[Chapter-delegates] ISOC Business Plan and Budget - Chapter representation and participation.

[Christopher Wilkinson]

Good afternoon:

We have just had an extensive discussion about the relationship  
between Internet Society Chapters, ISOC staff and with the Board of  
Trustees.
I would now like to revert to the starting point, which was the role  
of the Chapters as presented in the Business Plan and Budget, 2011-2013.

First, a general comment: I have seen on more than one occasion the  
staff view that <<Trustees are on the ISOC Chapter Delegates list and  
therefore in receipt of your comments.>> Which reads very much  like  
<<Thankyou. You have been ignored>>. Frankly, that is not good enough.  
When a Chapter or a group of Chapters make substantive comments within  
a consultation, initiated by the staff, then we expect an equally  
substantive _reply_ either from the Trustees or from the senior staff  
concerned.

In addition, to render the internal consultation process more  
transparent, efficient and constructive, the staff could be invited to  
provide the Board with a summary of comments received during on-line  
consultations on each major topic or document, with an indication as  
to whether these comments have been taken into account, or not, as the  
case may be. That would have the advantage of ensuring - for us all -  
that the Trustees know what has been said in the consultation. It  
would also permit the Chapters to know what comments and advice the  
Board and staff are receiving from ISOC members (organisational,  
individual  . . . )

More specifically, during recent months, I have made several proposals  
to which there has been no response, to date:

1.	Chapter membership of the Internet Society:	 Following a discussion  
of the Affiliation agreement proposal after the London INET, I  
proposed that the Bylaws could be amended to provide for the  
membership of the Chapters.
I believe that this is being considered by the ISOC Executive Staff. I  
do not know whether this has yet been considered by the Board.  
(Contrariwise, if the formal position today is that Chapters are NOT  
members of the Internet Society, that might go some way towards  
explaining part of the current malaise.)

May I recall that I consider that it is quite anomalous that the  
Chapters appear not to be members of ISOC and even more curious that  
the Bylaws do not provide for the voting rights of any of the  
categories of membership, as required by the Articles of Incorporation.

2.	Affiliation agreements:	In the light of strong reservations that  
had been expressed, I had made specific proposals to amend the formal  
structure of the proposed affiliation agreements, in order to get us  
out of this impasse. Apart from the matter apparently being still  
under consideration by the Sphere group, I do not know where the  
Chapters now stand.

3.	Business Plan and Budget:	I have responded (twice) to the  
invitation to comment on this document, including suggestions for  
policy regarding the Bureaus and explicit requests for changes in the  
language relating to Chapters. I note that these have all been  
ignored, to date, without explanation.

In conclusion, regarding bottom-up processes:	Some chapters would  
prefer that ISOC staff would engage in more thorough consultation  
before finalising policy statements. This is particularly the case  
when the subject matter has a regional or national dimension. This  
approach could be applied to underlying policy issues in a timely  
manner. Clearly, Trustees, senior staff and other ISOC representatives  
cannot do this in every case particularly where very short third party  
deadlines are concerned.

I trust that these matters may be resolved positively early in the New  
Year.

With the Season's greetings and best wishes to you all,

Regards,

Christopher Wilkinson
Chair, ISOC-ECC