[Chapter-delegates] Follow-up: Serious considerations to dissolve the Cambodia ISOC Chapter
info at isoc.org.ec
info at isoc.org.ec
Mon Sep 23 19:56:15 PDT 2013
Several Chapters face the same kind of problems. We need work with support of several volunteers and partners because simply to have an office is not only to have a place.. It means to have people, pay taxes, social security for employees and legal representatives, accounting people, plus office equipment and much much more. Even If you share some space office you need a contract and so. Because of this, HQ made this very flexible and one way is not to be a formal NGO. Maybe this can work changing the bylaws
Carlos Vera
Internet Society Ecuador
www.isoc.org.ec
Síguenos @isocec
> El 23/09/2013, a las 3:45, Chantra Be <chantra.be at gmail.com> escribió:
>
> Dear Chapter Representatives,
> Dear ISOC central and Asia-Pacific leaders and staff,
>
> This mail is written after long considerations in the Executive Committee of the ISOC Cambodia Chapter, discussed together with the members of our Advisory Board.
>
> It is to propose – unless real and practical alternatives are identified within the following month – to call a meeting of all members of our Chapter for the purpose of taking a vote to dissolve the ISOC Cambodia Chapter.
>
> We are looking forward to responses from all concerned recipients of this mail.
>
> The reasons for considering this serious step can be summarized under the following three headings:
>
> 1. Structural Constraints
> 2. Experiences
> 3. Impressions
>
>
> 1. Structural Constraints
>
> The Cambodia Chapter of the Internet Society started to function in 2010, since 2011 under revised Bylaws - designed according to advice from ISOC international, before voted upon by our membership, which say among others:
>
> Article I. - Name
>
> 2. The Chapter shall be established as a non-profit organization under the laws of Cambodia.
>
> The Executive Committee of the ISOC Cambodia Chapter tried to implement the requirement in Number 2 above, by contacting the relevant section of the Ministry of the Interior. It turned out that the legal setting up of a non-profit organization would require to follow specific regulations in which a physical office (not only a point of communication) has to be established and operated.
>
> Our efforts to receive financial assistance from ISOC international (an organization with a budget self-described as “In 2011, ISOC projects that total revenues will exceed $30 million for the first time”) were turned down, as the priorities set there do not include institutional support for Chapters. The advice to do substantive local fund raising would have required in our situation to be an established organization already.
> Without such assistance, we do not see it possible to set up and operate an office for the ISOC Cambodia Chapter according to the legal national registration framework.
>
> 2. Experiences (with some quotes from the past)
>
> When, in August 2012, Ms. Duangthip Chomprang, the ISOC Manager for Regional Affairs (Asia) from the Asia Pacific Regional Office, announced to visit Cambodia, we welcomed this as an opportunity to discuss our situation with her. Unfortunately, she refused to have a meeting with our chapter to discuss our problems. In response the following mail was sent to her and to the other ISOC regional staff in Singapore, after due deliberations with our Advisory Board and Executive Committee:
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject Message from our Advisory Board and the Executive Committee
> Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:40:15 +0700
> From: President of ISOC Cambodia <president at isoc-kh.org>
> To: Duangthip Chomprang <chomprang at isoc.org>, Rajnesh Singh <singh at isoc.org>
> CC: Ong Pisey <treasurer at isoc-kh.org>
>
> Dear Thip,
>
> After having received your mail, rejecting our request to serious discuss the crisis for our Chapter, created as a result of the general situation and legal requirements in Cambodia in the meeting, and the refusal to ISOC staff to positively pay attention to our situation, we do not think it would be appropriate to cooperate, as a Chapter, with organizing a meeting for your 1 - 2.5 hours event, for which you would like to invite the Members of the Cambodia Chapter and other non-Chapter members. To discuss fundamental problems within ISOC, affecting the whole membership, only among officers, as you suggest (which has been tried in vain by email so far) would not be in line with our history to promote and practice open communication – high values regularly lifted up among the goals of the Internet Society world wide and in its slogan: the Internet is for everyone.
>
> The situation and this response has been shared and discussed with the Members of the Advisory Board of our Chapter and is unanimously supported.
>
> Norbert Klein
> President, ISOC-KH
>
>
> The five members of our Advisory Board at that time were (reflecting the stipulation of our Bylaws “The Advisory Board of five members, from important sections of the ISOC Cambodia Chapter membership”):
>
> the Head of the IT in Education Section in the Ministry of Education
> the Editor in Chief of a leading Cambodian daily newspaper, who is at the same time President of the Club of Cambodian Journalists
> the President and CEO of a major broadband providing ISP
> a senior staff member in the office of the Council of Ministers of the Government of Cambodia, and
> one student.
