[Chapter-delegates] Questions to Internet Society Board of Trustees from the UK England Chapter of the Internet Society

[Dave Burstein]

Partial answer to your question from Andrew Sullivan
"For whatever it’s worth, I have not given notice of my resignation to the
board or anyone else."

(in response to a question from NY, trying to understand why the board was
apparently acting urgently but not answering questions.)
-------
The Zoom link for the observer sessions is at
https://www.internetsociety.org/board-of-trustees/meetings/observer-guidelines/
. You must agree not to record the session, but Ted reminds me they will be
on
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=internet+society+board+of+trustees
 .
---------------

My opinion:
Thank you UK chapter for speaking publicly.

I believe nearly all the issues here would be resolved if ISOC created an
important, role for the chapters & members and lived up to our promises of
the funding needed. We also must have transparency and openness. We have to
find a way across the North/South battle because 2/3rds of Internet users
are in the South. One result is our growth is far behind the growth of the
Internet.

Ted: With so much in private, *it's time for you to have once a month zoom
for questions from chapters.* It's a minimal requirement of the Chair to
listen to the members, in an organized fashion to minimize the time and
cost. If you don't have the time, someone like Pepper or Charles Mok might
be a good substitute.

I know several of the board members personally and my experience is almost
all the board members are responsive to email. You and Andrew have been
helpful even when we disagree. But most of the chapter leaders don't
realize how to connect directly. It's a good idea to make it easy.

You should also simply say, in your role as Board Chair, that all ISOC
staff should do their best to answer questions from chapters, except on
personnel decisions or when there is an important reason for secrecy.

