[Chapter-delegates] Issues facing Chapters

Wed May 21 04:11:37 PDT 2014

Engaging local stakeholders is done at various levels and functions
depending on activity or event. The more engagement we have the more we
raise ISOC profile and visibility. In most cases, the involvement of the
media is paramount if at all one has to reach a wider audience.

Charles,

Yes. I agree. Could you share with us some the engagements you have carried
out or planning to do so. Also, how you are engaging the media?

So far since getting recognition we have successfully undertaken several
activities, mostly funded by the ISOC grant. These are internet Governance
forums, Chapter launch and IPV6 Day. The other project that gave as a
little milage was the ICT Swahili translation wiki project
http://dcom.co.ke/index.php?title=Main_Page that UNESCO supported.

We are currently planning to hold the national IG forum early July. Snce we
do not have organizational members at the moment, we will entirely rely on
the 2000$ event funding, which might not be enough to cater for all the
anticipated expenses. The WG is working at ways of engaging other
stakeholders for extra support. Participation to this years forum is
expected to be double last years, looking at the interest from members and
the strategies being adopted by the organizing team.

On media, publicity is paramount, and if we need to reach wide coverage,
adequate resources to to enable advertising is necessary.

The IGF ambassadors program is separate from chapter funding. Not sure
about its status in 2014.
What I was referring to here is the local Internet Governance Forum that we
are organizing in July. This is the second time we are hosting the local
IGF forum. If we cannot get adequate financial support, then we might not
even send a team to the East African IGF scheduled for Dar es Salaam
Tanzania in August were we are supposed to present our cases, or even the
African IGF to be held in Nigeria, leave alone the global IGF.

IGFs notwithstanding, we are also supposed to undertake other local events
like campus outreach activities as well as engage stakeholders by holding
workshops to address current burning issues like cyber security, among
others.

Although we have plans to approach companies such as Google, Cisco and
Microsoft among others for support, but we are not sure of the outcomes.

Though we have ambitious plans, but we are taking the activities in phases
as resources become available, based on priority.

The other handicap is administrative costs, especially internet costs as
most of volunteers work from home. Having volunteered for the Chapter for
the last three years, I have felt it. The need to provide own resources and
time for things to move. In our midst also are volunteers, unemployed
college students, with passion but require some kind of support to make a
contribution.

Nevertheless, we are looking at various strategies to raise funds for
activities, especially for long-term sustainability. One such idea is
having an annual event that brings all ICT players together, in which we
could raise funds and resources to run for a year, in the process like the
one for ISOC Netherlands. But such a momentous task requires good planning
and engagement which we are still trying.

Gihan, That is a brief of our current situation.

