Summary Record of IGFSA 17th Meeting of the Executive Committee

Aug 4, 2016 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

17th  meeting of the Executive Committee

4 August 2016

Summary Record

 

1.   The Executive Committee held its seventeenth meeting on 4 August 2016 via Zoom. The following members and staff participated remotely:

Raúl Echeberría, Chair; Virat Bahtia; Marilyn Cade; Subi Chaturvedi; Edmon Chung; Avri Doria; Tarek Kamel;  Jimson Olufuye. Markus Kummer.

2.   It was noted that with eight Members of the Executive Committee taking part in the call a quorum was established for holding the meeting.

3.   A draft agenda had been circulated prior to the call and was adopted as follows:

a)         Adoption of the Agenda

b)         Review of funding policy

c)         Consideration of NRI requests

d)         Admission of new member

e)         ISOC Secretariat services

f)         Rotation of Executive Committee Members

g)         AOB

4.   It was noted that it should be possible to find a mutually satisfactory solution for IGFSA to contribute to the UN IGF Trust Fund. The Chair reported that he wrote a letter to Mr. Juwang Zhu, Director of the Division for Sustainable Development, UNDESA, providing further clarifications. While waiting for an answer from UNDESA more requests for support from NRIs made it necessary to review the funding policy. The current allocation of funds (60% to the IGF Trust fund and 25% to NRIs) was no longer sustainable. The Executive Committee therefore decided, as an interim measure and until the status vis-à-vis UNDESA had been clarified, to revise the funding scheme and allocate 45% to NRIs and 40% to the IGF Trust Fund.  The Chair will inform the IGFSA membership of this decision. The issue will be put on the agenda of the next General Assembly for a decision.

5.   The Executive Committee approved all NRI requests that had been cleared with the IGF Secretariat until the end of September and agreed to make a financial contribution to the following meetings:

  • Ghana IGF
  • Kenya IGF
  • Colombia IGF
  • Central African Regional IGF.

The Secretariat was requested to clarify the status of the remaining requests.

6.   The Executive Committee admitted Mr. Wanawit Ahkuputra, Deputy Executive Director of the Electronic Transactions Development Agency of Thailand, MAG-Member and Vice-Chair of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) as a new IGFSA member.

7.   There was a general support for requesting ISOC to continue providing the Secretariat Services for another year. Should this not be possible then it would be helpful if ISOC could continue providing these services for a transition period of six months or so to allow the Association to seek an alternative solution. The Executive Committee gave a mandate to Avri Doria to contact ISOC’s CFO to negotiate a solution.

8.   It was noted that as agreed last year the following Executive Committee members were due to rotate in 2016: Virat Bhatia, Avri Doria and Raùl Echeberría. Virat Bhatia announced that due to professional changes he would like to step down now, taking effect immediately. The Chair thanked him for his contribution to the work of the Executive Committee and wished him all the best for his future, expressing the hope to keep in touch. Cheryl Miller, who was due to rotate in 2017, had earlier written to the Executive Committee expressing her desire to resign for personal reasons. The other two members due to rotate in 2017 are Tarek Kamel and Jimson Olufuye.

9.   Under AOB there was a brief discussion on how best to organize the IGFSA booth at the IGF meeting. The Secretariat was requested to make sure that it would be placed close to the NRI booth in order to create synergies between IGFSA and the NRIs.