>
>
> Nevertheless, I and the former president of the ISOC Cambodia Chapter participated in the meeting which Ms. Duangthip Chomprang organized to present her PowerPoint slides about the Internet Society. There was even one with a headline related to human rights concerns – but the rest of this page of this slide was blank, and she quickly explained that such issues are not dealt with here, because they are new for ISOC.
>
> Our Chapter never received any sign that Mr. Rajnesh Singh, the ISOC Regional Bureau Director for Asia-Pacific – nor other ISOC personnel - were concerned how to find a solution for the dilemma we were facing. Actually, during the years of our existence as a Chapter, we never received any mail whatsoever from the ISOC Regional Bureau Director Asia-Pacific, except for circular announcements.
>
> Subsequently, mail to the ISOC Manager for Regional Affairs (Asia) did not receive any response.
>
> This attitude of ISOC Regional Staff, refusing to discuss with us our problems, resulted already in the September 2012 Annual General Meeting in disappointment and restricted expectations towards the ISOC international setup.
>
> When ISOC staff is discussing "standard performance" of Chapters, how is "standard performance" defined and measured? Only for Chapters? Is it standard performance that a Regional Officer announces and brings non-members to a "Meet and greet" (who say that two hours ago they did not know what the Internet Society is), but the Regional Officer encourages them to become members - OK - and to stand as candidate two weeks later for Chapter leadership? - Is it standard procedure that I learn from a mailing list that the Regional Office is "working within the government to provide more support and knowledge" – we do not know until now what this is. Who is monitoring performance over what?
>
> When the Cambodian government mandated internet cafe owners to set up surveillance cameras in their shops and register the names of all customers - http://thediplomat.com/asean-beat/2012/12/27/cambodias-war-on-internet-cafes – in 2012, and later declared almost all Internet cafes in the capital city to be illegal as they were closer than 500 m to any school
>
> http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5062&Itemid=207
>
> and
>
> https://www.google.com/search?q=Penh+%22500+meter%22+internet+cafe+school&lr=&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=DHktUsr4M4fRkgXZt4CgBQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=564#facrc=_&imgrc=vHrInVRwY-NCdM%3A%3BB07fhLsihMLmKM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Flivinginpp.files.wordpress.com%252F2012%252F12%252F874-map-internetbuffer_zoom-1.jpg%253Fw%253D459%2526h%253D600%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Falfredmeier.me%252F2012%252F12%25 2F15%252Fcomplete-ban-on-internet-cafes-in-central-phnom-penh%252F%3B459%3B600
>
> - a number of legally established NGOs raised their voices together, addressing such actions of the authorities; the ISOC Cambodia Chapter was not part of it, as we are – legally speaking – a non entity. And surely this would also not have helped the “local fundraising” which ISOC staff outside of our situation had recommended
>
> 3. Impressions (again with some quotes from the past from the Chapter-Delegates List)
>
> During the following months a process of discussion for a revision of the bylaws of ISOC international was going on, reflected also on the Chapter Delegates List. During this process, a number of other ISOC Chapter representatives were hoping for a revision which would give a clearer position to the Chapters – as “members” of ISOC with a substantial representation on the ISOC Board of Trustees - so that members concerns would have an institutional voice in ISOC decision making (former voices from the Chapters List: “...the Board does not yet understand that the primary role of many Chapters locally and in other contexts is as participants in Civil Society. From that point of view a 50:50 representation on the Board of Chapters on the one hand and the industry on the other hand would be more appropriate - and would I believe be applauded internationally”). – “There is still no overarching statement... as to the objectives of the ISOC. This would be useful, particularly if it clearly specified the civil society dimension of the work of the Internet Society” - that such a hope was considered to be not important for formalistic reasons by ISOC central staff shows exactly the reason, why there is such a wide discrepancy to the expectations of Chapters in certain societies.
>
> The greetings on the ISOC Portal: “Join - Join today and help shape the future of the internet” create assumptions which are not substantiated in the ISOC structures.
>
> The results of the ISOC bylaws revision show again a top down structure, where the Chapters of ISOC are not Members of ISOC, but are under the oversight of ISOC international, and ISOC international continues to regulate chapter affairs (a possible area of tension or conflict “...might be good to point out that in some countries such a document might as well go against national laws, in the best case, or be considered as an attempt to spread foreign influence in the country {which, again in some cases, might be illegal}”), including the possibility to suspend a Chapter, while ISOC international does not seem to have a similar procedure of suspending an Organizational Members from industry, in case their position might be in conflict with fundamental values of the Internet Society.
