Summary Record of IGFSA 21st Meeting of the Executive Committee

Jan 17, 2017 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

21st meeting of the Executive Committee

17 January 2017

Summary Record

 

  1. The Executive Committee held its 21st meeting on 17 January 2017 virtually. The following Members, Co-Secretaries and staff were in attendance:

 

Marilyn Cade, Edmon Chung, Avri Doria, Markus Kummer, Jimson Olufuye, Eduardo Santoyo; Mark Buell, Jennifer Chung, Kyle Schulman.

 

  1. A quorum was established for the meeting, with six of nine Executive Committee members present.

 

  1. A draft agenda had been circulated prior to the call and was adopted as follows:
  • Adoption of the Agenda
  • Summary record of the 20th meeting of the Executive Committee – for approval
  • 2016 contribution to the IGF Trust Fund – for approval
  • Fundraising – for discussion
  • Recruitment of new members – for discussion
  • Overview of new developments with NRIs – for information
  • Outreach opportunities
  • Any other business

 

Summary record of the 20th meeting of the Executive

  1. The Summary Record of the 20th meeting of the Executive Committee was presented and approved.

 

2016 contribution to the IGF Trust Fund

  1. The meeting was asked to approve the 2016 IGFSA contribution to the IGF Trust Fund. It was recalled that one of the primary purposes of the IGFSA is to support the IGF Trust Fund, as well as the IGF National/Regional Initiatives (NRIs).  It was noted that there are challenges to meet all requests for the NRIs funding for 2017.  The Executive Committee approved USD 40,000 to be transferred to the UN account.

 

Fundraising

  1. The Executive Committee had an in-depth discussion on possible fundraising activities. The following initiatives were discussed or approved:
  • It was agreed that fundraising letters be sent to existing and potential donors, including ccTLDs and private sector attendees at the IGF in Guadalajara. These letters will be drafted by Mark Buell, and he will also assemble a list of potential donors. It was noted that more should be done to highlight existing donors. Further discussion will be needed to finalize the fundraising plan.
  • Crowdsourcing funding through the IEEE membership was mentioned as one potential funding activity that could be explored. As the IEEE representative on the Executive Committtee was not on the call, no conclusion was reached on this suggestion.
  • An IGFSA ‘fun run’ was discussed as an opportunity to raise awareness of the Association, recruit new members and raise money. Holding a run at ICANN meetings, with corporate and individual sponsorships/donations, could be explored, with the idea of holding an ad hoc trial run at ICANN 58 in Copenhagen in March 2017 and the first full event held at ICANN 59 in Johannesburg in June 2017 or ICANN 60 in November 2017 in Abu Dhabi. The option of holding a ‘fun run’ event at an NRI was also noted. Questions were raised about the cost effectiveness and feasibility, given venues and resources.   It was felt that there was a need for further investigation into the feasibility of such an initiative.
  • It was agreed to explore adding credit card options.
  • It was decided that a ‘donate now’ will be added to the IGFSA Facebook page.

 

Recruitment of new members

  1. Strategies to recruit new members was discussed, with the following outcomes:
  • Sponsorship of the DNS women’s breakfast meeting at a future ICANN meeting will be explored.
  • A recruitment package for distribution at IGFSA-sponsored NRI events will be developed, and made available both online and for use in printed form.

 

Overview of new developments with NRIs

8.   The number of NRIs is growing each year, and thus, it was noted that there is a growing need for support to the NRIs.  In addition, NRI Coordinators are asking for additional funding to attend the IGF. It was agreed that there is a need for further discussion to consider the growing numbers of the NRIs and funding requests.

 

 

Outreach opportunities

  1. Upcoming potential outreach events for the IGFSA include the following:

 

  • IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group consultation (March 2017)
  • ICANN 58 in Copenhagen (March 2017)
  • CSTD meeting  (May 2017
  • WSIS Forum (June 2017)
  • ECOSOC high-level policy event (July 2017).

 

AOB

10.   The Executive Committee agreed to hold the next meeting in the margins of ICANN 58 in Copenhagen.