[Chapter-delegates] Revised Chapter Agreement

Wed Sep 6 00:14:52 PDT 2017

Thank you very much Raul for all the clarifications you provided.

Greetings from ISOC Tunisia.

On Sep 6, 2017 04:52, "Carlos Vera" <cveraq at gmail.com> wrote:

> Let's put it simple: most chapters with experienced leaders share
> identical concerns and some chapters with new leadership will do soon or
> later.
>
>
> I see identical concerns from Asia, Europe and of course América. And also
> exactly (as must be in a corporation) the same kind of answers from staff
> mid and high level.
>
>
> We are doing our best to keep the chapters working and running in the
> middle of a necessary balance between local laws, HQ agreement and
> practical ways of maintain them surviving..  it's simply to understood that
> the carrot-and-stick approach is not working in favor of a big presence of
> the chapters but as a way to justify a year to year growing and diverse
> staff that need more things to control and role to plays or disappear.
>
>
> We have every year more and more rules, reports, controls and
> responsibilities that simply put our attention, far away of what really is
> important: the Internet for everyone objective.
>
>
> As we have more and more things to do for the staff, we see more and more
> people receiving fellowships without any chapter intervention, which is
> also another challenge because the volunteers need some options for them to
> work. Every time we send some or our most active member to one fellowship
> we have a returning volunteer working with us. Every time we have an
> external receiving a fellowship out of the chapter we have an individual
> who ask for less volunteer work and more fellowships "for free"
>
>
> Any Fellowship in which ISOC HQ put some money must be totally under the
> control of chapters..  if not it does not make sense for us to organize
> people, develop projects, run several meetings, attend monthly meetings
> with staff and more volunteer work if anyone doing nothing can still have
> same and even best options to act "representing" our community through
> fellowships we need to maintain the hard work of the chapters.
>
>
> I respectfully ask to the staff be more productive working closely with
> chapters and not parallel and even against us as sometimes we all feel.
>
>
> Carlos Vera
> isoc Ecuador
>
> On Sep 5, 2017, at 5:21 PM, Alejandro Pisanty <apisanty at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Raul,
>
> indeed and yet not. The Chapter Agreement and related instruments are only
> as good as the depth to which goals are shared and trust prevails; as good
> as all parties involved feel they are respected in their professional
> competence, political experience, and ethical trustworthiness. The Chapters
> are not satellites and they are not branch offices. They are
> self-constituted entities which share a mission with all others in the ISOC
> organization.
>
> The Chapter Agreement has a structural contradiction in the incentives it
> creates and ISOC central has to be very mindful of this. It requires or at
> least requests that the Chapters be constituted as full-fledged independent
> organizations, legally recognized, governed by rules, big enough to allow
> diversity and a rotation of leadership, of weight enough to be influential
> in politics and policy, all of which may in turn require legal compliance,
> a lot of lawyering, administrative burdens for transparency and
> accountability, dealing with all kinds of authorities, and political
> exposure both favorable and of risk. Some of our Chapters, further, are in
> countries where any organized activity is high risk, all the more so if it
> promotes openness in any of its senses.
>
> It is hard to ask such an organization to submit itself meekly to a set of
> administrative requirements without fulfilling at the same time the
> conditions in my first paragraph above. The Agreement must commit both
> parts equitably. A pound of flesh from each if that is the measure. And as
> I have tried to explain many times over the years. ISOC global suffers when
> it acts regionally or locally without integration. At the very least you
> end up going to the wrong office and making the wrong statement at the
> wrong time; and your opportunity cost rises exponentially.
>
> The practical consequence is that you leave yourself more room to
> accomodate Chapter specifics (there's plenty of staff now for that) and you
> make and deliver on commitments from HQ that really mean something
> substantive for the Chapters as parts of a whole larger than the sum of its
> parts.
>
> Alejandro Pisanty
>
> On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 4:42 PM, Raul Echeberria <echeberria at isoc.org>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> Alejandro,
>>
>> Your email goes much beyond the issue of the Revised Chapter Agreement.
>> I would suggest to keep the focus on this topic on this thread.
>>
>> Your comments about the role of the staff are not appropriate. The Staff
>> doesn’t play games with the chapters as you suggest neither choose
>> favorites and the only idea of using ISOC resources for supporting those
>> games is something absolutely unacceptable. I’m happy to discuss with you
>> any specific accusation and be sure we would take measure if something like
>> that would be proved.
>>
>> With regard to Chapters involvement in international meetings, we have
>> made huge progresses in the last couple of years, in fact you Alejandro
>> yourself have participated in ISOC delegations in a very productive manner.
>> Next month 5 chapters leaders will join ISOC delegation to WTDC. And this
>> is not an isolated case, this is the habit in present times.
>>
>> We always try to coordinate with local chapters in every meeting. Of
>> course, we can make mistakes sometimes, but mistakes are just mistakes, not