>
> In spite of the ISOC slogan “The Internet is for everyone” it's setup does not show this orientation clearly. When a member enters the Member Login on the ISOC portal here:
>
> https://portal.isoc.org/EBusiness/Home.aspx
>
> (is it for “business” that one enters?) one is greeted with
>
> “Make a Contribution”
> “Contributions are fully tax-deductible!”
> “Donate”
>
> In how many of the countries where there are ISOC members is this true – contributions to ISOC are tax-deductible?
>
> That there is a wide difference of opinions about the nature of ISOC became obvious time and again on the Chapter-Delegates list; I quote just some examples:
>
> Some ISOC old time members took “strong exception to an infographic” or said “my jaw dropped when I saw this” infographic, originating from the World Economic Forum about “The Future of the Internet,” which had been recommended for distribution and wide use by ISOC leadership. - The problem is not that there are different opinions; the problem is that it seems that such fundamental differences of opinion do not have an appropriate platform for discussion towards a broader or even common understanding.
>
> Who is ISOC when the Chapters are not Members? “...there are NOT two parties. There is one: the Internet Society.” - “But what we have got.... is an exceedingly one-sided dispute resolution policy! In this context, who is ISOC? Clearly, the employed staff have no mandate or authorization to exercise powers over Chapters. So, who is going to do these things: 'place ... in a probationary state', etc.”
>
> At a former time it was stated on the Chapter-delegates List: “So as the paper is today: why should any chapter want to sign it? Would you sign a contract that only holds obligations but rather no benefits? Even not if you would be willing to fulfill the obligations! Or is the benefit in being a chapter as such? In using the name 'Internet Society' (as the Internet Society of China does)? Rather not - we are membership organization and any subgroup of members can probably organize themselves as e.g. 'Open ISOC Members Circle, Miami West' or so. - So if ISOC expects a commitment from its chapters it should commit something in turn.”
>
> Conclusion
>
> Given this situation of not having a “listening ear” in ISOC and responses from ISOC international or regional for our concerns, we suggest to our members to start the dissolution of the ISOC Cambodia Chapter – and to do it in an ordinary way according to the Bylaws:
>
> Article XII. - Dissolution of the Chapter
> 1. Dissolution of this Chapter by consent of the members shall consist of unanimous agreement of all its officers together with a majority vote at a meeting which has been publicized in advance to all members of the Chapter for the purpose of taking this vote.
>
> We would therefore call for such a meeting to discuss the dissolution of our Chapter, or not to do so in case practical and timely ways would show up within one months from sending out this mail. Such a meeting shall be convened as follows:
>
> Location: #8, St. 352, BKK1, Phnom Penh (Open Institute new office)
> Date and Time: October 26, 2013 at 2:00PM
>
> We regret to see no other way but to suggest these steps.
>
> At the same time I would like to state that the use of the Internet in our country has bee increasing considerably, and in all of these, members of our Chapter are involved:
>
> There are over 1,100,000 Facebook users,
> BarCamps - http://barcamp.org/w/page/405173/TheRulesOfBarCamp - have not only been held annually since 2008 in the capital city of Phnom Penh with hundreds of participants every time, but also in six provincial centers during the last and the present years,
> a self-organized Hackerspace center - http://hackerspaces.org/wiki - is in operation since some years providing a space for hard- and software learning and exchange,
> Last year, our Chapter invited the top leadership of all ISPs and all Mobile Phone Providers in Cambodia, in response to communications with the Asia Pacific Network Information Center -http://www.apnic.net - to a meeting with the APNIC Director on IPv6. Recently, the Director General of the Ministry of Post informed us that subsequent discussions with APNIC will lead to establish IPv6 systems in Cambodia in 2014.
> Recently, after informal operations for two years with local enthusiasm and international support towards its establishment, “Open Development Cambodia” - www.opendevelopmentcambodia.net - an online hub compiling freely available data to help consolidate access to up-to-date information and maps about land usage, land concessions and other critically important information related to the economic and political developments of the country. It was established as a non-profit organization under the laws of Cambodia. Both I and our former Chapter president were involved in these efforts, and we were now invited to be on their Board of Directors.
>
> I mention these examples to indicate that the communication society in Cambodia is very active. No coordinating body exists in the country for questions of human rights and communication freedom. We regret that our efforts to establish an ISOC Chapter did not receive the necessary institutional support.
> Be Chantra
> Secretary, ISOC Cambodia Chapter
> chantra.be at gmail.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically subscribed
> to this list, which is regularly synchronized with the Internet Society
> Chapter Portal (AMS): https://portal.isoc.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/private/chapter-delegates/attachments/20130923/b1f3b687/attachment.htm>
More information about the Chapter-delegates
mailing list