[Chapter-delegates] Bylaws discussion

[President of ISOC Cambodia]

Dear Colleagues in ISOC,

Part of the present discussions about draft new Bylaws has also touched 
on"standards of performance" - and their introduction seemed to be 
defended as if there was a general objection against this effort to 
define how tocompare what is with what should be.

I understood that there was only reluctance against the introduction 
of"standards of performance" if they would be only an instrument to 
monitor the performance of Chapters (and this without clarity about the 
criteria to be used, and who would be authorized to use these criteria 
for monitoring a Chapter, and there was yet no provision for an appeal 
procedure in case a Chapter is not convinced that theirperformance was 
evaluated properly).

When I raise the question of additional sectors of ISOC to be monitored 
for "standards of performance" I do this not only in general terms -- 
"saying there must be mutuality" or something. I would like to raise 
this question considering some of our specific experiencesduring the two 
years of our operation. The ISOC Bylaws discussion is an 
appropriateopportunity to ask these questions now -- maybe there will be 
a wider consensusto extend the question of "standards of performance" 
beyond Chapters.

What about the performance of other instruments of ISOC?

What about the role of the Regional Offices? According to the 22.8.2012 
ISOC News Release, "The Internet Society is a global organization, at 
the heart of which are our Regional Bureaus," quoting Walda Roseman, the 
Chief Operating Officer of the Internet Society. But during the two 
years of our existence we had not received even ONE single e-mail from 
the ISOC Asia Pacific Regional Office responding to our difficult 
situation.

The ISOC website about the Asia Pacific Office says that it "oversees 
projects, initiatives and activities across the Internet Society's 
functional and programmatic areas in the Asia and Pacific region, 
including Public Policy, Capacity Building and Internet Standards and 
Technology" and it "has worked extensively with the Asia-Pacific 
Internet community."- At the launch the new office on 14.5.2012, Lynn 
St. Amour, our ISOC CEO, was quoted to have "explained the significance 
of the opening of the regional office in Singapore as an important step 
in providing support and visibility to the work the Internet Society has 
done and its on-going contribution to the region's development." - "The 
Asia-Pacific region represents 26% (the largest) of the current overall 
individual membership of the Internet Society."

I have no information to doubt this. I can only say we have not been 
touched at all by all these activities.

And when we had the first visit from the AsiaPacific Regional Office 
towards the end of last month, after 5 weeks of negotiations, we could 
not get an agreement that our situation and our problems would be 
discussed with our membership, but we should only make preparations "to 
enable me to use my powerpoint slides and present the global/AsiaPacific 
activities and plans, and no other."

The presentation contained even one almost empty slide - and the next 
slide was quickly called up - saying only:

= = =

3.Human Rights

A new area for us since 2011.

Supports the UN Declaration on HumanRights and rights to freedom of 
expression.

= = =

For us not a new area -- as we had raised this also in previous 
communication.__

So we ask: What is not only the place of Chapters in ISOC, but how does 
ISOC see the Regional Offices, "at the heart of the organization," 
relating to the Chapters?

And what is the role of individual membership in ISOC, when it is 
announced that the"Asia-Pacific region represents 26% (the largest) of 
the current overall individual membership of the Internet Society." Do 
these 25% of the whole membership get a voice in ISOC?

Last weekwe received mail from the Asia-Pacific Regional Office 
initiating discussion "to campaign for more membership at this period 
(before year end)... developing strategies for marketing and campaigning 
for APAC region."

What is the role of individual membership? Our Chapter has been 
reluctant to distribute fliers at the meetings of various Internet user 
related organizations in the country, just to get more members.

As a result of the fact that we could not get attention by ISOCfor our 
very specific legal problems, in our context, part of our membership 
questioned, during our Annual General Meeting on 15.9.2012, the value of 
our Chapter being a member of the Internet Society. Surely there is no 
interest in a "marketing campaign," while our members expressed a 
commitment to work towards creating wider awareness and engagement in 
view of the increasing concerns about the way in which the freedom of 
expression -- in the field of the use of the Internet -- is becoming a 
more and more serious issue. This will, of course, not translate 
intofundraising with the industry which might stifle our ability to 
speak up, though this was theadvice which we had received repeatedly.


*
**Norbert Klein**
**ISOC Cambodia Chapter*
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