[Chapter-delegates] Chapter formation in Libya

[Andrew Sullivan]

Hi,

I'm not Hana.  However,

On Fri, Apr 14, 2023 at 05:55:58PM +0200, Amr Hashem via Chapter-delegates wrote:

>working in Libya for 10 years and registered itself as ISOC.ly and I don't
>see them as official partners in the proposed chapter.

We do not have a trademark in every country in the world, and one of those places is Libya.  As a result, the group that uses the domain name isoc.ly is no more necessarily related to us than the International Society Of Cleaners would be. Certainly, some of the isoc.ly participants are members of and participants in the Internet Society, but we have no formal relationship with that organization.

We cannot force people to affiliate with us; all we can do is invite them.  Chapters are legally independent entities that agree to certain processes and arrangements as part of us recognizing them as chapters.  Those processes and arrangements were negotiated with the existing chapters of the Internet Society.  Some outside organizations do not want to adhere to all of those processes and arrangements.  Therefore,

>Thus, I still think that ISOC may need a more effective role than its usual
>process of forwarding invitations to participate in the proposed chapter.

…this would be entirely improper for us to do, because it would deviate from the processes that every other chapter agreed to and agreed new chapters would be bound by.  We didn't impose these procedures unilaterally, but developed them in collaboration with our chapters.  As Hana noted, we invited our friends in isoc.ly to participate in this effort.  It is not clear that we are going to be successful in persuading them, and in the meantime another group wants to be recognized as a chapter in that geographica area.  Finally,

>If ISOC executive team is not willing to play such a role at the moment, I
>think our Members in Egypt might be capable of bringing the parties
>together.

…it is not a matter of willingness, but a matter of equal treatment.  We agreed to a set of procedures with the chapter community, and we follow those procedures.  If, however, members of the Internet Society or even existing chapters of the Internet Society think they may be of service to those in Libya who wish to create a chapter, and those Internet Society members in Libya are willing to undertake such a collaboration, there's certainly nothing wrong with that.  We are the Internet _Society_, after all.  We should certainly encourage development of those social bonds.

Best regards,

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
President & CEO, Internet Society
sullivan at isoc.org
+1 416 731 1261