>> the way we proceed. In some cases even the problem is not the communication
>> between the Staff and the chapters but the internal communication at the
>> chapter level,
>> We are happy to correct anything we are doing wrong in that sense, but I
>> hope it could be recognized the effort that has been made in the last few
>> years in this area, not only in implementing fellowship programs oriented
>> to the chapters,  for participating in ISOC delegations to International
>> meetings, but also in the selection of the fellows, according to the
>> recommendations submitted by the Chapters to the Board.
>>
>>
>> Coming back to the topic of the subject, I think this dialogue has been
>> very fruitful. We have taken notes of all the comments and all your
>> opinions and we will try to accommodate most of them in a new revision of
>> the agreement.
>>
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Raúl
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> El 5 set. 2017, a las 15:13, Alejandro Pisanty <apisanty at gmail.com>
>> escribió:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> clearly Chapter officials rotation is not an easy proposition. We go
>> through several generations in the formation of new leaders before some are
>> ready, available, and clear of conflicts for time with their day jobs, as
>> well as conflicts of interest such as working for government in Internet
>> policy-making fields, having clients whose needs in litigation may be at
>> variance with ISOC's positions, and so on. Other than a general call for
>> renewal any crisp-set rules are bound to clash with reality.
>>
>> The need to incorporate new perspectives and people in leadership must be
>> strengthened internally in the chapter. Otherwise too many incentives are
>> created for intervention and manipulation by ISOC mid-level staff, who can
>> play games with resources, choose favorites, enter into blame games, and on
>> the other hand lose sight of the difficulties and failures of the
>> leadership they choose to support.
>>
>> Now let's for a minute imagine an ISOC that was built as a federation of
>> independently founded societies, as indeed is the case for a few of the
>> older chapters (and also is a little bit with some new ones, whose members
>> are simultaneously members in some other local organization such as a trade
>> association or an NGO.) What would we agree with a central administration
>> and representation that we created?
>>
>> We would put substance first, not form. One egregious disrespect that
>> continues to happen is that ISOC delegations arrive at international
>> events, such as those in the ITU's global and regional processes, without
>> due advance coordination with the local chapter. To their surprise, the
>> local Chapter is all over, invited by the local host, participating in
>> consultations and even drafting documents... all on their own, and not
>> being able to be decisive enough because the "party line" remains unknown.
>> Ditto for ICANN, IGF WSIS Forum and so on. Further ditto for the processes
>> where governments are taking their stuff away from multistakeholder
>> mechanisms altogether. There is an asymmetry of trust that is hurtful to
>> all parties in the long run.
>>
>> Re-balancing the HQ/Central-Chapter relationship will take much more work
>> than just refining the Charter's provisions for managing Chapters
>> internally.
>>
>> Alejandro Pisanty
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 2:34 AM, Borka Jerman Blazic <borka at e5.ijs.si>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> In ISOC SI we had more than 50% Internet wide members that never
>>> appeared in the chapter communications or activities.
>>> We did not had as well any information why they were enrolled as our
>>> members. In that context I believe that  chapters
>>> should have the responsibility to conduct themselves based on high NGO
>>> standards  that are either visible or are checked
>>> each year.  However, being ISOC member global  is  attractive for the
>>> chapter membership, but most of the chapter activities
>>> should lay on local institutions and members that are engaged and work
>>> within the local community.
>>>
>>> So any firm restrictions in that context  are not appropriate in the new
>>> Chapter agreement.
>>>
>>> With regards,
>>>
>>> Borka
>>>
>>>
>>> Susannah Gray je 4.9.2017 ob 22:23 napisal:
>>>
>>>> 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
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically subscribed
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>>>> Chapter Portal (AMS): https://portal.isoc.org
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Prof.dr.Borka Jerman-Blažič Head, Laboratory for Open systems and
>>> Networks Jožef Stefan Institute and Faculty of Economics, Ljubljana
>>> University Slovenia tel. +386 1 477 3408 <+386%201%20477%2034%2008>
>>> tel. +386 1 477 3756 <+386%201%20477%2037%2056> mob. +386 41 678 410
>>> <+386%2041%20678%20410>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>>      Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
>> Facultad de Química UNAM
>> Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico
>> +52-1-5541444475 <+52%201%2055%204144%204475> FROM ABROAD
>> +525541444475 <+52%2055%204144%204475> DESDE MÉXICO SMS +525541444475
>> <+52%2055%204144%204475>
>> 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
>>
>
>
>
> --
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>      Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
> Facultad de Química UNAM
> Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico
> +52-1-5541444475 <+52%201%2055%204144%204475> FROM ABROAD
> +525541444475 <+52%2055%204144%204475> DESDE MÉXICO SMS +525541444475
> <+52%2055%204144%204475>
> 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
>
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