[Chapter-delegates] Fwd: Renewal Internet Society Chapter Charter

[Veni Markovski]

Elver,
don't get disappointed, but rather - join the club.
We have had similar experience through the years - many of us have been 
with ISOC for decades.
But we never gave up, and neither should you.

It is true that in the last years it's kind of more difficult than 
before, when the chapters were doing whatever they wanted, and were not 
getting a lot of attention from the ISOC HQ. But that changes with the 
HQ hiring actually good people (I know many of them), who have a 
direction that leads them to engage instead in a fruitful dialogue, in a 
fruitless one. I do believe that ISOC can change, and it is because this 
cannot last forever.
There are too many threats, confronting the Internet as we know it 
today, to allow diversion of our attention, efforts, and skills from 
fighting the common misconception about ISOC and the chapters, to 
fighting with the HQ. Plus, I've personally tried that few years ago; it 
doesn't work ;-)

So, let us try to nicely explain to the staffers, responsible for 
chapters, why what they do, does not reflect the multicultural essence 
of the chapters, the different laws and regulations that govern us all.

I am more concerned about everything that is happening outside of ISOC, 
than the few items, taking place within it; as chapters' officers we 
have duties first to our organization, and only then to ISOC HQ, and 
therefore, if there's a conflict between the laws that govern our 
statutes and ISOC HQ requirements, we will have no choice, but withdraw 
from the "chaptership".


v.



On 10/13/13 06:49, Elver Loho wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> We received the same letter at the Estonian chapter and I quickly 
> filed it under "things to get angry about later", because I had work 
> to do.
>
> My reaction may have been colored by the fact that during the last 
> recent stink on this list, I sent a letter to Frederic on October 1st 
> proposing a very concrete plan to start a pan-European policy 
> cooperation working group to strenghten ISOC's presence in Europe and 
> to get European chapters involved in actual policy work. And thus far 
> he has failed to reply.
>
> We really need to come back to the core questions, otherwise we'll 
> never get these things sorted out.
>
> 1. What is the role of chapters in ISOC?
> 2. What is the single most important thing that ISOC expects chapters 
> to do on a day-to-day basis?
> 3. How does ISOC expect chapters to finance this activity?
>
> I may be a bit cynical here, but it seems to me that the role of 
> chapters is to show that ISOC has widespread support around the globe, 
> so as to get funding from PIR. And that ISOC does not expect chapters 
> to do anything, except get more members. And that chapters should 
> operate on an entirely voluntary basis, acquiring new disciples, new 
> names on a list.
>
> Personally, when we joined ISOC, I was expecting at least some sort of 
> policy coordination and joint lobbying effort. I was expecting that 
> chapters would get access to experts in international law, so that we 
> could lobby better and ask questions about upcoming treaties. I was 
> expecting that we would get access to a whole knowledge base and a 
> network of people to help us coordinate global policy. I was expecting 
> to get involved. To participate.
>
> Thus far I've been disappointed beyond belief.
>
> Best,
> Elver
> .ee
>
>
> elver.loho at gmail.com <mailto:elver.loho at gmail.com>
> +372 5661 6933
> skype: elver.loho

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