Dave Burstein

On Fri, Mar 8, 2024 at 8:43 AM Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond via
Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Att: Ted Hardie - Internet Society Board Chair
> CC: Chapter Delegates Mailing List
>
> Dear Ted,
>
> Andrew Sullivan had a meeting with members of the ISOC UK England Chapter
> leadership on Tuesday 20 February 2024.
> Prior to that meeting, we sent Andrew a list of questions/topics to be
> addressed. Whilst we had a very friendly and productive meeting indeed,
> Andrew felt that some of the questions we asked were better aimed at the
> ISOC Board of Trustees directly.
>
> Please be so kind to find these questions below, along with additional
> questions that we have in relation to issues that would most likely fall
> into the category of matters that should be addressed by the Board.
>
> We submit these questions to you in writing but would also be able to
> arrange for a call of our Leadership Team with you and any of your
> colleagues if you consider this to be appropriate.
>
> In order to put some structure in our discussions, there are four main
> section topics:
>
> 1. CEO renewal
> 2. Internet Society Foundation
> 3. ISOC's future
> 4. Operational Issues
> 5. Future Role of Chapters
>
> Topic 1: CEO renewal
>
> Given the need to expand the global reputation and footprint of the
> Internet Society, the search for the next CEO should respect the processes
> set in the past as well as well current accepted good practice adopted by
> other significant top tier Internet organisations.
>
> This process needs to comply by ISOC Bylaws.
> It should be tasked by the BoT to improve awareness and engagement of the
> global communities in the Internet Society and its operations and ensure to
> the community that basic principles of good governance including
> transparency are evident.
>
> We therefore have the following questions relating to the topic of CEO
> renewal:
>
> 1.1 Has the Board already considered whether it would renew Andrew
> Sullivan's contract, given that it is due to expire in August 2024 (5
> months away)
>
> 1.2 If it is decided, by any of the parties that the contract will not be
> renewed, when will the process for the CEO search be started?
>
> 1.3 Is there an already existing process in place for the search of the
> next CEO?
> 1.3.1 if yes, then is it based on the last search for ISOC CEO which used
> a global selection process open to qualification by non-US residents?
> 1.3.2 if no, then will the community be asked for:
>   a. best practices relating to the actual search for a CEO?
>   b. the list of qualities required in the next CEO?
> (as is already common process in other I* organisations?)
>
> 1.4 In the current climate of Government regulation worldwide would you
> agree that people with known close ties to governments should be excluded
> from being candidates as they are unlikely to inspire confidence in ISOC's
> independence in representative roles other than purely secretariat? Ditto
> for other individuals who might come from organisations that might be
> perceived as having a strong conflict of interest?
>
> 1.5 Currently the Board Succession Planning Committee is made of:
> Ramanou Biaou - Chapters
> Luis Martinez - Chapters
> Brian Haberman - IETF
> Ted Hardie - Organisation
> Barry Leiba - Organisation
> Robert Pepper - Organisation
> Andrew Sullivan - Ex-Officio
>
> This, if it is indeed the next CEO Search Committee, appears unbalanced
> between Chapters, IETF and Organisation members? Wouldn't good practise
> mean balancing this out by having two members from each IETF, Chapters and
> Organisation?
>
> 1.6 Will the whole Board interview candidates or will it just be the Board
> Succession Planning Committee? Are there operating rules in relation to
> this?
>
> 1.7 Will the whole Board be voting on the final candidate(s), given that
> this has been a vital task of the Board in past CEO selections?
>
>
> Topic 2: Internet Society Foundation
>
> Our understanding of ISOC's intentions during the formation of the
> Foundation was to establish a separate Board and governance for the
> Foundation. It was proposed that the current arrangement of ISOC trustees
> also all being Foundation Trustees, as only viable as a stop gap. The
> evolution of the governance of the Foundation appears to have stalled since
> the attempted sale of PIR.
>
> Given that the current arrangement causes a serious conflict of interest
> between the organisations:
>
> 2.1 What are the current steps being made to move this along? When will a
> new Board be selected for the Foundation?
>
> 2.2 What processes to involve the broader community are being undertaken?
>
> [ For your information, Andrew Sullivan did not feel there was a conflict
> of interest in having the same Board members for both the Foundation and
> the Internet Society itself. He also was not around when the Internet
> Society Foundation was created thus was not aware of the "interim Board"
> arrangement - thus it would be good to shed some light on this matter. ]
>
>
> Topic 3: ISOC's future
>
> It is notable that in relation to other Internet organisations referred to
> as I* including IETF, ICANN, IAB, Regional Internet Registries. ISOC alone
> today has no operational powers or responsibilities for Internet resources,
> networks, or governance communities including Chapters. This has frequently
> led to comments by operators in those communities to ask "What is the point
> of ISOC"?
>
> 3.1 What is the Point of ISOC today and into the next five years in the
> Board's view?
> 3.1.1 Is there a 5 year strategic plan in place?
>
> [ Andrew told us that there was indeed a new 5 year plan in the works.
> However, our observation is that it looks like it has not been shared yet
> and whilst the previous plan had included involvement of communities with
> dedicated staff members in charge, these staff members coordinating these
> consultations have since been laid off, thus what is the current status?
> How is this plan being developed?
> What is the time scale for this development?
> What is the position with regards to input into the decision making
> process from Chapters? ]
>
> [ 3.2 answered by Andrew ]
>
> 3.3 ISOC Financials
>
> https://www.internetsociety.org/about-internet-society/organization-reports/#financial-reports
> 2022 Financial Statements show the Internet Society making a loss for that
> year.
>
