[Chapter-delegates] Message from Internet Society Audit Committee Chair

Thu Nov 5 11:42:07 PST 2020

I agree with Olivier's comments below.

Best
Richard 

On November 5, 2020 5:39:17 PM GMT+01:00, "Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond via Chapter-delegates" <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>Dear Heather,
>
>thank you for your kind message and thank you for raising the issue of
>Conflict of Interest Policy with Chapters. This email is meant to share
>my personal comments regarding the policy as it currently stands and to
>question how this was established.
>
>First, how it was established. From your email, it appears that this
>conflict of interest policy was adopted unanimously by the Board of
>Trustees earlier this year - without any formal input from the very
>people affected by the policy, that is the three communities from which
>candidates on the Board of Trustees are drawn. Whilst I agree that, in
>principle, a Conflict of Interest policy is needed in any organisation,
>I wonder what was the trigger for this sudden waking of the sleeping
>dragon after so many years where the matter had not been addressed, and
>there did not appear to have been cause for concern. Why were the
>relevant communities not consulted?
>
>Why do I call this a sleeping dragon? Because whilst I agree with you
>that the "Independent Policy View" section needs further review, it's a
>bit late to involve Chapters now that the section's already been passed
>by the Board. Plus, it awakens all sorts of questions, which I'll point
>out below.
>
>So let's see the two main paragraphs:
>
>/Individuals in the board or the leadership of organizations that
>operate in ISOC’s areas of engagement shall not serve as trustees,
>unless the engagement is on behalf of or at the request of ISOC’s
>Board.
>Individuals who are directly involved in the policy development process
>of these organizations shall not serve as Interested Parties. These
>organizations include, but are not limited to, ICANN (Internet
>Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and the IGF (Internet
>Governance Forum).
>
>Chapters
>
>Given ISOC’s relation with its chapters, members of the leadership of
>an
>ISOC chapter, which include th//e chapter’s president and treasurer,
>shall not serve as ISOC trustees/
>
>I have a serious problem with the specific mentioning and therefore
>targeting of ICANN and IGF. This is not only because I am involved as a
>volunteer in these two organisations, but because it unfairly targets
>the involvement of most of our Chapter members in Internet Governance,
>whether at ICANN or IGF - and an overwhelming majority of Chapter
>members are involved as volunteers in these organisations. *
>
>I would go further that their involvement in these organisations create
>the very fabric that the multistakeholder model is built on. Without
>this, there is no multistakeholder model. Is this what the Internet
>Society wants?*
>
>  * Why is there a focus on organisations that used to be, in the past,
>    referred to as the I-star organisations, organisations that were
>    viewed as friends, but now appear to be no longer? Why were more
>    "distant" organisations, like ITU, or the IEEE, or ACM not given as
>    an example?
>  * Why is there a mention of "individuals who are directly involved in
>    the policy development process of these organisations" instead of
>    referring to being in their leadership? There is no difference made
>    between being in the leadership of an organisation and contributing
>    benevolently to a working group.
>  * Why is there an ill-conceived mention of "policy development"
>    relating to IGF? The Internet Governance Forum does not make any
>    policy, it is... a discussion forum - this sentence is embarrassing
>    for ISOC as it appears to point at ignorance of this basic point.
> * If deciding to open the can of worms, why not open it fully and also
>    include conflict of interests of individuals that work for large
>    corporations that are directly involved in Internet Governance -
>    corporations that could benefit from ISOC's "independent policy
>    views" advocacy on a National or International level? They get paid
>   by these corporations - surely that's a greater conflict of interest
>    than the one of volunteers?
>
>The Conflict of Interest policy, as it currently stands, could prevent
>a
>lot of very competent people from taking on positions on the ISOC Board
>of Trustees. This blanket ban throws the baby out with the bath water.
>Worse: it is discriminatory towards a specific type of volunteer. Is
>this really what ISOC wants?
>
>Instead of a policy that stops people from taking office altogether, if
>there is a deep concern in the ISOC Board of Trustees that conflicts of
>interest are a strong reality that needs to be addressed, perhaps is it
