Executive Committee Summary Records Summary Record of 67th meeting of the Executive Committee – 15 December 2022

Feb 10, 2023 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

67th meeting of the Executive Committee

15 December 2022

  1. The Executive Committee held its 67th meeting on 15 December 2022. The meeting took place in a virtual setting with the following participants: Amrita Choudhury (chair), Fiona Asonga, Anriette Esterhuysen, Joyce Chen, Nigel Hickson; IGFSA Secretariat Jennifer Chung. Apologies were received from Chris Mondini. A quorum was established for the meeting, with five of the seven Executive Committee members taking part in the call.

 

  1. The Agenda was adopted as circulated to the EC mailing list. The Chair, Amrita Choudhury gave a welcome message as the new chair for the IGFSA and noted her aspirations for IGFSA in the coming year.

 

  1. The Chair gave a brief summary of the Election of the Executive Committee item as previously discussed during the General Assembly held during IGF 2022 in Ethiopia. It was noted that there are two seats open and there was interest amongst the IGFSA members gathered to run for the open seats. There was some clarification sought regarding term limits and successive EC terms: according to the IGFSA Articles of Association (Article 11), it does not specify that EC members cannot serve non-successive terms (i.e. no total term limit, only no more than 2 successive terms of 3 years each).

 

  1. It was decided the call for EC elections should be re-posted on the IGFSA website, mailing list and wider groups (such as the IGF network/NRI network). The timeline can be revised to Jan/Feb 2023 to enable greater participation. The Secretariat took an action item to share a revised Elections timeline for approval.

 

  1. The Treasurer gave a summary update on the current finances and noted that there are no current outstanding funding payments. The Secretariat noted that there have been no new requests received since the General Assembly, but there are some previously approved requests still in progress (invoice not received).

 

Outreach and communications

  1. It was suggested that IGFSA can communicate with the IGF Secretariat to see the general NRIs meeting calendar. It was further suggested that an email could go out via the IGF Secretariat to the wider NRI network regarding IGFSA funding. There was a brief discussion about the response to the previous mailer sent via the IGF Secretariat, if there are any statistics that can be looked at (i.e. click throughs, website traffic). In addition, there was discussion regarding whether membership enquiries converted to actual IGFSA membership.

 

  1. There was a discussion regarding updating the information on the IGFSA website including the funding recipients list, and testimonials/interviews. The Secretariat noted that invitations were sent to the 2022 funding recipients for a short text/video interview and some NRIs have indicated a willingness to send something in after the holiday season.

 

  1. AOB
    1. There was a suggestion for IGFSA to support NRIs to engage in the Global Digital Compact consultations (i.e. provide resources for a consultant with the IGF Secretariat for a substantive input into the GDC, such as the one EuroDIG has with its consultant). Anriette Esterhuysen took an action item to have a conversation with the IGF Secretariat and report back to EC
    2. There was a suggestion to invite IGF Secretariat to join the EC calls on a more regular basis (i.e. quarterly) to align and catch up. The Secretariat to communicate with the IGF Secretariat to schedule.
    3. The question on funding SIGs was discussed by the EC and it was decided that IGFSA should focus on the NRIs, youth initiatives, and expanding the capacity of NRIs. It was noted that the criteria for SIGs are not as clear cut and that the IGF Secretariat does not currently ‘recognise’ SIGs officially. It was further noted that IGFSA EC have previously discussed SIG funding a few times, and have historically focused on NRIs due to funding availability. It was agreed that IGFSA could support ‘in-kind’ contributions
    4. The Secretariat took an action item to send doodle poll to schedule for a call in January 2023.