[Chapter-delegates] Revised Chapter Agreement

Wed Aug 2 07:05:13 PDT 2017

Dear Veni,

Unless I misunderstood the situation, the new Agreement was not presented to the Chapters Advisory Council for formal comment.  It was presented to the Chapters Advisory Council Steering Committee (SC) for informal comment.  Most of the comments made by members of the SC were taken into account.

Best,

Richard

From: Chapter-delegates [mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of Veni Markovski
Sent: Wednesday, August 2, 2017 15:41
To: Glenn McKnight; brandt.dainow at gmail.com
Cc: ISOC Chapter Delegates
Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Revised Chapter Agreement

Brandt is actually right about the fact that getting funding from ISOC might be problematic in certain jurisdictions. 

In Russia, for example, if you get funds from ISOC, you'd have to register as a "foreign agent", which has a lot of negatives, and not only in connotation. I'm not sure if our Russian colleagues are following this mail thread, but they may say what problems they're facing. 

The document presents ISOC as if it looks to the chapters as subsidiaries, where funding is directly related to following some requirements. Since chapters elext some of the Board members, perhaps a slightly more balanced approach could be created, or at least we should know what the Chapter Advisory Council recommended to the staff and which of the recommendations were taken into account. 

As of the moment, I've sent the document to our board for a review. Given the fact that it is August, and in Europe people are usually at vacation, I hope we could have the real discussion in September? 

On Wed, Aug 2, 2017 at 08:45 Glenn McKnight <mcknight.glenn at gmail.com> wrote:

Re: Brandt's comments

An interesting perspective on the new MOU.  This is one way to look but I would suggest the document strives to professionalize the chapters which aims to 'raise all boats' to a professional standard of performance. Its aim is for more transparency and accountability.  Typical things like a bank account, elections, reporting etc are all hallmarks of a well run local operation.  As to being a local 'mouthpiece'. this is a good idea too so that the chapter becomes a go to organization speaking on Internet issues.   
Thanks to the Advisory Committee in their efforts to updating a document that was out of step and time with what Chapters can become. 

Glenn

Glenn McKnight
mcknight.glenn at gmail.com
skype  gmcknight
twitter gmcknight

289-830 6259
.

On Wed, Aug 2, 2017 at 8:38 AM, Brandt Dainow <brandt.dainow at gmail.com> wrote:

There is nothing in this document which offers more support to chapters.  The only thing this document does is increase control over chapters by central office.  It obliges chapters to engage in additional activities as a condition of being funded, despite the fact all funding must be applied for in advance via detailed proposals and may be refused.  It offers nothing positive to the chapters.  It is merely an effort to restrict the independence of chapters and reduce their ability to adapt to local circumstance.  I am particularly concerned it demands on-going lobbying activity as a condition of being a chapter.  I am fairly sure this will make some chapters illegal in some countries where lobbying by foreign-funded organisations is illegal.

To be balanced, there should be some reciprocal reaching out by central office - such as better communication and listening to chapters.  For example, this document should have been put to the chapters as a discussion document for feedback months before it was finalised.  The fact it was not indicates ISOC is anti-democratic, and run by a small central group who, in my view, have failed to recognise ISOC is not the same type of organisation as it was 10-20 years ago.

Regards,
Brandt Dainow
brandt.dainow at gmail.com

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brandt_Dainow
http://www.imediaconnection.com/profiles/brandt.dainow

-----Original Message-----
From: Chapter-delegates [mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of Alan Levin
Sent: 02 August 2017 08:56
To: Joyce Dogniez; ISOC Chapter Delegates; chapter-support at isoc.org
Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Revised Chapter Agreement

Hi all,

> On 31 Jul 2017, at 12:06 PM, Joyce Dogniez <dogniez at isoc.org> wrote:
> With the increased financial support to our Chapters we also have an increased responsibility and accountability towards our community. It is the responsibility of Internet Society s leadership to manage its funds in a responsible and transparent manner.
> This implies that the legal relationship between Internet Society and its Chapters needs to be well defined.

Thanks for this. I think it s very good!  Well done Joyce and others :)

>   Purpose of Chapter.
> The purpose of the Chapter shall be to support the Internet Society s vision, mission, and operating principles in the Territory.

I agree that this is one purpose of the Internet Society of South Africa, and the purpose of this agreement :)

One of our primary purposes as an association of Internet Society members, is to participate in the ICT policy making processes in our country. Another purpose is to assist our colleagues in other countries with their policy making in that country.

We have asked for over a decade for global support on national policy making activities. I have suggested that a policy analyst who can compare various trending policies to be able to provide us with important international data about other policies in other countries of similar nature. For example we have a Cybersecurity Bill in our Parliamentary process and it will be invaluable to see an analysis of it s components compared to other countries that have already been through that process, ideally not a US centric or  North  view, something neutral would be ideal.

So regards this section:
> Internet Society Support.
> The Internet Society will provide the following support to the chapters in accordance with ISOC s annual business plan:

I suggest again that we need support from ISOC Global to provide a global policy analyst to assist with support on National Policy Making activities. This should not be a local activity, it s not regional, it's a global policy analyst  activity need that we have had for decades. Please help !

Sincerely

Alan Levin
ISOC-ZA
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_______________________________________________
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

-- 

Best regards,
Veni
http://veni.com

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== Sent from my phone, so any spelling mistakes are caused by the touchscreen keyboard. Also, that's the reason for using short words and phrases. 

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