>time to:
>
>1. Have a policy that allows all Board members to declare their
>interests publicly, for all to see, on a publicly accessible page,
>which
>can be updated regularly.
>
>2. Have a policy that allow Board members to recuse themselves from
>discussions where their other commitments pose a conflict of Interest
>for this topic only. I understand that one or more members of the Board
>did exactly this during the PIR discussions.
>
>3. Have a policy that allows the ISOC Board of Trustees to be
>accountable to the ISOC Community, the channel for the Internet Society
>to continue to excel in its Mission as listed in
>https://www.internetsociety.org/mission/  - so the Internet Society
>does
>not risk being used as a lobbying tool for vested interests?
>
>
>As I said, these are my personal views. I accept that I might be out of
>line, but my interest here is to safeguard the Internet
>multistakeholder
>model and when I see a friendly organisation wandering towards
>fragmenting this vulnerable ecosystem into "us against them" amongst
>its
>friends, I cannot keep my mouth shut.
>
>Kindest regards,
>
>
>Olivier
>
>
>
>On 04/11/2020 01:35, Heather West via Chapter-delegates wrote:
>>
>> As Chair of the Internet Society Audit Committee, I wanted to share
>an
>> update with you.
>>
>>
>> As you may know, the Audit Committee reviews the Conflict of Interest
>> forms filed by members of the Board of Trustees and officers of the
>> Internet Society to ensure that we are in compliance with our
>Conflict
>> of Interest (“CoI”) policy.
>>
>> The CoI policy states that members of the Board of Trustees cannot
>> hold a position in the policy development process in another
>> organization operating in the Internet Society’s areas of engagement,
>> and we are evaluating a situation where this restriction may be
>> relevant. One of our Trustees has been appointed as a non-voting
>> member to the GSNO Council, the Generic Names Supporting Organization
>> – a policy-development body that develops and recommends policies
>> relating to generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to the ICANN Board.
>>
>> The Internet Society has a long history of collaborating with our
>> diverse community from around the world, and is committed to having
>> vibrant and robust global engagement. We work across countries and
>> cultures and seek diverse cross-organizational expertise. This makes
>> us stronger—sound practices and clear policies are a critical part of
>> that.
>>
>> We recognize that the expertise of our trustees is also valued by
>> other groups. At the same time, our community is best served when
>> board members are able to maintain their independence from other
>> organizational interests that are in the Internet Society’s areas of
>> engagement.
>>
>> While our CoI policy was adopted unanimously by the Board of Trustees
>> earlier this year, the Board has determined that a section addressing
>> a conflict under the “Independent Policy View” section needs further
>> review. The Governance Committee will evaluate this section with the
>> goal of providing its assessment and recommendations to the Board for
>> further discussion.  We anticipate this work will be concluded by the
>> time of our next Board of Trustees meeting.
>>
>> Below is the link to our Conflict of Interest policy on the Internet
>> Society website. 
>>
>> https://www.internetsociety.org/coi-policy/
>> <https://www.internetsociety.org/coi-policy/>  
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Heather West
>> Audit Committee, Chair, Internet Society Board of Trustees
>>
>>   
>>
>> =========== Español =========== 
>>
>> Como presidente del Comité de Auditoría de Internet Society, quería
>> compartir una actualización con ustedes.
>>
>> Como saben, el Comité de Auditoría revisa los formularios de
>Conflicto
>> de Interés presentados por miembros de la Junta Directiva y
>> funcionarios de Internet Society para asegurarse de que cumplimos con
>> nuestra política de Conflicto de Interés ("CoI").
>>
>> La política de CoI establece que los miembros de la Junta Directiva
>no
>> pueden ocupar un puesto en el proceso de desarrollo de políticas en
>> otra organización que opere en las áreas de participación de Internet
>> Society, y estamos evaluando una situación en la que esta restricción
>> puede ser relevante. Un integrante de la Junta Directiva ha sido
>> designado como miembro sin derecho a voto del Consejo de GSNO, la
>> Organización de Apoyo para Nombres Genéricos, un organismo de
>> desarrollo de políticas que desarrolla y recomienda políticas
>> relacionadas con los dominios genéricos de nivel superior (gTLD) a la
>> Junta de ICANN.
>>
>> Internet Society tiene un largo historial de colaboración con nuestra
>> diversa comunidad de todo el mundo y está comprometida a tener un
>> compromiso global vibrante y sólido. Trabajamos en distintos países y
