[Chapter-delegates] An invitation to the Webinar re. LoA/Dashboard and New Tools available

Tue Mar 13 01:44:56 PDT 2012

Dear Anne, 

Can I second your recommendation chapters have someone engage in the webinars?

The main value for me is to get some background to stuff that is difficult to communicate by list or formal documentation.

They can also provide a more conversational dialogue to help understand why as well as what, when who etc. Thirty minutes on a call can save hours maybe days of flogging misunderstandings. 

Incidentally at the appropriate time I'd very much welcome such a dialogue focussed on practical stuff such as the web.. Tools .. Integration topic or at least pencil a date for my forward planning diary.

Best

Christian

Christian de Larrinaga

On 13 Mar 2012, at 03:52, Anne Lord <lord at isoc.org> wrote:

> Hi Norbert, All,
> 
> Thank you for your email gathering the feedback made on this list.   This is very helpful and it is important, so I thank everyone who has to date, provided feedback.
> 
> Let me step back a second and explain some more about the webinars.    They are an outreach effort designed to bring Chapter officers up to speed on how we got here, to explain what the chapter affiliation and support programme is, what the components of it are (supporting dashboards, guide), and to offer an opportunity for review and feedback from as many Chapter officers as possible.
> 
> This is actually very important. We are putting a substantial effort towards ensuring that we are being as inclusive as we can by trying to hear from as many Chapter leaders as possible.  We are providing the webinars on a regional basis, offering different timeslots. If people are unable to make any of the offered timeslots we are asking them to get in touch with us.  This process will continue until we have reached representatives of the majority of Chapters.  It does not replace written feedback or formal review.  I personally would not be comfortable changing this path until we have had the opportunity to speak with more Chapter representatives. We are hoping to finish this by the end of April.
> 
> If you have specific suggestions for improvements in the form of text, alternative wording etc, we will happily receive it for consideration. To that end, we have already received some suggestions (thank you!).  After we have collated the feedback, it will be reviewed in the context of expression across the entire community of Chapter officers, and will incorporate changes where we can before putting the document out (in whatever form) for a final review and translation from the Chapter community.
> 
> The points about membership and bylaws made by Christian, Veni and Christopher are noted as part of the feedback and are being considered as part of the bylaws review. However I am not going to try to provide answers here or second guess the work of the bylaws committee. I do understand that the committee will make available the results of its deliberations to the members in draft format for comment soon.   Notwithstanding, we are continuing with the webinars, in order ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to be heard.
> 
> I encourage anyone who has not yet joined a webinar, to join one as soon as they receive an invitation. Norbert,  I hope you can join one of the three webinar slots to which you were recently invited.  We are trying to roll these out as extensively as we can.  To all those that have provided feedback - thank you for your ongoing help!
> 
> Best wishes
> 
> Anne
> --
> 
> On 06/03/2012, at 11:03 PM, nhklein wrote:
> 
>> Hi Everybody,
>> 
>> after having been cut off technically since yesterday for one day (local problems), I am responding to some mails which came in in the meantime – as my final contribution to the list before the webinar in about 3 hours. Of course the webinar will be an opportunity to talk things over – but, as has been said in so many postings on the Chapter-Delegates list, there are quite a number of fundamental issues which need clarification of a nature more serious than can be dealt with in a series of different webinars, where there will be different participants every time.
>> 
>> As the mail from Christian de Larrinaga – down here – says, there are problems which need to be clarified with all concerned, before it is possible to respond to some details:
>> 
>> = = =
>> I am clear that before the local board can seriously engage with this issue it would be important to know how ISOC views the status of its own members.
>> 
>> What is an ISOC global member?
>> 
>> - in relation to a chapter that member signed up for through the ISOC site
>> - in relation to ISOC (voting rights etc)
>> - in relation to chapter members who signed up directly at the local internet society organisation service.
>> = = =
>> Some clarity over the intended status of members of ISOC is absolutely crucial to how chapters need to respond. I think this is a matter for the Trustees and if Staff are engaged...
>> = = =
>> 
>> I appreciate also that Anne Lord joined now the debate, helping us all to understand some of the pre-history of where we find ourselves now all of sudden.
>> 
