[Chapter-delegates] Chapter Formation in Iraq

[Andrew Sullivan]

Hi,

On Tue, Mar 19, 2024 at 01:57:12AM +0000, Christopher Hawker via Chapter-delegates wrote:

>  2.
> chapters are distinct and separate legal entities from ISOC

Yes, this is true.

> as stated by Andrew Sullivan in his email to the Chapter Delegates list on 03/12/2024 at 03:16pm UTC "chapters do not have legal responsibilities to the Internet Society corporate body". This would mean that the chapter would have no legal responsibilities to ISOC.

That way of stating things was perhaps infelicitous (or perhaps some context has been cut).  Chapters _do_ have legal responsibilities to the Internet Society corporate body, within the scope of the engagement letter.  For instance, chapters promise as part of their engagement to do certain things (like hold elections for officers); and if they don't do them then the various chapter processes kick in (this includes, for instance, ineligibility for certain kinds of funding or eventual dechartering or so forth).

The main point I was trying to make in that message is that chapters are not legally a part of the Internet Society, but are independent legal entities.  This is not how chapters work in every organization.  For instance, in some cases, a "chapter" is really a branch office of the corporation itself.

On the matter of the name, I will observe that we do not have a requirement that the entity that is recognized as the chapter must be named "Internet Society $place chapter", and many chapter organizations have names that are not of the usual "chapter" form.

Best regards,

A

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