Internet Governance Forum Support Association (IGFSA)
34rd meeting of the Executive Committee

17 September 2019

Summary Record

1. The Executive Committee held its 34th meeting on 17 September 2019. The meeting took place in a virtual setting, with the following participants:

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

A quorum was established for the meeting, with seven 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. Financial overview
    3. Fundraising and crowdfunding
    4. Preparation of the IGFSA General Assembly, including EC election
    5.  Preparation for ICANN Montreal
    6. Agreement with DotAsia
    7. AOB

Financial overview

3. The Treasurer gave an overview of the financial situation. As per early September 2019 IGFSA had a closing balance of USD 43,000, with funding received from the NRO (USD 50,000), Afilias (USD 3,500) and Google (USD 10,000). However, the contribution from Google is reserved for the Accessibility Fund that is being used for providing real-time transcription for MAG calls. With the other reserved funds and the contingency fund the virtual balance was close to zero. In 2019 so far IGFSA has made 28 contributions to NRIs for a total of USD 69,500.1

Fundraising and crowdfunding

4. The Chair informed the meeting that ICANN was in the process of making a renewed contribution of USD 50,000. This would provide some room to manoeuvre in for the rest of the year. The Executive Committee thanked Tarek for securing ICANN’s contribution. Marilyn enquired whether there had been any developments as regards a possible contribution from ISOC. As this was not the case, she volunteered to approach ISOC. There was also a brief discussion on crowdfunding and the need to start a pilot project. The Chair concluded that there was a need for a dedicated call to advance this project. The call would be open to all interested Executive Committee Members.

Preparation of the IGFSA General Assembly, including EC election

5. The Chair recalled the term of two Executive Committee Members – Eduardo and himself – came to an end this year. Both members are entitled to seek re-election for a second term, should they wish to do so. As discussed previously on the mailing list, the Board agreed to a more formalized approach. All IGFSA Members would be informed about the election. Any Member who would be interested in standing for election would be invited to submit a Statement of Interest (SoI) by 28 October, that is one month ahead of the General Assembly. After that date, no candidatures would be accepted anymore. IGFSA Members in good standing would be allowed to vote by email in advance of the General Assembly. The Executive Committee asked the Chair to inform the membership about this procedure and also to encourage them to pay their membership dues ahead of the General Assembly.

Preparation for ICANN Montreal

6. Marilyn informed the Executive Committee about the preparations underway for the traditional meeting with NRIs at the forthcoming ICANN meeting in Montreal. She was in touch with ICANN staff to secure a room for the meeting. Representatives of about 30 NRIs are expected to attend the meeting.

Agreement with dotAsia

7. The Executive Committee agreed to the details of a service agreement with dotAsia. Under the Agreement, IGFSA will pay a monthly fee of USD 1,000 to dotAsia for providing administrative and technical support to IGFSA, including website hosting, payment gateway and technical maintenance. The Executive Committee had previously been informed that dotAsia would wave the fees for the first half of 2018. The Agreement would now need to be formalized through an exchange of letters of an MoU. A draft would be shared with the Executive Committee.

AOB

8. No issue was raised under this agenda item.

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1 IGFSA had an agreement with the IGF Secretariat to refrain from supporting NRIs that benefited from IGF Secreriat support. In 2019 the IGF Secretariat provided funding to 9 NRIs.