[Chapter-delegates] ISOC's regional engagement

[leandro at ac.upc.edu]

Just in case it helps. 

In our experience in ISOC.CAT, we have managed (not the only way) to attract new members to the chapter (and therefore to ISOC) through organising and supporting (now ISOC Foundation) Beyond the Net projects to deploy or expand community networks. The same people who engaged successfully in these transformative projects were not initially motivated to join the chapter/ISOC, even after explaining them. A new generation of netizens, or perhaps net-consumers, see the public Internet as something pre-existing, behind the scenes, hidden behind their mobile apps and mobile operators.

From my quick read of the thread, I see a few scenarios: 

 1- Doing whatever it takes to keep the 501(c)(3) designation in the USA. (= + member donations, from the public)

 2- Managing a trend/risk to lose the 501(c)(3) designation and prepare for it. (adapting to trends/risks)

 3- Move the organisation to another country (change the main legal registration of ISOC somewhere else), and leave in the USA a lighter and viable 501(c)(3) designated organization so that USA taxpayers can still get that tax discount, self-maintained by USA based netizens.

I remember, decades ago, the same discussion when ISOC, in its current legal form was starting, of the lack of economic contribution. If I remember well, I paid the ISOC membership fee for some period until that was stopped. So not very optimistic about the first scenario. That is what happens with IEEE or ACM, for example (I am a paying member for both. They have membership services, and I feel my contribution makes a difference).

Knowing the implications for ISOC, its chapters, and its work in these scenarios would be helpful.

Best, Leandro.


> On 20 Sep 2023, at 23:00, vinton cerf via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> Thanks to Andrew for precision and transparency regarding the regulated constraints on ISOC's ability to claim public support for its work consonant with its 501(c)(3) designation. That designation allows donors subject to US income taxes to deduct their contributions from income and thus reduce their income tax. Some international organizations like ISOC also open up charity arms in other countries so as to extend the tax break concept to other donors in other countries. Of course, tax laws vary pretty dramatically from country to country. I am a donor to some UK charities who maintain US branches for exactly this purpose. While we should not expect our members and supporters to fully understand US tax law, they should understand that because the bulk of the income to ISOC comes from its US subsidiary, PIR, the significant burden of financial requirements stems from US tax regulations. Andrew's calculation of $13M required to meet the minimum public support metric (1/3 of income) is the target and historically has been a challenge to raise because of assumptions that all of the PIR revenue is available to ISOC for support. 
> 
> It might be good to put something on a "donate" web page that explains this dilemma in answer to the question "why should I donate to ISOC?"
> 
> $13M is a not inconsiderable sum of money and ISOC does need to adapt its structure to create incentive for donations coming from outside the US, for example.
> 
> Vint
> 
> 
> On Wed, Sep 20, 2023 at 12:23 PM Andrew Sullivan via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org <mailto:chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Hi Veni,
>> 
>> On Wed, Sep 20, 2023 at 08:10:10AM -0400, Veni Markovski via Chapter-delegates wrote:
>> 
>> >Our proposal was not implemented, and it seems not much has been done 
>> >since, if the lack of public support has resulted in letting so many 
>> >people go.
>> 
>> I cannot speak about the proposal you made in the past, but I think it is simply false (and not a little dismissive of you to say) that "not much has been done since."  It took the Internet Society a long time to build this situation, and it will take a lot of work and time to get out of it.  I am certainly unhappy that we have not made as much progress as I would like, but we will continue our focus on improving this situation.
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> 
>> A
>> 
>> -- 
>> Andrew Sullivan, President & CEO, Internet Society
>> e:sullivan at isoc.org <mailto:e%3Asullivan at isoc.org> m:+1 416 731 1261
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--
Leandro Navarro
http://people.ac.upc.edu/leandro	 http://dsg.ac.upc.edu



--
Leandro Navarro
http://people.ac.upc.edu/leandro	 http://dsg.ac.upc.edu

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