[Chapter-delegates] LoA for good or bad?

Tue Mar 27 23:37:27 PDT 2012

Norbert, +1.
Isoc Bulgaria started being active, when we got some funding. Before that
it was mainly thanks to the efforts of the board members, who were spending
their own money and time to keep the chapter moving.  If I wasn't a CEO of
an ISP, and co-founder, AND my business partner wouldn't have agreed to let
me allocate the time for that... I wouldn't be even on this list now.
Paid staff brought the chapter in another dimension. Our committed, humble
and totally workohollic people are known to many of you. Julia and Dessi
have made wonderful things at Isoc BG and continue doing them.
But I've argued many years ago that Isoc HQ could afford pay staff at
chapters, which would have.made the chapters stronger. HQ chose a different
path, and so far they've used only one person from the chapters world -
Jacek, who is now working for Isoc. The regional directors are a good idea,
but they need more support - from the chapters to do their job. And that's
a problem, as you properly point out, chapters don't have staff to work for
free. So, a suggestion might be for HQ to create a pool for supporting not
just projects, but chapters personnel hiring.  My bet is that on average $
10,000 per chapter will be enough. Average, because some don't need it, and
some need only $ 1,000 per year.

V.

On Wednesday, March 28, 2012, President ISOC-KH wrote:

> 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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>>
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-- 
Best,
Veni

== Sent from my phone, so any spelling mistakes are caused by the
touchscreen keyboard. That's a nice excuse, isn't it;-)
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