[Chapter-delegates] Revised Chapter Agreement

[Raul Echeberria]

Dear Susannah, 

Thank you for your comment. It gives me the opportunity to clarify something important. 
The only thing it has been proposed is that the chapters set in their own governance documents the limit of terms that a person can serve in the Board. 

It has not been proposed any specific number. 

So nobody is asking the chapters to rotate their board members very often or to force a renovation in a given time. 

It is up to you to decide if a person can serve 2,3 or 5 consecutive terms. We are just proposing that you decide it and that you include it in your governance documents. 

Maybe it has not been clear enough so far in the conversation. 

The spirit is what you say in your mail: 

“… I am fully in agreement that chapters need to rotate leadership, encourage young leaders and actively engage in succession planning” 
And, as far as I understand,  it coincides also with the sentiment expressed by Christian de Larrinaga in one of his email and with others’ opinions. 

 The issue is that it is important to think and work in the succession planning. And those who participated in some of next gen programs or in a IG school 6-7 years ago, today they have 6 or 7 years more of experience. 
Those who are participating in the Youth@ IGF in 2017 will be veterans in 5 years. 

We/you have to think in how to create the best mechanisms in our chapters to promote the participation and to attract new members. 
And take advantage of all those leadership programs thinking in the people who will take the lead of the chapter in a few years, not necessarily immediately. 

Coaching and mentoring are some of the ideas that have been expressed here and I fully agree with that. We can work together in improving our existing programs and to think in new ones. 

So far, the only requirement is that you, not the staff, set a limit for consecutive reelections, whatever that limit is. 


Best 

Raúl 





> El 4 set. 2017, a las 17:23, Susannah Gray <susannah.gray at gmail.com> escribió:
> 
> Hi Raul, all
> 
> 
> On 01/09/2017 10:41, Raul Echeberria wrote:
>> 
>> <snip>
>> 
>> The number of Internet users have increased very much and the number of people involved in Internet development and policy matters have grown very much too. There are several (ISOC runs some of them) programs for developing new leaders. New people is coming on board every year. Youth at IGF, NextGen leaders, Youth SIG, the numerous IG schools are just some examples of those initiatives. We have to learn how to take advantage of all these new leaders that ara being formed by different organizations.
> - Just a quick comment on this. I am fully in agreement that chapters need to rotate leadership, encourage young leaders and actively engage in succession planning.
> 
> However, I believe it's not always possible or in the best interests of a chapter to rotate leadership frequently, as several others have pointed out.
> 
> The SF-Bay Area Chapter has often had trouble recruiting Board Members. In the past, before I joined, I know the Board even talked about closing the chapter (one of the largest with over 2,000 members) because no one wanted to take over the Chair role.
> 
> Running a successful chapter is similar to having a full time job or running a small business when you consider the amount of administration that needs to be done (website maintenance, finances, reporting taxes, member admin and engagement, social media, project management, event planning, Board meetings, keeping track of mailing lists etc. ).
> 
> Admin and Board commitments take up a lot of time. Young leaders/those in the Next Gen programs are often at the beginnings of their careers and are working hard to climb the career ladder or are still studying, leaving little time for anything else. They may also not be able to ask for flexibility from an employer to carry out or contribute fully to Board/Chapter duties, which may be easier for people at a more advanced stage of their career.
> 
> While I would love to have a graduate of any of the programs mentioned above on the SF-Bay Area Chapter Board, my personal opinion is that overstretched Boards generally need people on their Boards who already have Board experience, need little coaching, know the industry and who can jump in and offer much needed advice and support from the outset as this greatly reduces the workload on existing Board members.
> 
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Susannah
> 
> ---
> Susannah Gray
> President & Chair
> San Francisco-Bay Area Internet Society Chapter
> www.sfbayisoc.org
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