[Chapter-delegates] Comments on draft Affiliation Agreement - CW
Christopher Wilkinson
cw at christopherwilkinson.eu
Mon Sep 6 10:08:55 PDT 2010
Dear Anne Lord and colleagues:
I wish to come back to the draft Affiliation agreement which you have
recently re-published.
Admittedly, I have not followed this discussion closely in recent
months, not least because I had thought that the outstanding questions
had been adequately set out by ISOC Chennai last July.
However, it would appear that the same issues persist, so please allow
me to make some additional comments.
Let me say, up front, that all Internet Society members want the
Chapters to be effective, expanding and accountable, and that many of
the performance standards and other criteria mentioned in the draft
text are of great interest. The question is how best to achieve this:
1. Having re-read the ISOC Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws, I
find that - surprisingly - the category of membership of Internet
Society Chapters is not yet recognised. I would suggest that before we
go any further with this exercise, and particularly in the light of
the Board of Trustees' decisions to enhance the role of the Chapters
within the Internet Society, that we should begin with an appropriate
amendment to the Bylaws providing for and recognising Chapter
membership of ISOC.
2. The draft text presupposes an artificial dichotomy between ISOC and
individual Chapters. If the Chapters are an integral part of ISOC,
then one cannot reasonably ask them to enter into a formal agreement
with themselves. Recall that for most of our individual members, their
Chapter IS the Internet Society. Also, it is not clear who would
represent ISOC in such an agreement.
3. Most Chapters are incorporated under national Not-For-Profit, or
equivalent legislation. Before starting a process of negotiation aimed
at obtaining a number of such Affiliation Agreements, world-wide, I
would suggest that ISOC acquire information as to the scope for our
Chapters to enter into international private agreements of this kind.
Also, we should bear in mind that each Chapter's elected leadership is
primarily subject to the internal control and assent of its
membership. Accordingly it may not be wise to try and impose,
externally and contractually, such performance standards and criteria,
whatever their objective merits.
Consequently I would recommend that the Spheres Labels group
investigate the alternative of transforming this draft Affiliation
Agreement into a bilateral exchange of letters between the President
of the Chapter concerned and the Chair of the Board of Trustees.
4. The draft agreement's excursion into Intellectual Property ("ISOC
IP") is bound to raise some questions. No doubt the Internet Society
would wish to restrain eventual abuse of our Logo (although I am not
aware of any such case). However, the "goodwill" associated with the
Internet Society largely pertains to our Chapters in their respective
geographical areas. It is not appropriate to suggest that such "IP"
automatically accrues to ISOC.
5. Implementation: The negotiation, monitoring and sanctioning of such
agreements world-wide could occupy significant staff resources over a
period of years. I am not sure that this is a priority for ISOC. I
would of course defer to the Board of Trustees in this particular
matter.
In any event, I would request that the deadline for additional
comments be extended from 16 September to 4 October, or thereafter,
following the INET and Chapters meetings in London.
Regards,
Christopher Wilkinson.
-----------------------
On 03 Sep 2010, at 07:12, Anne Lord wrote:
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I have previously posted to this list (see below) information and an
> invitation to contribute to the ongoing work in the Sphere Labels
> group. The group is helping to define a minimum set of expectations
> about what it means to be an Internet Society Chapter, which are
> captured in a draft Affiliation Agreement. This is one piece of the
> work to revise the Chapter Policies and Procedures.
>
> The draft Agreement has had review and feedback from members of the
> Sphere Labels discussion list, the Chapter Taskforce, the Lawyers
> and the ISOC Executive team. All the project information (version 2
> of the draft , a summary of feedback, responses from the Taskforce
> and Lawyers and the next steps are available at http://wiki.chapters.isoc.org/tiki-index.php?page=Sphere+Project
>
> We would be very happy if you would like to comment on the revised
> draft Affiliation Agreement. To do so, please join the conversation
> on the sphere labels mailing list. To join the list, simply send
> email to <chapter-support at isoc.org> or visit https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/sphere-labels
> . The deadline for comments is 16th September.
>
> Sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed to this work so far.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Anne (on behalf of the Chapter Taskforce).
> --
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: Anne Lord <lord at isoc.org>
>> Date: 8 June 2010 2:15:48 PM
>> To: Chapter Delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
>> Subject: Invitation to join Sphere Labels group (draft Affiliation
>> Agreement discussion).
>>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> Many of you may be aware that work is underway in the Sphere Labels
>> group to review and revise the current Chapter Policies and
>> Procedures at: http://www.isoc.org/isoc/chapters/policy/.
>> There have been a series of conversations about what it means to be
>> a successful Chapter, all of which are archived at: http://wiki.chapters.isoc.org/tiki-index.php?page=Titles+Labels+Images&bl=y
>> .
>>
>> The goal of the work in the Sphere labels group is to develop a
>> framework in the form of an Affiliation Agreement that shapes a
>> partnership between ISOC Global and the ISOC Chapters which ensures
>> a truly symbiotic exchange of value between both parties and makes
>> a meaningful contribution to the overarching mission of the
>> organization as a whole.
>>
>> If you are interested to join this discussion you are invited to
>> join the Sphere Labels group. You can subscribe to the mailing
>> list by going to: https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/sphere-labels
>> or simply email <chapter-support @ isoc.org>.
>>
>> Recent Activity:
>>
>> The group is currently discussing a draft "Affiliation Agreement"
>> which is the output of a face to face meeting of the Chapter
>> taskforce that met on April 27 and 28. Comments are invited on the
>> document at: http://wiki.chapters.isoc.org/tiki-view_blog.php?blogId=5
>> from until June 30th. If you would like to participate in this
>> discussion, we would invite you to join Sphere Labels.
>>
>> best wishes
>> Anne
>> (on behalf of the Sphere Labels group)
>> ---
>>
>>
>>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Anne Lord, Senior Manager <lord at isoc.org>
> Chapter & Individual Memberships http://www.isoc.org
> Internet Society (ISOC) "The Internet is for everyone"
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates
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