> [ Andrew mentioned that this was due to financial markets but profit would
> return in 2023. ]
>
> 3.3.1 Is there oversight and reporting that is specific to keeping track
> of the proportion of .org revenues being spent on internal administration
> and staff compared to funding community works?
> The annual financial statements do not show this.
> 3.3.2 With other I* organisations providing detailed information about the
> management of their projects as well as per department cross-referencing,
> is ISOC prepared to rise up to the levels of transparency that are now
> expected in public benefit entities and to produce an annual financial
> report that provides more information than its minimal published financial
> statement?
> 3.3.3 Is ISOC ready to publish its financials on multi-year projects
> including its forecasts going forward? Scrutiny of Form 990 appears to show
> random continuity year on year and there is no way to find out what is
> happening?
>
> 3.4 MANRS
> ISOC made a total divestment of its MANRS project to a US not-for-profit,
> The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) - and Andrew's response was that this was
> needed because "ISOC is a good incubator but terrible at running long term
> projects".
>
> 3.4.1 Why was this divestiture effected given that this was a successful
> project which comforted the ISOC brand as being pertinent?
>
> 3.4.2 Was a risk assessment done prior to moving MANRS elsewhere to an
> organisation so close to law enforcement as to ensuring that the Internet
> Society goals and principles in this important area remain at the top of
> the routing security agenda?
>
> 3.4.3 By what criteria was the GCA chosen as an suitable organisation to
> run the MANRS project? Were there conditions imposed on Goals?
>
> 3.4.4 Are there Performance Agreements (SLAs) in place for the ongoing
> conditional funding of the GCA?
> 3.4.4.1 If yes, are there clauses to cancel the GCA Secretarial and
> Operational duties, should it fail in its SLAs?
>
> Topic 4: Operational Issues
>
> 4.1 New Chapter Membership Administration System
>
> Many Chapters have complained about the inadequacy of the new Membership
> System.
> Andrew's answer has been "ask AMSHelp at isoc.org" - but then Chapters are
> also told that simple features such as setting the subject of a mailing
> sent to members, is currently not possible and nobody knows when that will
> be fixed. Clearly there is a problem. Can you provide the Board's
> Commitment that these problems will be fixed and give a time estimate as to
> by when this will be the case?
>
> 4.2 Termination of contract for Joly McFie - isoc.live
>
> At the recent Chapters Advisory Council meeting, we learned that Joly
> McFie's services were no longer going to be contracted for Live Streaming.
> The powers that be at ISOC found that most people were watching recorded
> videos than the live video streaming, which in my opinion makes sense
> because live watching requires people to do it at a time T but many people
> like to watch the event later - and also when Live, many people had a
> preference to be on the original Zoom channel to take an active part in
> asking questions remotely. The Live Channels archive was great for ISOC's
> image. A great showcase of: "This is what we do!" - with "we" conveying the
> global dimension of the Internet Society through its memorable Chapter
> events.
>
> It seems to have been decided unilaterally that in order to cut on costs,
> Joly will not longer be contracted full time to LiveStream and Archive
> events with the added excellent professional service of adding captions and
> making a recording very polished indeed and ready for public consumption.
> We learned that Joly can still be contracted on a project basis by both
> ISOC teams and chapters. The budget would come from the party who enters
> into the contract with Joly. Chapters can include these costs in their
> event budgets when applying for a Beyond the Net Small<
> https://www.isocfoundation.org/grant-programme/beyond-the-net-small-grants/>
> grant.
>
> ISOC will continue to record its public marquee events and post the
> recordings thereof for on-demand viewing.
>
> ISOC's messages are unclear: on the one hand it says that it has more
> money to support the community than the number of applications it receives
> for funding and on the other hand it cuts a major volunteer and chapter
> support programme and replaces it with yet more bureaucracy. It is
> replacing an ISOC Community Resource for everyone with an elitist on-demand
> selection process with lengthy application documents that will just push
> back on Chapter activity.
>
> 4.2.1 Was this change in process / withdrawal of service agreed with the
> Chapter Advisory Council or with Chapters in any way?
> 4.2.2 What will happen with the current excellent archive of livestreams
> which constitute an amazing library of Chapter events of many many years?
> 4.2.3 Why introduce the unreasonable bureaucratic overheads in the process
> of booking Joly McFie's services with an events budget request? Some
> Chapters have regular Webinars and adding an official request for an event
> budget is a waste of volunteer time. Plus there is a limitation as to how
> many requests a Chapter can make. Plus all the necessary bureaucratic
> reports that need to be filed afterwards.
> 4.2.4 Couldn't the Internet Society just have an on-demand contract with
> Joly McFie and make payment on a per event basis, without needing all the
> bureaucracy to file for "events budget"?
>
>
> 5. Future Role of Chapters
>
> In terms of planning and operational basis and mindful of the balance
> between Chapters, Organisations and IETF in the Internet Society, have
> operational documents been drafted in regards to cooperation between
> Chapters and HQ? We are aware of operational requirements set on Chapters
> by contract but are there other documents relating to the relationship
> between Chapters and HQ especially when it comes to advocacy in countries
> worldwide?
>
> --- end of questions ---
>
>
> These questions are sent on behalf of the UK Chapter of the Internet
> Society Leadership Team - we look forward to your responses.
> Best regards,
>
> Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD
> Chair - Internet Society UK England Chapter
>
> _______________________________________________
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