Summary Record of IGFSA 28th Meeting of the Executive Committee – 22 February 2018

Apr 16, 2018 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

 22 February 2018

Summary Record

  1. The Executive Committee held its 29th meeting on 22 February 2018. The meeting took place in a virtual setting, with the following members participating: Avri Doria, Marilyn Cade, Tarek Kamel, Markus Kummer, Jimson Olufuye, Edmon Chung; and Secretary Jennifer Chung. A quorum was established for the meeting, with six of the nine Executive Committee members participating.
  1. The agenda below had been circulated in advance of the meeting
    1. Adoption of the agenda
    2. Overview of the financial situation
    3. NRI funding requests
    4. IGFSA@ICANN 61
    5. Update on the IGFSA fellowship
    6. Update on the admin transition
    7. AOB

The agenda was approved with the addition of “fundraising” as a new agenda item.

  1. Overview of the financial situation

The financial statement below had been circulated in advance of the meeting:

Balance as per 21 February 2018: USD 111,023.62
Reserved funds:
Contingency: USD 41,530.00
IGFSA Fellowship (7xUSD 6,000) USD 42,000.00
Contribution to African IGF USD 3,500.00
Contribution to SEEDIG USD 3,500.00
Contribution to TTIGF USD 2,000.00
Reserved funds total: USD 92,530.00
Disposable funds as per 21 February 2018: USD 18,493.62

Much of the discussion focused on the reserved funds, totaling USD 92,530.00. These include contingency funds, the IGFSA Fellowship provided to the IGF Secretariat and some outstanding payments.

The Executive Committee agreed that the accumulated contingency fund of USD 42,000.00 was disproportionally high and concluded that there was no need to keep such a large amount of reserves. It was therefore decided to lower this amount and to reserve from now on USD 10,000.00 for contingency. This would free more than USD 30,000.00 that could be to support the IGF and the National and Regional IGF Initiatives (NRIs).

The Executive Committee agreed that it would be necessary to consult the IGFSA membership in this matter and asked the Chair to send out a note the all members explaining the rationale for this decision which was felt to be in the spirit of the discussions at the Annual General Assembly last December.

  1. NRI funding requests

The Executive Committee approved the funding request from EuroDIG. It was understood that the funds would be used for fellowships for participants from economies in transition.

The Executive Committee also discussed a funding request received from the South School on Internet Governance (SSIG). This request was found to be out of scope and the Executive Committee agreed to limit IGFSA funding to NRIs and reaffirmed that a pre-condition for being considered was to be validated by the IGF Secretariat and listed on the IGF website.

  1. IGF@ICANN 61

The Executive Committee took note of two planned events, an outreach session to seek ccTLD funding and a meeting with NRIs, and thanked Marilyn and Eduardo for organizing these events.

  1. Update on the IGFSA Fellowship

The Chair informed the Executive Committee that an exchange of letters with Anja Gengo had been concluded. According to this exchange of letters, the Association was committed to provide her a monthly stipend for seven months, starting in February. UNDESA was fully informed of this arrangement.

  1. Update on the admin transition 

The Secretary informed the Executive Committee that the website had been transferred to dotAsia and all the functions were now operational, while the content was still being updated. The rearrangement of the banking arrangements had taken longer than anticipated, but should be fully operational shortly.

  1. Fundraising

The Executive Committee agreed on the need to step up fundraising efforts and discussed a proposal made during the General Assembly, that is to involve the IGFSA membership in these efforts. As this proposal had found some support, the Chair was asked to send out a note to all members and ask them for their advice and suggestions.

  1. AOB

Under AOB the Executive Committee looked at possible dates for its next meeting. The week for the IGF MAG Meeting/Open Consultations and the WSIS Forum, starting on 19 March, was considered, as some Executive Committee members might be in Geneva for these meetings.