Summary Record of 36th meeting of the Executive Committee – 3 September 2020

Sep 25, 2020 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

36th meeting of the Executive Committee

 

3 September 2020

 

Draft Summary Record

  1. The Executive Committee held its 36th meeting on 3 September 2020. The meeting took place in a virtual setting, with the following participants:Marilyn Cade, Edmon Chung, Avri Doria, Makane Faye, Nigel Hickson, Markus Kummer,  Eduardo Santoyo, Jimson Olufuye; Jennifer Chung (Secretariat), Kelvin Truong (Secretariat).  Anja Gengo from the IGF Secretariat was also in attendance.A quorum was established for the meeting, with eight of the nine Executive Committee members taking part in the call.

 

  1. A draft agenda had been circulated prior to the call and was adopted with additions of membership and financials as items under AOB.

 

  1. Adoption of the agenda
  2. IGFSA and COVID-19
  3. NRI sessions at vIGF
  4. Communications strategy
  5. Fundraising
  6. AOB (membership and financials update)

 

IGFSA and COVID-19

  1. The Chair started the meeting with a brief status update on current requests. Many NRIs have moved their 2020 meetings to virtual settings, and many last minute meeting support requests have also been sent.  He referred to a suggestion by the Treasurer to set clearer deadlines for NRI funding requests in 2021. There was discussion regarding what constituted a reasonable period.  Anja Gengo from the IGF Secretariat confirmed that lead time is needed to confirm eligibility of the NRI requests for funding.

 

  1. There was general support for requests to be sent six weeks before the proposed meeting (with a provision for exceptional late requests to be brought to for consideration). There was agreement to put this on the agenda of the General Assembly.

 

  1. Anja Gengo from the IGF Secretariat gave a brief update on the status of NRI meetings in 2020. She stated that modalities have changed for holding meetings as well as supporting meetings under United Nations guidelines.  She confirmed that three NRI meetings are being considered for support since they will be held as physical meetings (with logistics to support further online participants). As for support for vIGF 2020, she reported that support is being discussed for vIGF 2020 remote hubs being set up in conjunction with the NRIs.  There was some discussion on how remote hubs can be applied for with respect to COVID-19 pandemic travel and quarantine restrictions, and she clarified that some countries who have applied for remote hub support and have been ‘COVID-free’ or have committed to following health-related guidelines.

 

NRI sessions at vIGF 2020

  1. Anja gave a summary of NRI sessions at vIGF 2020 https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/content/igf-2020-nris-collaborative-sessions . Seven collaborative thematic sessions will be held during phase 1 (2-6 November) and the NRIs Main Session: Role of the Internet in Emergency Situations will be held during phase 2 (9-17 November).  The question for discussion at the next NRI call will decide whether the NRI coordination working session with UN DESA will be held.

 

IGFSA General Assembly 2020

  1. The Chair opened the discussion on the General Assembly procedures for 2020. The Executive Committee agreed to keep the IGFSA General Assembly within the dates of vIGF and to ask the IGF Secretariat for a time slot during phase 1 (2-6 November).

 

EC Elections

  1. The Chair noted that there will be EC elections during the upcoming General Assembly as three Executive Committee members will have served their second 3-year terms. The IGFSA Secretariat gave a brief overview of the possible structures of how to conduct the voting electronically.  There was discussion among the Executive Committee members regarding process and criteria, including traceability of votes (if needed) and the appointment of an elections officer.  Additional considerations include sufficient notice given to IGFSA members to renew their membership dues to be eligible to receive an electronic ballot.  The Secretariat added that if a voting platform (other than bundled polling tools within the Zoom platform) is needed, there would at least be an approximate 2-week lead time to build and test such platform.

 

AOB

  1. The Secretary gave an overview of the IGFSA membership status that was circulated prior to the meeting. As of 2 September the IGFSA has 250 members in its database, 41 Active members (dues paid up), 183 members with expired membership (dues expired as of 2 Sept), and 26 non-active members (registered members but no confirmed payment). She noted that the majority of active (paid) memberships will expire in Nov/Dec 2020 (coinciding around the GA date last year).

 

  1. The Treasurer gave a brief update on the IGFSA Financials. As per 3 September 2020 IGFSA had a positive balance of USD 35,904. However, the accessibility fund had a deficit of USD 4,579. The Chair committed to requesting Google for a new contribution to the accessibility fund.

 

  1. The Chair closed the meeting with the decision to take agenda items on communications strategy and fund-raising to the next call to be scheduled on 17 September.