[Chapter-delegates] Comments on draft Affiliation Agreement - CW
Anne Lord
lord at isoc.org
Sat Sep 11 06:54:19 PDT 2010
[Apologies for any cross posting]
Dear Christopher,
Many thanks for your comments on the revised draft Affiliation
Agreement. They are much appreciated. I wont respond in detail here,
because the comments are for the Chapter Taskforce (a mixture of 4
chapter leaders and 3 staff) to consider, along with all the other
feedback received.
However, the request for an extension to the deadline, does require a
more immediate answer. After consultation with the Chapter Taskforce I
am happy to inform you that the deadline is extended to 22nd October.
Up to that point, the Chapter Taskforce will consider all input
received, from *any* source. We will however, proceed with obtaining
translations as per our original plan, after September 16th. The
translations will be sent to the chapter delegates list and to every
chapter officer for additional review and feedback (deadline 22nd
October).
With my staff hat on, I will add one comment, which I hope is helpful.
The purpose of the Affiliation Agreement is to establish a clear basis
for the value exchange between Chapters and ISOC Global. It focuses
on *what* is getting done to support the ISOC mission, rather than
*how*, leaving the 'how' to the Chapter. While Chapters are an
integral and organic component of ISOC Global and the working
relationship is collaborative, many are (as you note below),
independently incorporated legal entities, as is ISOC Global. An
Affiliation Agreement is required to formalize the relationship
between those legal entities. In the association world, Affiliation
Agreements such as this, are commonplace, and the usual way to
structure the Chapter-Global relationship.
Thank you again for your feedback to the Chapter Taskforce and Sphere
Labels group.
Best wishes,
Anne
--
On 07/09/2010, at 3:08 AM, Christopher Wilkinson wrote:
> 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 & Individual Memberships http://www.isoc.org
Internet Society (ISOC) "The Internet is for everyone"
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