009 within the framework of the Chapter Development Plan.


It might be worth asking the chapters again what they consider important,
because there are two years between the survey in 2008, and 2010. The
Internet is changing faster...



> Based on feedback we received throughout the year about the importance of
> regional needs and communication (which has impacted ISOC's overall business
> strategy), we would like to provide a more regional focus, meeting and
> talking to the Chapters from all corners of the Chapter world.


This is great news! Please, can you also put some attention not only on
meetings and talking to chapters, but supporting initiatives at the local
level. There are some issues, where only chapters can help - e.g. changing
national legislation, provide expertise to Parliaments, Cabinets, etc.
An idea worth considering, IMHO, is to talk to George Sadowsky and see if
ISOC could support the Global Internet Policy Initiative, to be performed by
ISOC chapters, rather than through the model of GIPI country coordinators.


> The Travel Fellowship Programme will be expanded to support "Chapter
> workshops" where gatherings of Chapter leaders will be held regionally, like
> the recent workshop in Delhi held alongside the INET meeting.


Very good news! Please, consider organizing such events parallel to other
meetings - e.g. IETF, ICANN, IGF.


face-to-face meetings and mailing list discussions in order to 'share our
> success'. We would also like to take a bolder step in promoting and
> recognising the good work done by Chapters, by developing, with your help, a
> Chapters Awards Programme.
>

Is this to be some kind of a Jon Postel award for chapters? If that's the
case, this also sounds like a great idea!


> There is plenty of scope for continued improvement to be made in 2010 and
> much to be done. To accomplish the work, we rely on your feedback and help.
> Please tell us if we are missing anything or if you feel feedback from the
> surveys last year do not correctly reflect today’s priorities (
> http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/docs/nov2008/chapters-individual-members.pdf).
>  We would be very happy to hear from you, on or off list at <
> chapter-support at isoc.org>.
>

A topic that shows up on the radar every year is the governance structure of
ISOC. Chapters have raised the questions every once in a while - that is,
that there are about 80 chapters and 80 organizational members, but the
chapters elect only 3 Trustees, while the org members - 6. This is a
historic division from the time the org members were paying ISOC's expenses
through their membership fees, but today they only bring about 5 % of the
budget, while the rest comes from PIR. PIR was built on the idea that the
money from .org registrations will be used for the public benefit, and would
not cover expenses of ISOC. This seems to have changed throughout the years,
and hence the suggestion to think in change of the Board governance
structure. A little more transparency and openness on the Board level might
serve ISOC better.

Again - congratulations!

Best,
Veni
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