>> But I say consciously “all of a sudden” because this history had been broken off a long time ago - and as Christopher Wilkinson reminded us recently, there had been quite some efforts not to let this history break:
>> 
>> = = =
>> 1. When the staff receive substantive input from Chapters and members (e.g. the London November 2010 Chapter workshop), then an alternative proposal should be sent for consultation within three or four weeks. The LoA episode, with more than a year's silence from the staff, is not acceptable.
>> 
>> 2. Most of your interlocutors are elected delegates from their Chapters or other entities (e.g. ISOC-ECC). Accordingly this is really inappropriate:
>> 
>> > requested not to forward it further until we have heard and incorporated your feedback.
>> 
>> Whether delegates consult their authorities or their members is their decision. Not a question for the staff.
>> 
>> 3. When the staff state that an issue has been <<approved by ISOC>>, this should be associated, in advance, with a schedule for the relevant decision by the Board of Trustees, with opportunity for Chapters and members to provide timely input. Clearly, on matters of institutional and political significance, a simple e-mail from a staff member does not constitute "approval" by ISOC.
>> = = =
>> 
>> I did not see that Christopher and ISOC-ECC got any response on this list.
>> 
>> And I do not list up here the various efforts I made on this list to get responses.
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks, Anne, for sharing information on the following plans:
>> 
>> > The webinars are being rolled out twice a week for as long as it takes.  There is no "rush", and I apologise if it seems this way.  If you cant make this weeks webinar, we will invite you to another.
>> 
>> Until now, I had not been aware at all that you intend these webinars with varying participants to continue twice a week into some future. I really had the impression that there was a rush, with a quick sequence of changes between two-slot and three-slot and two-slot Doodle options, just for this one week.
>> 
>> Regardless of process, with such enormous diversity across the Chapters and particular situations, I fully anticipate that there will be a small number who will not be entirely in agreement with the details. What we are seeking is a balance across the diversity of opinions, noting that it will be impossible to satisfy everyone.
>> 
>> This makes me again state that I obviously misunderstood the intention of having a LoA officially rolled out which would include provisions to discontinue the status of a Chapter as affiliated  (without an appeal process). If this is really the intention, we would need a text which goes beyond providing a balance of diverse opinions, but something we can trust in situations of crisis and conflict.
>> 
>> As Prof. ANG Peng Hwa's comment also shows, he – like myself and many others – did not understand some important goals in the way they showed up on the Chapter list:
>> 
>> >> I appreciate that you have a rather heavy email traffic volume but a paragraph or two in explanatory text, even in seemingly redundant communication (we need redundant communication to communicate) will be helpful. And, as in this case, could eventually save you more work.
>> 
>> 
>> And as John Moore remarked:
>> 
>> 
>> >> I think the Affiliation Agreement is an extremely important document.  It goals are laudable -- to strengthen the Internet Society and the Chapters by creating accountability. However, I don't think that Chapters have been brought into the process (at least from what I have been able to see). Further, as I remember the Bylaws of the Society needed revisions to go along with the Affiliation Agreement.  It does not appear that these revisions have been made.
>> >>
>> >> I had provided comments on an earlier version of the Affiliation Agreement about a year ago.  Then I heard nothing more  In a quick review of this document I find that it still contains major flaws. I do not see how Chapters can be asked to sign on without having had a chance for the Chapter governing bodies to have some input.
>> >>
>> >> I will make only a couple of major points, some of which I made before.
>> >>
>> >> There is no mechanism for resolving a dispute...
>> 
>> >> As it stands, I would have to recommend to our Chapter's governing board that it not sign the Agreement as written.
>> 
>> I collected these random point to explain again why I had written
>> 
>> >> I have now signed in to be available at one of the two Doodle time slots – but I did so with some reluctance.
>> 
>> I had elaborated on the reasons with specific points, some of which do not fit into a series of webinars where twice a week for quit some time different people will raise some points – while we do not have a common platform to clarify the basis on which we supposedly stand together.
>> 
>> 
>> Norbert
>> ISOC Cambodia Chapter
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> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Anne Lord,                                 <lord at isoc.org>
> Director of Chapters               http://www.isoc.org
> Internet Society     "The Internet is for everyone"
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