Summary Record of 39th & 40th meeting of the Executive Committee – 3 December & 16 December 2020

Feb 1, 2021 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

39th and 40th meeting of the Executive Committee

3 December 2020 / 16 December 2020

Draft Summary Records

1. The Executive Committee held its 39th meeting on 3 December 2020. The meeting took place in a virtual setting with the following participants: Markus Kummer (Chair), Eduardo Santoyo, Jimson Olufuye, Makane Faye, Nigel Hickson, Joyce Chen, Brian Cute, Chris Mondini, Wisdom Donkor, Jennifer Chung (Secretariat).

A quorum was established for the meeting, with all the nine Executive Committee members taking part in the call

2. The Chair welcomed the Executive Committee members, sitting and new. The members introduced themselves and discussed priorities for IGFSA work going into 2021. Fund raising was mentioned as the core focus. Enhancing engagement (APAC and Africa region NRIs were specifically mentioned), communications, as well as new membership were also mentioned as goals. There was further discussion among the Executive Committee members on what the priorities are for fundraising and the need for articulating a value proposition.

3. It was reported that the current IGFSA financial situation necessitates a support request funding freeze. The Chair further detailed that the Google sponsorship earmarked for Accessibility improvements (captioning and travel support) was in process. Other donors who have continued to support IGFSA include ICANN and NRO among others and it was noted that with the seating of new Executive Committee that institutional linkage to these institutions are strengthened. In addition to revisiting crowdfunding, it was also mentioned that the IGFSA can consider drawing up an MoU with long-term donors.

4. In regards to the funding discussion, the Chair suggested that the following items could be slated for discussion and decisions in future calls:

  • Whether IGFSA should rethink NRI funding support amounts in the virtual meeting settings.

5. There was a brief discussion on the IGFSA Articles of Association, and the Chair suggested the following that the following items could be slated for discussion and decisions in future calls:

  • Whether IGFSA Executive Committee should look at revising the Articles of Association.
  • Whether IGFSA should look to IGF+ and expand the scope of the Articles of Association.
  • Whether IGFSA should look at establishing functional roles of IGFSA Executive Committee: Deputy Chair, Auditor/audit function

6. Action items resulting from the call include:

  1. Drafting a value proposition document for further EC discussion (Brian Cute)
  2. Identifying IGFSA website improvements (Joyce Chen)

7. The Executive Committee held its 40th meeting on 16 December 2020. The meeting took place in a virtual setting with the following participants: Markus Kummer (chair), Eduardo Santoyo, Nigel Nickson, Chris Mondini, Brian Cute, Makane Faye, Jennifer Chung (Secretariat). Apologies were received from Joyce Chen.

A quorum was established for the meeting, with six of nine Executive Committee members taking part in the call

8. The Chair expanded on the fundraising agenda item from the 3 December call. There was a presentation on the tool for donor outreach from Brian Cute and Chris Mondini. It was noted that the Governments have a different mechanism to contribute to IGF so this was omitted in the tool. There was further discussion on the following points:

  • Learning from what has worked in the past: business contributions, ccTLD contributions (.co), contributions from technical institutions.
  • Protecting the multistakeholder model is a value proposition.
  • Academia can be tapped for proof-points research. Proof points may include: risks avoided (stopping misguided/heavy-handed regulation); identifying technically knowledgeable Internet champions; capacity building – spreading participatory democracy (Kenya was inspired by the IGF and introduced into the constitution a multistakeholder consultative process); market outcomes (testimonials – how that translated into home country/market).

It was suggested that IGFSA could also look to IGOs other than the UN IGOs for possible support. It was also suggested to reach out to foundations, but this will require a longer timeline to establish engagement.

9. There was a presentation on the value proposition from Brian Cute and Chris Mondini. It was discussed that IGFSA should develop two messages:

  1. For those who do not know anything about IGF;
  2. For those who know something about IGF.

It was agreed that the IGFSA should develop a document showcasing what has worked in the past to build an organization-specific value proposition. Items that could be looked at include past IGF shared themes and attendee lists of previous IGFs.

10. The Secretariat gave a brief update on the website call held with the Secretariat team and Joyce Chen. There were a number of items aimed to improve website user experience, information location and streamlining of forms and design. The list of items will be updated on a priority roll-out (with some text pending the finalization of the value proposition document) and aims for an end of Jan 2021 completion date.

11. Action items resulting from the call:

  1. Secretariat to establish a shared workspace for EC
  2. EC to start developing lead list using the donor outreach tool
  3. Touch-base scheduled for mid-January 2021 to schedule next call.