[Chapter-delegates] LoA for good or bad?

[President ISOC-KH]

Hi Eric,

thanks for your comments. You wrote:

“...if a chapter needs continuous funding for operations, then either 
that chapter is really an ISOC office or the chapter does not have the 
local support to be sustainable.”

I would be happy to invite you for a week or a month in Cambodia. Surely 
you could advise our membership (we started in September 2010 with 25, 
now we have 100) how to do better. In case you would  come – my 
invitation is similar to the regularly repeated invitations to come to 
the Geneva meetings: You would have to pay your own expenses for travel 
and hotel – in the same way in which we had received information at a 
time that the costs for the Geneva INET had been adjusted so that 
“everybody can now participate.”

I had forgotten, at that time, to inform the writer that the monthly 
salary of a high school teacher here is about US$50 (five zero, not five 
hundred). Maybe we should really blame them – our 100 members – for not 
providing the local support for a start-up office and a secretary, to be 
sustainable? Part of industry and other “authorities” are not so 
impressed with some ISOC positions: the ISOC Board encouraging 
cooperation among all stakeholders, to respect freedom of expression on 
the Internet (while here, all Internet cafes etc. are at present being 
ordered to set up surveillance cameras and write down the IDs of users), 
or that the ISOC Board supported the anti-SOPA efforts.

What was the annual budget of ISOC Global? About US$30 million? Please 
correct me if I am wrong.

Looking forward to real suggestions how we can do better, before we 
disappear.


Norbert Klein
President
ISOC Cambodia Chapter

http://www.isoc-kh.org

=

On 03/28/2012 09:24 PM, Eric Burger wrote:
> This is an important point. There is something that I do not understand.
>
> What is the distinction between a chapter funded by ISOC and a branch 
> office of ISOC? John and Eduard explicitly mentions ISOC as a 
> worldwide NGO, and a handful of people on the list +1'ed the concept. 
> When I think of a worldwide NGO, I think of paid staff, every office 
> is under the direct control of headquarters, and there may be a 
> volunteer or two helping the NGO out. An example here would be 
> Médecins Sans Frontières, where the doctors are essentially staff, 
> sent into the field. The field offices are literally field offices of 
> MSF. They may or may not have local employees, as needed.
>
> I am under the belief that ISOC is more of a grass-roots organization. 
> Like-minded people get together, usually regionally or around some 
> other common interest. Is it your desire to move to a 
> centrally-administered model? For me, I would not want ISOC-DC under 
> the direct management of ISOC HQ. There are things ISOC-DC does that 
> we do that ISOC HQ, or a branch office of ISOC, to do. As a recent 
> example, imagine if some of the folks from ISOC NY were receiving ISOC 
> HQ funds. When the story of Paul broke, instead of us showing our 
> strength in the ability of the ISOC NY leadership to speak their mind, 
> they would be seen as bad, soon to be ex-, employees of ISOC. I know I 
> do *not* want something like that to happen to my chapter. Is that 
> really what you want?
>
> I have another question. Are there countries where the regulatory or 
> legal environment prevents individuals or entities from raising funds 
> for the operation of a non-profit, yet will allow a branch office to 
> open? If that is the case, I can see a place for ISOC providing 
> funding, using a grant model, to get the organization started.
>
> In my travels around the world to chapters in North America, Europe, 
> Asia, Africa, and Latin America (sorry, I haven't made it yet to South 
> America), I have seen chapters that manage to find funds from 
> sponsorship (North America, Europe), charging for membership and 
> getting big corporate sponsorships (North America and Europe), 
> government and corporate sponsorships (Europe and Africa), program 
> grants and local grants (Africa), and chapter program revenue. For 
> example, one of the African chapters raises its entire budget from 
> selling coffee at local meetings. If a chapter needs funding for a 
> project or program, we have the Community Grant Programme, However, if 
> a chapter needs *continuous* funding for operations, then either that 
> chapter is really an ISOC office or the chapter does not have the 
> local support to be sustainable.
>
> On Mar 28, 2012, at 3:13 PM, John More wrote:
>
>> Norbert and Veni 1+
>>
>> Having paid staff and an office are essential tools for any 
>> successful chapter in any worldwide NGO, such as ISOC.  Volunteers 
>> are essential for leadership and contacts, etc., but without staff to 
>> plan for and carry out events on an ongoing basis and to supplement 
>> the efforts of volunteers who often must manage their businesses and 
>> jobs, the chapter cannot really be that effective. One successful 
>> model is for the central organization to train interns and then 
>> second them.
>>
>> I have previously put forward the importance of paid staff. Naturally 
>> the availability of funding (and training) is important for Chapters 
>> located in regions with fewer resources. At the same time, it should 
>> be a requirement that the Chapter raise some money (even a nominal 
>> amount).  Charity is not a good model. No financial contribution, no 
>> ownership -- a primary principal of organizing.
>>
>> John More
>>
>> ISOC-DC
>>
>> On Mar 28, 2012, at 3:15 AM, Veni Markovski wrote:
>>
>>> Correct. We got also additional support through the Global Internet 
>>> Policy Initiative - a program ISOC should have been funding today, 
>>> as they stopped functioning because of lack of money. It was through 
>>> GIPI that we got the legal expertise we needed about 10 years ago, 
>>> and support for going to meetings, etc.
>>> Worth considering from Isoc.
>>>
>>>
>>> Btw, it seems we are sharing here ideas how not only to make Isoc 
>>> better, but to make it a great organization. It would be good to see 
>>> some follow up on those ideas. They are based on experience from 
>>> many chapters, different cultures, etc., and could be perhaps the 
>>> missing part at Isoc.
>>>
>>> On Wednesday, March 28, 2012, Eduard Tric wrote:
>>>
>>>     +1 here , too.
>>>     When we were proposed to start a Romanian chapter long time ago,
>>>     i've asked  a friend , chair at that time of another chapter ,
>>>     what do we need to run a chapter, the answer was "energy and a
>>>     mailing list" .
>>>     We still have the energy , but wee needed more than the mailing
>>>     list to function , it was an investment so far : office space
>>>      (people like also to have physical meetings ) , internet ,
>>>     electricity. Having all that + energy was still not enoug  , for
>>>     years Isoc Romania was more a club of  Internet enthusiasts
>>>     running Internet -related projects than a well-known and
>>>     respected local NGO.
>>>     The boost in terms of awareness was the Inet Bucharest and our
>>>     bold position and initiative on ACTA issue.
>>>     Now we are well known,it's a fact.
>>>     To become respected, we need (at least ) : synchronization with
>>>     other chapters and HQ , especially on policies issues, and yes,
>>>     some funding to run the chapter (especially the legal part of
>>>     our actions is very costly , we cannot be efficient on policies
>>>     without a local lawyer support ).
>>>     Regads,
>>>     Ed
>>>     ----- Original Message -----
>>>     From: "Veni Markovski" <veni at veni.com <javascript:;>>
>>>     To: president at isoc-kh.org
>>>     Cc: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
>>>     Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 9:37:27 AM
>>>     Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] LoA for good or bad?
>>>
>>>
>>>     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
>>>

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