Executive Committee Summary Records Summary Record of 69th meeting of the Executive Committee – 15 March 2023

Jun 20, 2023 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

69th meeting of the Executive Committee

15 March 2023 Cancun, Mexico

 

  1. The Executive Committee held its 69th meeting on 15 March 2023. The meeting took place in a hybrid setting with the following participants: Amrita Choudhury (chair), Chris Mondini, Nigel Hickson (Treasurer), Flavio Wagner, Amado Espinosa, Fiona Asonga, Anriette Esterhuysen, Joyce Chen, Wisdom Donkor; Edmon Chung, (Secretariat), Jennifer Chung (Secretariat). A quorum was established for the meeting, with all nine of the Executive Committee members taking part.

 

  1. The Agenda was adopted as circulated, and the summary record of the 68th meeting was approved to be posted on the IGFSA website.

 

  1. The Chair welcomed the new Executive Committee members: Amado Espinosa and Flavio Wagner. Both new EC members introduced themselves and looked forward to working in the EC to further the goals and mandate of IGFSA.

 

  1. The Secretariat gave an update on the current and ongoing funding requests:
    1. Youth IGF Benin will be having their first meeting in 2023, and is working with the IGF secretariat re eligibility, once this is done, then the assessment can go to the IGFSA EC.
    2. South Sudan IGF has already approved (roll over request from 2022), Secretariat and Focal point is working with banking requirements to get the funding routed through appropriate banks.
    3. EuroDIG has acknowledged that the funding has been received.
    4. Liberia IGF has been preliminarily approved by EC on the mailing list, standard of funding support to be discussed (see 6).

 

  1. The Treasurer gave an update on the status of IGFSA finances. It was confirmed that USD bank account has approximately $100,000 USD, and the Swiss Francs account nominal sum to disburse to administrative items re IGFSA registration in Switzerland. It was noted that funds are supplied by a few large donors (see 7).

 

  1. Discussion on Funding support levels
    1. Secretariat gave a brief history and framework of the funding levels as it stands. $1000 USD for Independent youth initiatives, $1500 USD for National initiatives, $2000 USD for National initiatives with youth component/affiliated youth initiative, $2500 USD for Regional/Subregional initiatives.

 

  1. There was a roundtable discussion from the EC regarding raising funding levels as previous levels were set during the pandemic where certain budgets are less, but as meetings return to in-person and hybrid formats, budgets may also have to increase. It was noted that IGFSA as a not-for-profit organisation should be looking to spend more of its available funds to the funding requests. There was general consensus that the IGFSA is not spending over its resource levels, and with an increase it will still be in line with responsible spending.
  2. There were some questions regarding eligibility criteria and diversity of funding sources for the NRIs sending in funding support requests to IGFSA. It was noted that the IGFSA rely on the initial eligibility requirement for the initiatives to be listed on the IGF website, then NRIs which receive IGF Secretariat funding are not eligible to apply for IGFSA funding (no double dipping). It was further noted that EC members review the budgets and other funding sources that are included in the application during the assessment process and do encourage NRIs to have diverse sources of funding for sustainability.
  3. Action item: There is consensus to increase funding levels to the following: $1500 USD for independent youth initiatives, $2000 USD for National initiatives, $2500 USD for National initiatives with youth component/affiliated youth initiative, $3000 USD for regional/subregional. EC members reaffirmed that requests will be assessed on a case-by-case basis (funding can be increased/decreased as appropriate) but the above will be a guideline.
  1. Fundraising plans/ activities
    1. Chris Mondini gave an overview of the value proposition that was created previously by himself and Brian Cute. He mentioned that the EC has previously identified 2-3 organisation or companies to reach out to. He mentioned that the crowdfunding efforts also need to be reinvigorated. He invited the new EC members to join the effort and suggested that a call dedicated to fundraising should be scheduled. The Secretariat took an action item to schedule fundraising call before next EC call.

 

  1. AOB
  2. Doodle to schedule fundraising call end of March/April
  3. Doodle to schedule next EC call in April