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

[Amrita Choudhury]

Very valid and relevant questions raised by the ISOC UK Chaper Olivier. I
think these questions are in the minds of all the chapters .

Regards,

Amrita

On Fri, Mar 8, 2024 at 7:13 PM 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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