[Chapter-delegates] Membership or Mission?

[Dr. Alejandro Pisanty Baruch]

Eric,

thanks for your recent emails to the Chapters list. They move the discussion forward in a great way. ISOC is too heterogeneous to be described on a single model among your list, and cause-based is the one that best applies. 

ISOC always has to do a complex balancing act. It is not a trade association yet works with industry. That is particularly needed on the Internet as most of its mere physical existence is only possible through the private infrastructure that this industry creates and operates (yes, it is paid for by the users one way or another, but it's not nature - like the sea - or public - like roads.) 

ISOC can't be fully a membership organization as long as we have the heteregeneous, national-law-based chapters. To be a membership association we'd need a single way to become members and a totally uniform chapter structure. We would lose a lot if we did, but must balance the good that comes from how we organize each chapter locally with some truths about representation and alignment. Grigory, the one-person-chapter is a pathology in this view; a minimum of 25 members is there for a good reason. On the other hand, we all want to be more than a loose federation, and we want a two-way street of contributions, of rights and obligations and more than that, a shared commitment. 

Thanks Eric for the very clear examples of Jonathan Zittrain and Larry Lessig, and I'd add your own, that show that organizationally elected Trustees are not pawns - and I think we have plenty others coming from all sides of ISOC. 

I'm glad that you and Narelle as Trustees came forward and are discussing with the Chapters these large-scale issues. I do not think that the Chapters will be happy with a pleasant surprise, as promised by Narelle for the Bylaws revision, not as much as with what should be a non-surprise, incorporating everyone into the discussion. BTW can you ask all Chapter-elected Trustees to participate? Narelle and Khaled post to this list already.

Let's keep the collective thinking flowing!

Yours,

Alejandro Pisanty


.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .  .  .  .  .  .
     Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
UNAM, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico

Tels. +52-(1)-55-5105-6044, +52-(1)-55-5418-3732

*Mi blog/My blog: http://pisanty.blogspot.com
*LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pisanty
*Unete al grupo UNAM en LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/22285/4A106C0C8614
*Twitter: http://twitter.com/apisanty
---->> Unete a ISOC Mexico, http://www.isoc.org
 Participa en ICANN, http://www.icann.org
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

________________________________________
Desde: chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org [chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] en nombre de Eric Burger [eburger at standardstrack.com]
Enviado el: sábado, 24 de marzo de 2012 05:22
Hasta: Chapter Delegates
Asunto: [Chapter-delegates] Membership or Mission?

There has been a lot of discussion on the Chapters’ list about what sort of organization the Internet Society is. A number of people have offered the Internet Society is a membership organization. However, the Internet Society, since its founding, in the original Articles of Incorporation, and the original bylaws, has always been a cause-based, mission-oriented organization.

It is important to understand the different kinds of organizations, and to understand why the Internet Society is a mission-based organization and not a membership organization.

What is a membership organization? Most membership organizations have the goal of furthering the welfare of its members. There is a category of 501c(3), the U.S. legal code for charities, which describes this situation. The governance of these organizations is usually direct election of the board, often from a slate of individuals presented by a nominations committee. Qualification for that slate more often than not includes qualifications such as amount of money raised for the organization. Moreover, it is not unusual for the election to be uncontested. That is, the slate is the same size as the board.

What is an industry association? Most industry associations have the goal of furthering the welfare of its members. Industry associations are made up of corporate entities and occasionally individual members. There is also a category of 501c(3) that covers industry associations, distinct from membership organizations. The governance of industry associations is usually an election process where the votes are allocated by class. Class often, but not always, allocates more important companies with more votes or a larger allocation of board seats. The definition of important depends on the association. It may be as simple as how large the company is, often measured by revenue. It may be complex, reflecting the industry the association is serving. An example is where the association considers industry customers more important than industry vendors.

What is a caused-based association? Most cause-based associations have the goal of furthering their mission, irrespective of who there members are, if they have members, and irrespective of whom the donors are. There is yet another, distinct category of 501c(3) that covers caused-based associations. The governance of these organizations is most often a founding Board that self-appoints successors. Some of these organizations do have board elections.

The Internet Society is unquestionably a cause-based association. No matter how many Organization Members want put a tax on the Internet, the Internet Society will NEVER have a vote to adopt such as position. No matter how many Chapters want to impose restrictions on the kind of speech allowed on the Internet, the Internet Society will NEVER have a vote to adopt such a position.

Even though the Internet Society is cause-based, one of its causes is open, transparent, and inclusive process. That is one reason why the Internet Society itself does have an election process for the board. It is true that in the original bylaws, the Internet Society happened to have taken the approach most often used by industry associations for building the board. There were three classes of board members. Organization members were more important than Chapters and the technical community. The new bylaws will still have three classes of board members, but no class will be more important than any other class.

The bylaws committee looked long and hard trustee selection. For any measure that one uses to try to allocate seats in a disproportionate manner, there are three other measures that would have the class electing more trustees electing fewer. For example, if one went on raw membership numbers, Chapters would elect all of the trustees. If one went on revenue raised, the technical community would elect most of the trustees. If one went on net cash raised, the Organizational Members would elect most of the trustees, the technical community would elect a few, and Chapters would elect none.

Trustees, once elected, represent all sectors of the Internet: those that create it (the technical community), those that build and operate it (the vendor community), and those that use it (civil society). Thus it was hard to justify any allocation of board seats other than an equal distribution.