Summary Record of 54th meeting of the Executive Committee – 31 August 2021

Sep 16, 2021 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

54th meeting of the Executive Committee

31 August 2021

 

  1. The Executive Committee held its 54th meeting on 31 August 2021. The meeting took place in a virtual setting with the following participants: Markus Kummer (Chair), Brian Cute, Jimson Olufuye, Nigel Hickson; IGFSA Secretariat Jennifer Chung. Apologies were received from Chris Mondini and Joyce Chen. A quorum was established for the meeting, with four of the eight Executive Committee members taking part in the call.

 

  1. The agenda for the meeting was adopted. The minutes of the 53rd meeting was approved to be posted on the IGFSA website.

 

Funding requests

  1. The Secretariat gave an update on the current funding requests. It was mentioned that Kenya has sent in more details regarding the youth component of their meeting and the new information has been circulated to the EC for review, and barring objections sent to the mailing list, the level of funding support will reflect the new amount of NRI + youth component of $2,000 USD.

 

  1. It was noted that the Caribbean IGF did not meet the timing requirement for funding approvals process. The Chair also noted that Caribbean IGF is a well-organized meeting with several supporting institutions, including IGFSA in past editions. The EC members after discussion on the mailing list had advised the Secretariat to send a note reflecting this as well as encourage Caribbean IGF to apply early for 2022 funding support consideration.

 

  1. The Secretariat mentioned that the Tanzania IGF sent in a funding request, and after confirmation from the IGF Secretariat that UN funding support has been granting to Tanzania for 2021, a note was sent to the focal point for Tanzania IGF regarding the non-eligibility for IGFSA funding when UN funding is received that same calendar year.

 

  1. The IGFSA received a funding request from CAIGF and the Secretariat shared that the IGF Secretariat confirmed eligibility, barring objections sent to the mailing list, CAIGF will be approved for the regional level funding of $2500 USD.

 

  1. There was a brief discussion but no decisions taken on Youth IGF Argentina funding level support. There was general consensus that the youth initiative is eligible for funding, however since it was not clear whether IGF Argentina would also be applying for funding, it was decided that the discussion can be had on the mailing list once further information is received from the IGF Secretariat.

 

IGFSA newsletter and EC series

  1. The Secretariat gave an update on the status of the second issue of the IGFSA newsletter. It was mentioned that the Secretariat was still waiting on some video interviews. The received videos will be going through post-production and the NRI spotlight this time will be APrIGF. It was noted that the IGFSA has not received a confirmed individual from the NRO for the sponsor spotlight yet, and there was a brief discussion on whether the IGFSA should reach out to other sponsors such as Google/Vint Cerf for this issue instead.

 

  1. It was suggested for the issue following the IGF, there could be a feature comparing the 2020 and 2021 experience as the IGF is looking to improve on participant engagement as it innovates with virtual and hybrid meeting formats.

 

Outreach and communications

  1. Brian Cute gave an update on the outreach session he presented along with Chris Mondini to the ICANN Registry Stakeholder Group (RySG). He noted that there was hood feedback coming from highlighting key issues for RySG in this area (DNS Abuse education etc.). The suggestion for the RySG to think about acting as a whole stakeholder group raised questions regarding looking at RySG bylaws re providing financial support to organizations and institutions. There was a discussion regarding how earmarking sponsorship funding would work (e.g. Accessibility funding from Google via Vint Cert), and for the RySG’s case it would be on the lines of including DNS Abuse education components or materials as applicable. There was a suggestion that this can be done in an ‘opt-in’ manner (such as earmarked funding is available should there be a certain topic on the agenda) instead of dictating any agenda items for NRI funding support as NRIs develop their meeting agendas in a bottom-up multistakeholder manner. Brian confirmed that there will be proactive follow up with concrete options and mechanisms for the RySG and will report back to the EC.

 

Fundraising

  1. The Chair noted that the Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability (DCAD) is now funded directly by Google, and the earmarked Accessibility funding from IGFSA is used to support captioning and livescribe services for virtual MAG meetings.

 

  1. As part of financial planning, the Secretariat was asked what the anticipated NRI request volume may be for rest of the year. The Secretariat noted that with information from the IGF Secretariat, that many NRIs host their meetings before the annual global IGF, and quite a few have already had their meetings or will be scheduled to host their meeting during the third quarter this year

 

IGFSA General Assembly

  1. The Chair noted that there will be 3 Executive Committee seats up for election in the upcoming General Assemble. The Secretariat reminded the EC that there will need to be an Election officer appointed for the process. The Secretariat took an action item to prepare a draft timeline for the GA and Elections process in preparation for the next EC call.

 

  1. AOB
    1. Next call: Tuesday 14 September, 2021 UTC 13:00