Regards
Charles Oloo
Chair / President
Internet Society Kenya Chapter

On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 12:07 PM, O.C.Omar <cheickomar at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Gabriel,
> I'm from ISoc Burkina Faso Chapter which has just been approved weeks ago.
> I'm glad to see the question of financial assistance is discussed.
> We had a meeting of our local board last night and we discussed how to get
> our members involved and how to develop our own strategy to populate
> resources. For example, some members can't pay the us$28/anum membership
> fees. We are allowing them to pay it monthly. Of course this will not cover
> our administrative expenditure or activities to be done. But that's a
> beginning.
> Luckily, we have been introduced to past workshops resources and other
> material from Isoc that we need to use for our chapter, but we need to
> stick also to our environment. Africa is not a country, African countries
> are not the same. Most of them share a lot but they have several
> differences as well. In Burkina Faso we need to find strategies locally to
> raise funds. We don't always have to wait for sponsors even if their help
> is crucial. I'm afraid this is too common in several areas in Africa to
> always ask or expect for help. Financially speaking. This is my opinion and
> this is why personally I never wait for help before starting to do what I
> want to do. And this, I came to Isoc chapter Burkina Faso to share it as
> I'm confident it will help our Chapter on our Mission. In our board, we've
> got the chance to be discussing a lot together for more than a year, to
> share ideas about how to do things by ourselves before we ask for
> support/help. And some of our board members are pleased to give. Because we
> think as a new Chapter, we need to achieve few things before we can pretend
> to be helped on bigger projects locally.
>
> But, if Isoc is willing to help our new chapter with a "starter financial
> assistance", we are not going to refuse. That would significantly boost our
> debut on the ground. But we are not waiting for that to do what we have
> been waiting so long to do during the Chapter Recognition process.
>
> Regards
>
> O.C.Omar
> ISOC - Burkina Faso
> Tel. +226-70699999
>
>
> On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 4:30 AM, Gabriel Ramokotjo <
> gabrielramokotjo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm gonna agree with Chris on this one.
>>
>> Chapters in developing countries need further assistance both financially
>> and strengthening working relations with their respective Governments.
>>
>> Yes ISOC HQ leadership and staff are always there to provide support and
>> I can speak from our position as ISOC-Gauteng, but a bit of financial
>> assistance for new chapters to cover administration costs, will go a long
>> way in helping the chapters to achieve their mandate.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Gabriel
>> ISOC - Gauteng
>>
>> G.M Ramokotjo
>> On May 20, 2014 7:28 PM, "Alejandro Pisanty" <apisanty at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Gihan,
>>>
>>> the $2,000 USD that Chris Mulola is mentioning are conditional upon
>>> events organized by the Chapter.
>>>
>>> I am sure the chapters community will be happy to engage, as we have
>>> always done, in providing you all sorts of information that is well known
>>> within and across the organization, but maybe it is more efficient that you
>>> collect it from staff, sitting Trustees and other sources?
>>>
>>> Yours,
>>>
>>> Alejandro Pisanty
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 12:21 PM, Gihan Dias <gihan at uom.lk> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Chris,
>>>>
>>>> Let me give our experience in Sri Lanka, which may - of course - differ
>>>> from Rwanda or any other country.
>>>>
>>>> On 2014/05/18 ප.ව. 5:11, Chris Mulola wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> -A chapter in a developed world whereby there is presence of these IT
>>>>> company giants.
>>>>>
>>>>> - And a chapter in a developing country whereby there is no such thing
>>>>> like Google's presence etc. and that all the other international
>>>>> organizations, present in those countries, have only the mandate to help
>>>>> governments that host them.
>>>>>
>>>>>  Google (and other similar companies) now have offices in many
>>>> countries. Even if they have no office in Rwanda, they probably have local
>>>> companies marketing their products (such as mail) and usually part of their
>>>> budgets are earmarked for education, etc. We have got assistance from Intel
>>>> and Microsoft for projects. Of course, ISoc, and the chapter leaders, need
>>>> to establish a track record before people will give large amounts of money,
>>>> but it has not been difficult to get like $500-$1000.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Those organizations will have a mission to please these governments
>>>>> because that is what their job is - diplomacy and international affairs.
>>>>> And chapters will not get significant support from them like they are most
>>>>> of the times politically-oriented.
>>>>>
>>>>>  One strategy may be to tap into some existing programme, and try to
>>>> get your work done under that banner (but may not always work).
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I have been raising funds and fighting for support for more than 3
>>>>> years and i know what i am talking about.
>>>>>
>>>>>  Yes. I can understand your point.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Just recently, i was challenged by a question following some reports
>>>>> of what ISOC global pays as taxes on salaries to i dont know remember which
>>>>> organization.. and the question was like this:
>>>>>
>>>>> "I wonder how your organization can be ignoring you by giving you
>>>>> $2000 annual support and spend more than 12millions US dollars (please
>>>>>  check ISOC tax reports for the exact figure, it is about that) on taxes?
>>>>> The money you are given cannot even cover your administration needs let
>>>>> alone raise your visibility."
>>>>>
>>>>>  Could you let me have more details on this? I am not familiar with
>>>> ISoc's accounts.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> If given the power there is something that i would like to change in
>>>>> the way that isoc operates, i mean the working relationships between
>>>>> governments-isocChapters-isocGlobal.
>>>>>
>>>>>  I hope that together we can achieve this.
>>>>
>>>>> I guess the situation will be slightly different in countries whereby
>>>>> the Isoc people are the ones that  built the internet up along with their
>>>>> gover ments, here they will continue to have a strong say. Case for Older
>>>>> chapters i must say.
>>>>>
>>>> Even if the chapter is new, we should try to get some of the people who
>>>> have built, and are running, the networks, services, etc. in the ISoc
>>>> chapter. It is only then that people will take the chapter seriously.
>>>>
>>>>> I believe this will change one day, but it will not, if we continue to
>>>>> put these chapters in the same basket and treat them the same way,
>>>>> forgetting that they should be categorized, and given different kinds of
>>>>> support. Just as an example.....  Not $2000 for a chapter in New York or
>>>>> Colorado or Tokyo and the same $2000 for another one in Uganda or Burundi.
>>>>>
>>>> Actually, $2000 will not go far in New York, but may pay for a full
>>>> time person for a year in a developing country. So it's not too bad.
>>>> My suggestion is to first spend the $2000, show some very good results,
>>>> and then keep going.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Gihan
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically subscribed
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>>>> Chapter Portal (AMS): https://portal.isoc.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>>>      Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
>>> Facultad de Química UNAM
>>> Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico
>>> +52-1-5541444475 FROM ABROAD
>>> +525541444475 DESDE MÉXICO SMS +525541444475
>>> Blog: http://pisanty.blogspot.com
>>> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pisanty
>>> Unete al grupo UNAM en LinkedIn,
>>> http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/22285/4A106C0C8614
>>> Twitter: http://twitter.com/apisanty
>>> ---->> Unete a ISOC Mexico, http://www.isoc.org
>>> .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 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
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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
>>
>
>
>
> --
> O.C.Omar
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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
>
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