Summary Record of the 2016 IGFSA General Assembly

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

 2016 General Assembly

Guadalajara, 5 December 2016

 Summary Record 

1.        The IGFSA held its third General Assembly on the eve of the annual IGF meeting in Guadalajara, México on 5 December 2016.

26 IGFSA Members attended the meeting in person and five via remote participation. All but two Executive Committee Members were also in attendance. Ms. Subi Chaturvedi and Ms. Cheryl Miller were unable to attend the meeting and sent their apologies.  The Chair of the Executive Committee, Mr. Raúl Echeberría, presided over the General Assembly.

2.        The following agenda had been circulated prior to the meeting and was approved by consensus by all members present:

1. Adoption of the agenda
2. Approval of the report of the 2015 General Assembly
3. Adoption of the contents of the reports and financial statements for the year
4. Modification of the Articles of Association
5. Discharge of the activity of the Executive Committee
6. Election of the members of the Executive Committee
7. Approval of the annual budget, based upon a recommendation by the Executive Committee
8. Any Other Business

3.        Adoption of the agenda

The agenda was approved as proposed by members in the room and those participating remotely

4.        Approval of the summary record of the 2015 General Assembly

The summary record of the previous General Assembly from 11 November 2015 that had taken place n João Pessoa, Brazil was approved.

5.        Adoption of the contents of the reports and financial statements for the year

The Chair presented the 2015 Report on IGFSA Activities.  The report describes how funds were collected through and allocated. The General Assembly took note and adopted the report.

6.        Modification of the Articles of Association

As proposed on the IGFSA Members’ list prior to the General Assembly, the meeting addressed a proposed modification to the Articles of Association in order to streamline membership process. The following rationale had been given for the proposed change:

“Article 5 of the Articles of Association makes membership contingent of approval by the Executive Committee. This proved to be somewhat awkward, especially in cases when candidates for membership had already paid their membership dues. We would therefore like to propose that membership is automatic upon payment of dues and propose changing this Article accordingly. As a corollary, we propose introducing a commitment to adhere to the objectives of IGFSA as contained in Article 3 by ticking a box in the application form (either online or hard copy).

Proposal: Change the wording of Article 5 accordingly and replace “Thereafter, requests to become a Member must be addressed to the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee admits new Members and informs the General Assembly accordingly” with the following:

“Thereafter, new members are admitted upon payment of their membership dues. The Executive Committee informs the General Assembly annually regarding the admission of new members. ”

In addition, Article 5 (d) automatically excludes members for non-payment of dues for more than one year. This is also somehow problematic, as many members find it difficult paying their dues online. As we don’t want to punish members who have problems with making online payments we propose deleting Article 5 (d).”

The changes were approved by the General Assembly as proposed by the Executive Committee.

7.        Discharge of the activity of the Executive Committee

At the request of the Chair, the General Assembly granted the discharge to the IGFSA Executive Committee.

8.        Election of the members of the Executive Committee

Four seats on the IGFSA Executive Committee were open for renewal.  Seven IGFSA members put their names forward to seek election to the IGFSA Executive Committee.

Each candidate was given the opportunity to address the General Assembly and after IGFSA Members were given the opportunity to vote via ballots selecting the candidates on the ballot.

The following four candidates were elected to the IGFSA Executive Committee[1]:

Ms. Avri Doria, Independent Researcher, IGFSA Executive Committee Member

Mr. Markus Kummer, IGFSA Secretary

Ms. Karen McCabe, IEEE

Mr. Eduardo Santoyo, .co

9.        Approval of the annual budget, based upon a recommendation by the Executive Committee

The General Assembly approved the budget allocation for 2017 as proposed by the Executive Committee, according to the breakdown below:

Percentage	Segment
35%	UN-IGF Trust Fund
40%	National and Regional IGF Initiatives (NRIs)
10%	Support of the IGF Secretariat
8%	IGFSA Contingency
7%	Outreach/Communications

10.      Any Other Business

The General Assembly thanked the outgoing IGFSA Chair Raúl Echeberría as well as Virat Bhatia and Cheryl Miller for their two years of service to the Association.

It was agreed that the IGFSA Executive Committee would meet later in the same week to appoint a new Chair and Secretary.