[Chapter-delegates] LoA for good or bad?

[David Vyorst]

Klaus ++1, and "Like"!

You hit several nails squarely on the head. Let me elaborate.

I have not read the LoA or reviewed the slides. It is enough of a challenge
for me trying to build the DC chapter up from death to becoming a vibrant
and influential organization that will have a real impact in DC, while
running my own company. My colleague, our treasurer and attorney, John
More, read the draft and advised us that in its present form he could not
let the chapter sign it. The point is that it is a real challenge for
professionals who are volunteers to find time to do these things that ISOC
expects the chapters do to as enthusiastic members fighting for a noble
cause. And this I think is where the bubble is.

I will stay out of the organizational argument and leave that to others for
now, but the real issue is to what extent ISOC wants to be a "chapter
driven" organization and to what ends? To this end, I wish that I could
require everyone involved in Chapter affairs to learn "The Logic of
Collective Action"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Collective_Action
I would gladly provide the seminar.

I was going to open this email with a joke: "oh you meant büros, not
burros!" because the point that Klaus makes so well is that chapters need
resources not directives. The Chapters are ISOC's connection to the public
and to Internet communities regionally. While ISOC does work essential to
the future of the Internet, few know about it. The Chapters are the only
way that ISOC will generate engagement and awareness and build
constituencies. A large amount of the distrust growing between chapters
towards HQ is because of the feeling that HQ views chapters as burros and
not partners. Obviously there needs to be an updated, living institutional
framework to optimize this relationship, and that framework should be
geared towards the organization's objectives, and outcomes.

There are no real tangible incentives for people to become members, more
so, to become active members. In our chapter, although we have about 1,400
"members" 5 people  do 100% of the work, and the number of active members
is debatable. The AMS to us is just an extra work step. MailChimp pretty
much does everything we need within our current context for free, and it is
much more robust and easy to use. The free membership for your email does
provide some additional draw, but there are so many better ways to do it.

Yet even with these limitations we have been able to do some impressive
things, but without a real partnership and resources of the type Klaus
describes, there is only so much we can do.

John More, Michael Nelson and I are available and eager be part of this
process. We offer a viewpoint from the trenches which we believe will help
a lot.

David Vyorst
Co-Convener
DC Chapter




And why don't ISOC provide a substantial
> share of the local corporate members fee to chapters who work
> in their region - covering their Internet concerns too? Why don't we
> even get a database excerpt for corporate members in our region?
> Who represents the company to ISOC? Would be very helpful in
> acquiring sponsoring means. IS there a need to protect corporate
> members from their chapters?

On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 9:39 AM, President ISOC-KH <president at isoc-kh.org>wrote:

> Thanks a lot, Klaus and Veni, Borka and Ed, for your analysis and
> proposals.
>
> When I started to plan for a Cambodia Chapter of ISOC, I still had the
> image of ISOC as I knew it from the support we had received from the
> Internet Society, provided through the Montreal INET in 1996 for persons
> from “countries in the early stages of internetworking” – and it was only
> during the last years that I became aware that ISOC had changed in its
> setup.
>
> Your wording, Klaus - “Chapters are subgroups of members. They are not an
> unpaid extension of the staff” - and that is paid ISOC staff. This points
> to a fundamental problem with which we struggle in our Cambodian
> environment since the beginning. There is support for projects, but not for
> building up a chapter and support its growth. We started with 25 members in
> September 2010, we steadily grew to 98 at present. But we have not yet any
> solution for the future in view of my intended resignation after two years
> in leadership – to replace a foreigner by a national - as I do also most of
> the ongoing secretarial and relationship building work. – Nobody is around
> yet who is in a position and prepared to do what I did unpaid (while I -
> not any company or organization - provide  office equipment and pay for
> operations, Internet access costs, local travel – plus my time). And I
> cannot blame anybody for not jumping in to do the same. Membership fees? In
> a distant future they may cover such costs.
>
> This is just to point out some implications of the present model.
>
> Norbert Klein
> President
> ISOC Cambodia Chapter
>
> http://www.isoc-kh.org
>
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-- 
David Vyorst
Co-Founder, Relay Station Social Media

www.relaystationmedia.com
202.841.2400
@DVyo
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