[Chapter-delegates] LoA for good or bad?

[President ISOC-KH]

On 03/27/2012 05:33 PM, Victor Ndonnang wrote:
> Dear Norbert,
>
> Thank you very much for your message. Talking about building up a Chapter, supporting its growth and making it sustainable, many Chapters are in the same situation that you are describing. It is easy to recruit volunteers members for the Chapter but very few of those members are prepared to do mandatory work of the Chapter for nothing (unpaid). From developing world perspective, It is also very difficult to recruit members and ask them to pay (membership fees) for doing unpaid work for the Chapter.
>
> I hope all this will be taken into consideration in the LoA introduction process. Globally from my personal view, the LoA is not a bad thing.
>
> Thanks one again.
>
> Best regards,
> Victor

Dear Victor,

thanks for your response, sharing information about similar problems 
when developing a new chapter in a difficult economic environment. You 
understand our situation, as I understand yours.

We all just got a reminder mail about the deadline for submitting 
applications for Community Grants.

We will not submit a request – we had made preparations last year, but 
had to move towards  applications in 2012, as our Secretary found it too 
difficult to line up the precise detailed data much ahead of time; we 
hoped to be able to assemble them on the way towards two mayor events. 
But our Secretary resigned, and it seems to be extremely difficult to 
find an – unpaid – replacement.

I am not arguing against a program for well designed grants with 
elaborate reporting structures etc. But as far as I can see, there are 
no Chapter Support grants, only for “projects.”

This is true also for the Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF) 
aiming at stimulating creative solutions to ICT development needs in the 
Asia Pacific region.

The ISIF objectives list, among others: “Successful and sustainable 
models for the provision of Internet services.”

But how could a young Chapter work on such objectives without a basis in 
the form of a small secretariat with at least one paid staff, working on 
the maintenance and development of the Chapter?

The present Cambodia model for Internet service providing is to have 10 
or 12 (changing frequently) ISPs competing in a tiny market (but the 
authorities prevent real market-based solutions by administrative 
interventions, protecting some turfs, not allowing price based 
competition). - Some of our members are discussing this; but the 
volatile situation, with frequently changing challenges which would call 
for quick responses, can hardly be met without a flexibly organized 
secretariat. - Our March ISOC Monthly Newsletter gives an example how we 
are till able to act strategically, having established a bit of a 
reputation, in a way which never could have been part of “project” 
planning.


Norbert

-----Message d'origine-----
> De : chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org [mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] De la part de President ISOC-KH
> Envoyé : vendredi 23 mars 2012 14:39
> À : chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
> Objet : Re: [Chapter-delegates] LoA for good or bad?
>
> 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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