>> culturas y buscamos diversos conocimientos especializados entre
>> organizaciones. Esto nos hace más fuertes: las prácticas sólidas y
>las
>> políticas claras son una parte fundamental de eso.
>>
>> Reconocemos que la experiencia de los integrantes de nuestra Junta
>> Directiva también es valorada por otros grupos. Al mismo tiempo, se
>> sirve mejor a nuestra comunidad cuando los miembros de la Junta
>pueden
>> mantener su independencia de otros intereses organizacionales que
>> se encuentran en las áreas de participación de Internet Society.
>>
>> Si bien nuestra política de CoI fue adoptada por unanimidad por la
>> Junta Directiva a principios de este año, la Junta ha determinado que
>> una sección que aborda un conflicto en la sección "Opinión de la
>> política independiente" necesita más revisión. El Comité de Gobierno
>> evaluará esta sección con el objetivo de proporcionar su evaluación y
>> recomendaciones a la Junta para su posterior discusión. Anticipamos
>> que este trabajo concluirá en el momento de nuestra próxima reunión
>de
>> la Junta Directiva.
>>
>> A continuación se muestra el enlace a nuestra política de Conflicto
>de
>> Interés en el sitio web de Internet Society.
>>
>> https://www.internetsociety.org/coi-policy/
>> <https://www.internetsociety.org/coi-policy/>
>>
>> Sinceramente,
>>
>> Heather West
>>
>> Presidente, Comité de Auditoría, Junta Directiva de Internet Society 
>>
>>
>> =========== Français ===========
>>
>> En tant que président du comité d'audit de l'Internet Society, je
>> voudrais vous faire part d'une mise à jour.
>>
>>
>> Comme vous le savez peut-être, le comité d'audit examine les
>> formulaires de conflit d'intérêt remplis par les membres du conseil
>> d'administration et les dirigeants de l'Internet Society afin de
>> s'assurer que nous sommes en conformité avec notre politique, en
>> matière de conflit d'intérêt ("CoI").
>>
>>
>> La politique en matière de conflits d'intérêts stipule que les
>membres
>> du conseil d'administration ne peuvent pas occuper de poste dans le
>> processus d'élaboration des politiques d'une autre organisation
>> opérant dans les domaines d'engagement de l'Internet Society, et nous
>> évaluons actuellement une situation dans laquelle cette restriction
>> pourrait s’avérer pertinente. L'un de nos administrateurs a été nommé
>> membre sans droit de vote du Conseil du GSNO, soit l'Organisation de
>> soutien des noms génériques - un organe d'élaboration des politiques
>> qui élabore et recommande au conseil d'administration de l'ICANN des
>> politiques relatives aux domaines génériques de premier niveau
>(gTLD).
>>
>>
>> L'Internet Society collabore depuis longtemps avec notre communauté
>> diversifiée du monde entier, et s'engage à avoir un engagement
>mondial
>> dynamique et solide. Nous travaillons à travers les pays et les
>> cultures et recherchons une expertise transversale diversifiée. Cela
>> nous permet d'avoir des pratiques plus solides - et des politiques
>> claires sont un élément essentiel dans cette démarche.
>>
>>
>> Nous reconnaissons que l'expertise de nos administrateurs est
>> également appréciée par d'autres groupes. En même temps, notre
>> communauté est mieux servie lorsque les membres du conseil
>> d'administration sont capables de maintenir leur indépendance par
>> rapport aux intérêts d’autres organisations qui sont dans les
>domaines
>> d'engagement de l'Internet Society.
>>
>>
>> Bien que notre politique de CoI ait été adoptée à l'unanimité par le
>> conseil d'administration au début de cette année, le conseil a
>> déterminé qu'une section traitant d'un conflit dans la section
>> "Independent Policy View" doit faire l'objet d'un examen plus
>> approfondi. Le comité de gouvernance évaluera cette section dans le
>> but de fournir son évaluation et ses recommandations au conseil
>> d'administration pour une discussion plus approfondie. Nous prévoyons
>> que ce travail sera terminé d'ici la prochaine réunion du conseil
>> d'administration.
>>
>>
>> Vous trouverez ci-dessous le lien vers notre politique en matière de
>> conflits d'intérêts sur le site web de l'Internet Society.
>>
>> https://www.internetsociety.org/coi-policy/
>> <https://www.internetsociety.org/coi-policy/>
>>
>>
>> Sincèrement,
>>
>> Heather West
>>
>> Président du comité d'audit, du conseil d'administration de
>l'Internet
>> Society
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically
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>> to this list, which is regularly synchronized with the Internet
>Society Chapter Portal (AMS):
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>> View the Internet Society Code of Conduct:
>https://www.internetsociety.org/become-a-member/code-of-conduct/

-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
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