[Chapter-delegates] What should ISOC's future goals be? How can we work toward achieving them as ISOC Chapters?

[Richard Hill]

Dear George and Muhammed,

 

Here are my thoughts regarding your two questions:

 

1. Allocation of resources for activities: as far as I can tell, an overwhelming share of the resources is allocated to projects that are driven by staff. I would favor allocating more resources to chapters. I do realize that there are various mechanisms for chapters to request grants, in particular for projects, but I feel that it should be simpler for chapters to obtain grants, and that more funding should be available for chapters.

 

2. Effectiveness of activities: it seems to me that most of ISOC’s activities are US-centric. There are a number of reasons for this: it is a US organization, subject to US law, as Andrew frequently reminds us. But I think that ISOC would be more effective if it were less US-centric. That might require a change in ISOC’s legal status, but I understand that there is no prospect for discussing any such change in the foreseeable future. 

 

3. Effectiveness of exchange of information: in my view, the voice of the Chapters is not sufficiently reflected. I’m not sure how to address that. A number of proposals were made during the early stages of the Reform Group, but that group has been quiet for a while, perhaps because there hasn’t been much push from the co-chairs to restart discussions.

 

I agree with Gihan’s suggestion: “ ISOC [should] take a bottom-up approach in much of its activities, where the chapters (and org and individual members) initiate most of the work and the staff implement them under the guidance of the members. Right now, most programs are staff driven and have little input from members.”


Best,

Richard

 

From: Chapter-delegates [mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of George Sadowsky via Chapter-delegates
Sent: Monday, 20 September 2021 05:33
To: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
Cc: Muhammad Shabbir Awan
Subject: [Chapter-delegates] What should ISOC's future goals be? How can we work toward achieving them as ISOC Chapters?

 

Dear Chapter leaders,

 

We are two of the 12 current Trustees of the Internet Society.  We come from the ISOC chapter and individual member community.  We ran as Chapter candidates for election in 2020 and 2021 and we were elected by you as Trustees to join the Board.  This message is a request from us to you.

 

When a person joins the ISOC Board as a Trustee, they have a responsibility to the Society as a whole, not only to the community that elected them.  The other communities that elect Trustees to the Board are the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and ISOC's Organization members.  Each community has its own method for selecting Trustees.

 

Our responsibilities as a Board include establishing goals for ISOC that are consistent with and support the mission of the organization, and for guiding the staff, through our CEO, to undertake activities that work toward achieving those goals.  In meeting this responsibility, we depend to a fair extent upon the knowledge, experience, and opinions of individuals in our various communities as well as others in the Internet ecosystem, and through staff and other means we solicit views and opinions from our communities.

 

As elected Trustees, we would like to improve our understanding of how ISOC members and ISOC chapters view the activities of ISOC, and we are asking for your help in doing so. You have had an opportunity to review ISOC's current action plan, (https://www.internetsociety.org/action-plan/2021/), that describes our current activities and delineates what the Board believes would be the most important contributions that ISOC could make in the current year to keep the Internet open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy.  

 

 The current action plan for the year itself rests within our broader set of goals to spread, strengthen and protect  the Internet and the elements that make it effective for society as a whole.  Recognizing that the Board is concerned primarily with a broad set of options with respect to choosing priority directions for the organization, we would appreciate receiving your thoughts and those of your individual chapter members regarding the following questions.

 

•  What are your thoughts regarding the current allocation of ISOC's resources to the activities that it chose for this year.  For the future, is the balance about right, or would some rebalancing of effort be better?  Are there significant opportunities that should be added in the future?  

 

•  At local and national levels, how effective do you think that our current activities are in helping you to meet your goals as individuals and chapters?  What activities are the most important in enabling and supporting your work as individual members and ISOC chapters? Are there current activities that play only a marginal part in supporting your goals?  Are there current or future activities that are especially important in aligning with your work?

 

•  Are the current methods of exchanging information regarding such questions sufficient?  If not, how would you propose to improve the effectiveness of communication among us?

 

We would very much like to understand your thinking about these issues.  You input regarding our current work will assist us in preparing for the discussions as we plan for future year activities.  We hope that, in addition to providing your own thoughts, you will reach out to your membership to solicit and  include their opinions in your response.

 

We hope to share your contributions with our fellow Trustees as appropriate.  Please let us know if you have any concerns regarding our plan to do so with your response.

 

Thank you in advance for any assistance that you are able and willing to offer.  We very much appreciate your involvement in supporting ISOC's mission and goals.   The Internet is for everyone  --  let's help to really make it so.

 

Muhammad Shabir Awan

George Sadowsky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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