[Chapter-delegates] What should ISOC's future goals be? How can we work toward achieving them as ISOC Chapters?
Veni Markovski
veni at veni.com
Mon Sep 27 08:20:24 PDT 2021
Thanks, Alexander.
Very good observation, and quite on the spot, in response to people, who
claim that chapters are getting (much) more (than they deserve?).
I have to admit that I don't remember what projects ISOC Bulgaria has
submitted through the years, but I believe that perhaps the only one
that got funding was a very tiny one last year, on tackling covid-19
disinformation. I believe ISOC tweeted the results, which I shared in
the list as well.
Few years ago (I hate saying that, because I know what Andrew will
respond with regards to the time "before him as the CEO") we submitted
some common project, with other chapters, and it was rejected. We got
the funding through other sources, and managed to do some good work for
the global Internet development.
While one could understand ISOC being cautious not to fund anything that
may jeopardize their non-profit status, I still hope (though these hopes
are not high...) that they may come with some possible solution to
understand - both at BoT and staff level, that "supporting the chapters"
doesn't mean "pay the chapters", but it means supporting the open,
interoperable development of the Internet for the good of all users. In
some cases - nationally, in some - regionally, and in some - globally.
Aleander,
While Andrew asked me few days ago to provide him with ideas that are
workable, here's one: find different lawyers, who would consult ISOC how
something could be done, and not how something cannot be done. It
sometimes depends on the question asked: ISOC should find the right
question, if they want to get the right answer; a wrong question always
would lead to a wrong answer. None of us, chapter leaders, is in the
position of ISOC, with tens of millions of dollars budget, and
opportunity to seek legal advice from the top lawyers around the world,
so it's kind of a stretch to ask us for suggestion what to do. I know
what could be done in Bulgaria, you probably know what is possible in
the Netherlands. I am sure that none of us would ask ISOC to do what's
impossible.
Anyway, this is a good discussion, and I hope George and Muhammad will
use the information shared here for the good of ISOC.
v/
On 9/27/21 10:16, Alexander Blom wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> In this respect it is interesting to take a look at
> https://www.isocfoundation.org/about/our-projects/ which confirms that
> from the 4+ million in grants in 2020, roughly 10% of ISOC's grants go
> to chapter activities; the rest goes to outside parties. To all
> probability, the foundation spends more on itself than on chapter
> grants. Then on top of that there is the 600k for the NSRC, another
> cause that ISOC spends more on than on chapter grants. To sum it up:
> chapters are at the bottom of the list.
>
> My chapter was refused a grant 4 times, and so we have given up on the
> foundation more or less, which, unless we are able to find
> other means, reduces us to a chapter that writes clever letters and
> participates in public consultations but not much else.
>
> Some possible fixes (very much coloured by my chapters' experience I
> am afraid):
>
> * institute the possibility to appeal a decision by the foundation
> to reject a grant application. Currently, three anonymous judges
> can render hours and hours of volunteer work useless in a matter
> of a few sentences, whether they misunderstood aspects of a
> proposal, use inappropriate standards or show themselves to be
> human in another way: an appeal procedure could do a lot of good here.
> * Judge a grant application from a chapter on all its merits; not
> only for what it can do for ISOC.org itself but also how it
> strengthens a chapter, what it does for the local community etc.
> * Involve the regional chapter managers: they are based locally and
> often know the people within the chapters much better.
> * Spend more money on chapter grants: 10% is NOT enough.
>
> Second of all, I very much appreciate the effort by George and
> Muhammed to get feedback from the chapters directly instead of going
> through the official 10 step process. Does the latter needs to change?
> Let's keep in touch!
>
> Met vriendelijke groet,
> Kind regards
>
> Alexander Blom
> ISOCNL
>
> Op ma 27 sep. 2021 om 14:13 schreef Veni Markovski via
> Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>:
>
> Hi, everyone.
> There's a lot in Richard's words, which could be used for the good
> of ISOC *and* the Chapters. I hope it will be, and won't remain
> only as a possibility. See some comments below (warning - it's a
> long read).
>
> On 9/25/21 10:40, Richard Hill via Chapter-delegates wrote:
>>
>> 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.
>>
> Sounds logical; I'd add - there are already criteria that chapters
> cover for the admin funding. These can be expanded, or updated, to
> reflect such a change.
>
>> 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.
>>
> Richard, there are many US-based NGOs, which do great work overseas.
> An example I gave earlier, was the Global Internet Policy
> Initiative or GIPI: https://www.internetpolicy.net/
>
> What GIPI did in Bulgaria helped a lot the local Internet
> community in providing expertise to the Bulgarian Parliament in
> order to change some relevant laws to be Internet-friendly. This
> has resulted in having 880 ISPs today (at the peak they were about
> 2,000) for a country with 7 million people population...
>
>> 3. Effectiveness of exchange of information: in my view, the
>> voice of the Chapters is not sufficiently reflected.
>>
>
> Agree.
>
>> 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.”
>>
>
> Changing the approach will be very difficult, if not impossible.
> By now ISOC is a well-established organization with exactly the
> opposite approach. Chapters are not (and IMHO should not be) in
> the position to dictate the staff what work to implement, but
> neither should be the organizational members. I say that, because
> I've heard opinions that all members of ISOC are equal, but the
> org members are more equal than the Chapters. While it may be
> based on observations that I don't have access to, I always
> remember one of the arguments from my time on the Board of
> Trustees: chapters can't have the same say in ISOC matters,
> because they don't contribute to the budget. While this is a fact,
> it's also a fact that the Chapters provide a different level of
> diversity, legitimacy and international spirit of ISOC. Without
> the Chapters, it will be purely US-based, US-populated
> organization. The Chapters provide diversity that ISOC needs (at
> least IMHO). Chapters are the ones, who elect Trustees, majority
> of who are non US-based. Chapters also try to elect equally male
> and female Trustees... Fun fact: when Chapters-elected Trustee
> Olga Cavalli resigned earlier this year, the Board appointed in
> her place a man. It's good he is from Pakistan; few years ago, in
> a similar situation, the Board appointed an American - in a Board,
> which already had plenty of Americans.
> Today, there are 10 Trustees, who are based in the US (including
> the CEO), 1 in Senegal (chapters), 1 in Mexico (chapters), and 1
> in Pakistan (appointed by the BoT). Similar is the situation with
> the top leadership among the staff, where there's only one, who is
> not US-based.
>
> So, to answer George and Muhammad's questions - perhaps this is an
> area, where ISOC should start looking into. Maybe change the
> by-laws, to make sure that Trustees are representing the geography
> and gender diversity of all its members - organizational,
> chapters, individuals? Maybe something else - up to the BoT to decide.
>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Richard
>>
>> *From:*Chapter-delegates [mailto:chapter-delegat
>> <mailto:chapter-delegat>
>>
>
> --
>
> Best regards,
> Veni
> Chair of the Board
> Internet Society - Bulgaria
> https://www.isoc.bg
> pgp:5BA1366Eveni at veni.com
>
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--
Best regards,
Veni
https://www.veni.com
pgp:5BA1366Eveni at veni.com
The opinions expressed above are those of the
author, not of any organizations, associated
with or related to him in any given way.
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