Executive Committee Summary Records Summary Record of 76th meeting of the Executive Committee – 7 March 2024

Apr 17, 2024 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

76th meeting of the Executive Committee

7 March, 2024, Virtual / San Juan, Puerto Rico

 

  1. The Executive Committee held its 76th meeting on March 2024. The meeting took place in in a virtual setting with the following participants: Amrita Choudhury (chair), Markus Kummer (chair emeritus), Nigel Hickson (Treasurer), Chris Mondini, Flavio Wagner, Wisdom Donkor, Anriette Esterhuysen, Amado Espinosa, Fiona Asonga; and from the Secretariat, Jennifer Chung. A quorum was established for the meeting with eight of the nine Executive Committee members taking part.

 

  1. The Agenda was adopted as circulated, and the summary record of the 75th meeting is pending approval if no comments or corrections are received on the IGFSA EC mailing list before 17 March 2024.

 

  1. The EC and the Secretariat walked through the commissioned annual report by Wim Degezelle. There was discussion to find a designer for the design elements and produce a print-ready file that would allow EC members to have copies of the report on hand for dissemination at relevant events. The Secretary took an action to work with Wim Degezelle for finalization of figures and data. An EC member confirmed that they have a designer that they have worked with before for a similar project and offered to work with the Secretariat for follow up. The EC also agreed to review the process to see whether this should be done annually.

 

  1. The Secretary gave an overview of the current status of funding requests:
    • Mano River Union Internet Governance Forum (MRU IGF) – There was discussion on this request as this is a newly established sub-regional NRI. Some EC members from the region took an action to find out more about this subregional arrangement as it was noted that there are also national IGFs in the subregional that are past IGFSA funding recipients.
    • European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) – The EC agreed to continue support of EuroDIG at the regional funding level.
    • Namibia IGF – The Secretary noted that the IGF Secretariat has received an application from Namibia IGF for the IGF Secretariat grant for NRIs. As IGFSA has a policy of not funding the IGF Secretariat grantees, the EC requested the Secretariat to inform Namibia IGF that their IGFSA funding request will be on hold until results of the IGF Secretariat grant is announced.
    • École de la Gouvernance de l’Internet ONG Women Be Free – As this is a school of Internet Governance it is outside of the scope for IGFSA grants. The Secretary took an action to inform the focal point.
    • Foro Panameño de Gobernanza de Internet Juvenil Youth IGF Panamá – The Secretariat noted that this is still pending eligibility checks with the IGF Secretariat.
  2. The Treasurer gave an update on the IGFSA financials and noted that both the IGFSA US and CHF bank accounts are in a healthy functional status. He further noted that there should be follow up to the Tides Foundation. The Chair took an action to send follow up communications to the Tides Foundation. There was some discussion on the status of current donors NRO and ICANN and the one of the respective EC members took an action to follow up internally.

Discussion on fundraising

  1. There was discussion ongoing communications with potential donors. There was an update on the status of communication with GIZ. It was noted that there has been a change in the resourcing from the German government and GIZ would be looking at alternative internal resources. The EC member involved with communications with GIZ took an action to continue to follow up and keep the EC informed.

Outreach & Communication

  1. There was discussion of a more comprehensive outreach plan and activity at ICANN 80 at Kigali in June. There was agreement that IGFSA should try to get on the agenda of different ICANN structures for a 10 min slot at each of the different meetings. The objective is to identify and reach more donors and members. It was also noted that there would be potential donors at c-level representatives from organisations and companies in attendance at various SO/AC sessions. It was further noted that there will be a High Level Government Meeting at ICANN 80. The respective EC members took an action item to work with relevant ICANN staff to coordinate the SO/AC slots and other logistic arrangement. The Secretary noted that there is a slide deck that was used previously to outreach to the RySG and this can be updated for use.

 

  1. AOB
    • The Secretary noted that the EC have discussed setting a regular monthly meeting and noted that there will be list of dates to be shared with the EC for confirmation.