Summary Record of IGFSA 32nd Meeting of the Executive Committee – 1 February 2019

Feb 20, 2019 | Meeting Summary Records, Reports and Meeting Minutes

Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)

31st meeting of the Executive Committee

12 September 2018

Summary Record

1. The Executive Committee held its 32nd meeting on 1 February 2019. The meeting took place in a virtual setting, with the following participants:

Marilyn Cade, Edmon Chung, Avri Doria, Makane Faye, Tarek Kamel, Markus Kummer,  Eduardo Santoyo, Jimson Olufuye; Jennifer Chung (Secretary).

A quorum was established for the meeting, with eight of the nine Executive Committee members taking part in the call.

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

    1. Adoption of the agenda
    2. Agreement with DotAsia
    3. Support of Youth IGFs
    4. Fundraising and Crowdfunding
    5. Onboarding of new EC members
    6. AOB

 

3. The Chair started the meeting with an overview of the financial situation and walked the meeting through a table that was sent out prior to the meeting. The balance as per 31 January was USD 48,468. It was noted however, that there were reserved funds of more than USD 20,0000 and in addition there was the agreement with DotAsia that was to be concluded, so that there were currently only limited funds available.

Agreement with dotAsia

4. Avri introduced a table with a proposed fee structure for the services provided by DotAsia, totaling USD 1,000/month. Avri described this as very reasonable and the EC agreed to backdate the agreement, as DotAsia had provided the services since the beginning of 2018. Edmon indicated that DotAsia had some flexibility with regard to the fees charged for 2018 and it was agreed to task Avri and Jennifer to finalize the document for final approval by the Executive Committee.

Support of Youth IGFs

5. The Albania Youth IGF has submitted a funding request. The Chair informed the Executive Committee that the Albania Youth IGF was one of 14 Youth IGFs that had been recognized by the IGF Secretariat. He raised the question in principle whether IGFSA should support Youth IGFs. The EC agreed that the Association’s priority was to integrate the engagement of youth into the NRIs and that at this stage Youth IGFs would not be recognized as a separate category for funding. The Chair was asked to inform the Albania Youth IGF accordingly.

Fundraising and Crowdfunding

6. Given the current financial situation, the Executive Committee recognized the need for increased fundraising efforts, and agreed on the need to broaden the donor base. Marilyn volunteered to reach out to past donors and identify potential future donors in the Washington DC area and to put together a list of 10-12 companies for the Executive Committee to reach out to. She also committed to pursuing the dialogue with ISOC with a view to obtaining financial contributions. Avri agreed to lead the crowdfunding efforts. She also indicated that she would explore with ISOC the possibility of obtaining matching funding. Edmon offered to share DotAsia’s crowdfunding experience and help set up the project as needed.

Onboarding of new Executive Committee Members

7. The Chair welcomed Marilyn’s suggestion of setting up onboarding sessions for new Executive Committee members. A doodle poll will be sent out to identify volunteers to take part in such a session and to find a slot for a call.

AOB

8. Marilyn informed about the state of preparation of a planned NRI engagement session at ICANN 64 in Kobe. Up to 40 NRI coordinators were expected to attend. Marilyn volunteered to follow-up with Tarek’s team regarding the logistics of the meeting, while Jennifer will seek confirmation regarding the attendance of Executive Committee members.

9. Makane informed about a project between the African Union and the European Union that was started in the framework of the African IGF. The project, named Policy and Regulation Initiative for Digital Africa (PRIDA) has the objective to improve the use of ICT across all socioeconomic development sectors on the continent, including the ability of African stakeholders to actively participate in the Internet governance debate. In his capacity as a member of the PRIDA Steering Committee and Secretary of the African IGF, Makane committed himself to promoting IGFSA to make it better known to all African stakeholders and to attract more members. 

10. Jennifer was asked to follow-up with Executive Committee Members to make sure that all missing bios and photos could be posted on the IGFSA website.