[Chapter-delegates] Day-to-day funding

Tue Mar 12 12:44:35 PDT 2013

Ted,
Just be careful on the success part. It is very unusual to ask for success
as if it is an investment.
ISOC should not consider this as an investment and ask for success ratio or
even any returns on it.
For example, ISOC gives money as described below to some chapters, and they
have a face-to-face meeting. As a result, new links are established and in
18 months the then appointed deputy-minister of communications of country X
invites ISOC chapter folks on their delegation to PP-14. They become the
voice of their nation, and change the planned edits of a major document.

But Elver is coming with suggested ideas, which may or may not work. The
reality is there are 20 months left until PP-14, and that requires a lot of
serious work. Well funded. That's why we need not only small actions, but a
big plan. A very big one. So 20% of the yearly budget, allocated to
chapters is not that much, when you distribute it between chapters and ISOC
HQ staff. Plus travel, per diem, etc.

On Tuesday, March 12, 2013, Ted Mooney wrote:

> This is very constructive, Elver.
>
> Some bits are more practical than others., as I'm sure you realize  I'm
> not sure how to select the 10 (or 20 or five) chapters for any given
> experiments yet.  Maybe by chapter vote or some such thing.  Here's what I
> do know:  If we don't know exactly what success looks like or don't have a
> repeatable methodology from the start, we won't be giving any of these
> ideas a fair run.  We aren't a start-up but nor are we an aging
> corporation. I'll bet back to you after some local discussions this week.
>
> For everyone's information, we cannot undo and unwind all the commitments
> of resources already made through the end of this year, so we will have a
> look at these ideas - and others - and see what we can do with some and in
> what time frames.  We have a few ideas of our own which I've floated
> internally and need some additional energy to take root.
>
> Thanks for your enthusiasm and creativity, for taking the time to think
> and write this down.  And thanks all who still believe that history is only
> one component that determines the future.
>
> Best,
>
> Ted
>
> Ted Mooney
> Sr. Director, Membership & Services
> Cell: 301-980-6446
> Skype: ted.mooney3
>
> www.internetsociety.org
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mar 12, 2013, at 2:51 PM, Elver Loho <elver.loho at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> How quickly could ISOC global roll out various low-cost pilot projects
> in this field to see what works in an agile "let's try things" manner?
> For example:
>
> - 10 grants of $1000 to spend on local advertising and fundraising
> (not salaries) over 3 months and then report back to this mailing list
> with the exact measurements on the increase or decrease in donations
> and what exactly was done. Followed by another report 6 months later.
>
> - Finding 10 active chapters with very few donations and offering to
> match every dollar they raise in donations over 3 months up to $1000.
> Followed by another report 6 months later.
>
> - Picking 10 active, but underfunded chapters and having a 10-day
> drive on the front page of the ISOC global website, showcasing each
> chapter's people and accomplishments for a single day, and asking for
> donations for that particular chapter. ISOC global would need to take
> care of payment processing and such. This would be by far the easiest
> to measure.
>
> - Something like the previous, but an "adopt-a-chapter" approach,
> where ISOC uses its publicity muscle to sell the idea that wealthy
> individuals could adopt a foreign chapter that's doing something good
> and get regular updates via e-mail.
>
> - ISOC global providing funds to 10 active, underfunded chapters to
> hire a student journalist or student PR person for the summer as a
> paid intern, whose responsibility would be to write about what the
> chapter is doing, tweet, blog, facebook, publicize, etc.
>
> - ISOC global sends an ambassador to the governments of a few local
> chapters urging the head of state to finance the chapter from the
> state budget. Bonus points if you can get a respected elected
> politician of a major country to go around doing this.
>
> - ISOC global negotiates with a multinational civil society funding
> network (e.g. Open Society Foundations) to make it easier for local
> chapters to get regular funding via these means.
>
> - etc.
>
> The focus should be on experimental projects, which cost very little
> for ISOC, deal with active, but underfunded chapters, and provide
> rapidly measurable results. The aim is to find strategies, which help
> chapters become self-sufficient. I have no interest in relying on ISOC
> global's fat wallet in the long term, but it would be great to be able
> to measure the effectiveness of various fundraising ideas without
> having to spend what little cash we have at the moment.
>
> We don't need a corporate approach here, nor a redistribution of
> existing funds. We need a skunkworks approach. We need a scientific
> approach, based on experiments and data. We're all in it together and
> we're in it to learn what works and doesn't work, so that we can make
> smarter decisions later.
>
> Best,
> Elver
> Vice Chair
> Estonia Chapter
>
> elver.loho at gmail.com
> +372 5661 6933
> skype: elver.loho
>
>
> On 12 March 2013 19:41, Ted Mooney <mooney at isoc.org> wrote:
>
> True, Veni,
>
> We would all favor more direct and immediate action.  And there is acute
> awareness of the situation among many staff as well as chapter leaders.  My
> point in the discussion is not just to vent, but to catalog and come back
> to
> Chapters with the opportunity to prioritize a list of upgraded support
> opportunities.  And that is still my intent.  Nevertheless if more
> discussion and seeding of ideas is not what you would like at this point,
> what advise to do you have for Chapter Support?
>
> Best,
>
> Ted
>
>
> Ted Mooney
> Sr. Director, Membership & Services
> Cell: 301-980-6446
> Skype: ted.mooney3
>
> www.internetsociety.org
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mar 12, 2013, at 1:29 PM, Veni Markovski <veni at veni.com> wrote:
>
> I am not so supportive of the discussion.
> Every once in a while there's a discussion on that topic, and every once in
> a while there are some great ideas, which are being shelved "for
> consideration" by staff.
> And nothing happens.
> We discuss, over and over, and over - the same issues. More or less since
> 2002, by the way. At least that's what I remember, when several of us, ISOC
> Trustees, discussed that in Minneapolis at a Board meeting.
>
> v.
>
> On 03/12/2013 11:53, Ted Mooney wrote:
>
> I support Eric's call for a the views and discussion on this list.  While
> it
> will surprise no one to
>
>

-- 
Best,
Veni
http://veni.com
https://facebook.com/venimarkovski
https://twitter.com/veni

***
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***

== 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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