Summary Record of IGFSA 16th Meeting of the Executive Committee

May 25, 2016 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA) 

16th  meeting of the Executive Committee

25 May 2016

Summary Record

1. The Executive Committee held its sixteenth meeting on 25 May 2016 via Webex.  The following members and staff took part in the call:

Raúl Echeberría, Chair; Marilyn Cade, Avri Doria,  Tarek Kamel, Jimson Olufuye; Markus Kummer and Kyle Shulman.

 

2. It was noted that there were a majority of the Executive Committee members participating and that therefore, as required by the Articles of Association, there was a quorum for holding the meeting and taking decisions, as necessary..

 

3. The following agenda had been circulated prior to the call and was adopted as proposed:

  1. Adoption of the agenda
  2. Relations with UNDESA – update
  3. Approval of the Summary Record of the February/March call
  4. Requests for NRI funding – for approval
  5. Admission of new members – for approval
  6. Outreach activities (WSIS Forum, ICANN 56)
  7. Q1 financial statement – for information
  8. AOB

 

4. Adoption of the Agenda

The IGFSA Executive Committee adopted the agenda.

 

5. Relations with UNDESA – Update

The IGFSA Chair has exchanged e-mails with Director Juwang Zhu of UNDESA and the IGFSA Secretariat will supply a short report to send on to UNDESA with IGFSA activities and work to date.  The Chair expressed his hope to set up a call with UNDESA in the coming weeks.

It was recalled that during the MAG meeting/Open Consultations and the WSIS Forum there were UNDESA staff present and when asked regarding accepting IGFSA funds, they responded that they were waiting to hear from the Office of the Legal Advisor to the UN Secretary-General.

 

6. Q1 financial statement – for information

The Q1 Financial Statement was briefly discussed and the Executive Committee was updated on funds collected so far in 2016.  The IGFSA received contributions from the NRO at USD 25,000, Amazon at USD 2,500 and through new IGFSA memberships around USD 500.   It was also noted that in the coming weeks ICANN would make the annual contribution of USD 50,000.

 

7. Approval of the Summary Record of the February/March call

The summary record from the previous IGFSA Executive Committee Call was approved.

 

8. Requests for NRI funding – for approval

So far,  17 National and  6 sub regional/Regional IGF Initiatives have submitted requests for funding. At the time of the call, two National and two Regional IGF Initiatives had been funded, namely Belarus, Uruguay, SEEDIG and EuroDIG.

It was noted that there is significant growth in the national Initiatives, and that further funds would need to be raised in order to support further NRIs if we were to reflect IGFSA’s agreed budget allocations.

The Executive Committee agreed to fund the national and regional initiatives listed below. All these events will be held prior to 1 August 2016 and were previously validated with the IGF Secretariat by the IGFSA Secretariat, as required.  They include both national and regionals initiatives. (Regional and and sub-regional initiatives are marked with * below.)

  • Slovenia IGF
  • Croatia IGF
  • Nigeria IGF
  • Chad IGF,
  • Benin IGF
  • APrIGF*
  • West Africa IGF *
  • LACIGF*

 

9. Admission of new members – for approval

The Excutive Committee accepted the following applications for membership:

Individual Members

Michael Oghia

Oksana Prykhodko

Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro,

Brenda Ainsley

Donny B. U

James Gannon

Jennifer Chung

Ayden Férdeline

Organizational Members

ICT Watch Indonesia

 

10.Outreach activities (WSIS Forum, ICANN 56)

It was reported that the IGFSA informational session held during the 2016 WSIS Forum was a successful outreaching event. The meeting was well attended and IGFSA Executive Committee members who were on the panel (Marilyn Cade, Avri Doria,  Tarek Kamel and Jimson Olufuye) gave positive feed-back and agreed that it was filled with productive discussions.  Following the meeting, there were a number of participants who signed up for membership.   The Executive Committee expressed its appreciation to all its members who had contributed to making the event a success.

The Executive Committee discussed the possibility of holding a similar outreach event during the ICANN 56 Meeting in Helsinki. There were different views on the opportunity of having such an event. The point was made that it may not be the best use of IGFSA funds, as this would be a smaller ICANN meeting and that therefore the target audience would be below expectations. However, there was agreement in principle to pursue the discussion on holding such an event at ICANN 56 as a pilot project. Marilyn Cade was asked to determine feasibility of such an outreach mini session and to provide details for approval by the Executive Committee.

 

11. AOB

The Chair proposed reserving a time slot at one of the forthcoming Executive Committee meetings to discuss the future of the Association, including its governance and the rotation of Executive Committee members.

There would also be a need to start planning for 2016 IGF in Mexico, including the annual General Assembly, the IGFSA booth and other activities.