[Chapter-delegates] 2% for Stronger Chapters: Making real the board goal

[David Vyorst]

I don't want to comment on ISOC internal hiring because I know that ISOC in
Reston and Geneva do incredible things, but the Washington DC Chapter and
our friends in Chapters throughout the world could do a lot with the extra
funding. It would make a real difference.


On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 12:24 AM, Charles Oloo <oloo6382 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Great proposal. There has to be a starting point. Support for Chapters
> administration needs and of course activities that may need additional
> appraisals methods rather than just reporting.
>
> Regards
>
> Charles Oloo
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 6:29 AM, Imran Anwar <imran at imran.com> wrote:
>
>> I agree with the basic premise, point of view and proposed approach.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> IMRAN
>>
>> On Apr 23, 2013, at 22:22, Dave Burstein <daveb at dslprime.com> wrote:
>>
>> Folks
>>
>> Great to see the board wants stronger chapters
>> "Board re-affirmed that the Internet Society is a mission-driven
>> organization, and addressed the strategic role of Chapters in the
>> achievement of the ISOC mission.  As a follow-up to this meeting, the Board
>> agreed that Chapters are vital to advancing the mission, principles, and
>> values of ISOC at the local and regional levels and they contribute to
>> ensuring the organization is globally and locally engaged. The Board was
>> sympathetic to requests by Chapters for support in their essential
>> operations,"
>>
>> Let's make this real by shifting 2% of the budget ($500,000) to the
>> chapters immediately, enough to give each chapter that applies $5-10,000
>> over the next 12 months. It won't transform the chapters, but is enough for
>> 20-40 hr/month admin and/or several events with $1,000 budget and/or
>> economy travle for 1 or 2 members to a major meeting.
>>
>>      It's almost certainly a more efficient use of funds than hiring
>> expensive people in DC or Geneva and flying them around the world.
>>
>>     This is a "just do it" proposal to reinforce the bottom-up,
>> multistakeholder model in the Internet Society itself.
>>
>>      We have professional management that certainly can rearrange 2% of
>> the budget. There's an obvious source in not filling two positions
>> currently open on the website: one's for an economist with strong
>> experience in fundraising
>> http://www.internetsociety.org/jobs/senior-economist  and the second a
>> newly created position for a marketing communications manager.
>> http://www.internetsociety.org/jobs/marketing-communications-manager .
>> There's presumably ~$400-500K in the budget for those postions and related
>> expenses.  There are several other open positions with six figure salaries
>> and expenses where the money could be more effectively spent on local
>> programs.
>>
>>     We all know that most funds that can be raised in our field come with
>> serious strings attached; the last thing an ISOC economist or any policy
>> person should be doing is begging interested parties for money. That job
>> should never have been created because of the obvious influence on the
>> policy proposed. ISOC is already fighting back against claims we're unduly
>> influenced by multinational corporations and positions; tying policy so
>> closely to fundraising just provides ammunition to such attacks.
>>
>>    And while it might be valuable "to develop, manage, edit and review
>> existing collateral for marketing effectiveness and adherence to brand
>> guidelines" we already have some hard-working professionals doing that. The
>> money would be much better spent bythe chapters working directly in the
>> field, I believe.
>>
>>      Going forward,  I'd bet shifting 10-20% of the ISOC budget to local
>> efforts will result in far more impact than spending the money as we now
>> do, but that will take time to organize.
>>
>>     I hope chapter leaders will rise up with proposals how to make this
>> happen and that the center can see the wisdom of being a less "top-down"
>> group.
>>
>> Dave Burstein
>>
>>
>> We've got experienced senior managers who
>>
>> --
>> Editor, DSL Prime, Fast Net News, Net Policy News and A Wireless Cloud
>> Author with Jennie Bourne  DSL (Wiley, 2002) and Web Video: Making It
>> Great, Getting It Noticed (Peachpit, 2008)
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
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>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> Charles Oloo
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>
>
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> Chapter Portal (AMS): https://portal.isoc.org
>



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