Summary Record of 65th meeting of the Executive Committee – 21 September 2022

Nov 15, 2022 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

65th meeting of the Executive Committee

21 September 2022

 

  1. The Executive Committee held its 65th meeting on 21 September 2022. The meeting took in-person (with remote participation) on the margins of the ICANN 75 meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with the following participants: Markus Kummer (Chair), Amrita Choudhury, Anriette Esterhuysen, Fiona Asonga, Nigel Hickson, Chris Mondini, Wisdom Donkor; IGFSA Secretariat Jennifer Chung. A quorum was established for the meeting, with six of the eight Executive Committee members taking part in the call.

 

  1. The Agenda was adopted as circulated to the EC mailing list. The EC requested more time to review the Summary Record of the 64th EC meeting, the minutes were considered approved pending questions or comments for amendment.

 

  1. The Chair gave a brief update on the financial status for IGFSA. He noted that there is approximately 146k in the USD account.

 

Fundraising

  1. Chris Mondini gave an update regarding the internal follow up for ICANN funding support and noted that the prospects are good with getting the same level of support as previous years. He also noted that ICANN encouraged that IGFSA is looking to broaden its base of supporters. Regarding other potential donors, Chris noted that the conversation with AT&T included points of differentiation between contributions to the IGF Trust Fund and IGFSA. Regarding SAP, he noted that there has not yet been a response but will continue with the follow up. Regarding the ongoing communication with Identity Digital, he noted that they have requested a list of NRIs that IGFSA has supported in the past.

 

Communication

  1. There was discussion of the draft text of the communication message circulated prior to the call by Anriette Esterhuysen. There were some text amendments suggested to move some details to the FAQ section on the IGFSA website. There was also some discussion around the use of the word ‘champions’ to draw more attention to the messaging, as well as the positive connotations around the use of the phrase ‘IGF champions’ to reinforce contributions and efforts from those dedicated to supporting the IGF and IGFSA. Several suggestions such as “Call to IGF champions from the IGFSA”, and “Opportunity for IGF Champions to strengthen the NRIs through the IGFSA” were discussed.

 

  1. It was discussed that a call to action can be in the form of an ‘opt-in’ link to subscribe to more information and announcements from IGFSA. The Secretariat took an action to work with Anriette to finalize the messaging and create an opt-in check link for IGFSA communications. There was consensus from the EC that the letter can go out via the IGF Secretariat after this technical item is confirmed.

 

Planning for the General Assembly

  1. The Chair has contacted the IGF Secretariat for a slot for the IGFSA General Assembly, currently it is scheduled for the the first slot on Day 0. The EC agrees with the proposal that a later slot would be better for attendance and logistics. The Chair took an action to communicate this request to the IGF Secretariat.

 

EC Elections and succession planning

  1. The current chair of the Executive Committee, Markus Kummer, will be completing his final term as the 2022 IGFSA General Assembly concludes. As such, he put forward a proposal that the EC may consider electing a new Chair who may assume the post during the transition of Chair roles and able to conclude the GA in an orderly fashion. He noted that the IGFSA Bylaws allows the EC to decide the process which would be most appropriate for the continued operations of IGFSA. The EC noted the proposal and suggested further discussion, including a possible Chair election, be tabled for the following EC call.

 

  1. The Secretariat confirmed that there will be two EC seats up for elections for the 2022 General Assembly. Markus Kummer and Eduardo Santoyo will be completing their final terms on the Executive Council. The Secretariat took an action to determine a draft elections timeline to be circulated to the EC for discussion on the next EC call.
  2. AOB
    1. It was agreed that there will be two EC calls scheduled before the IGFSA GA and the Secretariat will send a doodle poll to schedule the next calls.
    2. There was some discussion on whether to include some IGFSA giveaway items at IGF 2022 and if it will be possible to source something locally in Ethiopia or the Africa region that would represent IGFSA.