Minutes of Board Meeting No. 21

18 Jul 2000, Yokohama, Japan

Author(s): M. Burack (Secretary)
Date: 2000-08-22
Committee: BOT
Document: 00-03
Revision: 1
Supersedes:
Status: Confirmed
Maintainer: M. Burack
Access: Unrestricted

A regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees of Internet Society, a non profit corporation organized under the laws of the District of Columbia, U.S.A. (“ISOC”), was held pursuant to notice at the Pan Pacifico Conference Center in Yokohama, Japan, on Tuesday, 18 July 2000.

Geoff Huston, immediate past Chairman of the ISOC Board of Trustees, called the Meeting to order at 4pm on 18 July 2000. Martin Burack, Secretary of the ISOC Board of Trustees, recorded the minutes.

Geoff Huston welcomed the new members of the Board.

1. Attendance

The following members of the Board of Trustees were present at the Meeting:

Trustees Martin Burack , Brian Carpenter, Vint Cerf, Srisakdi Charmanmon, Rosa Delgado, Barbara Fraser, Christian Huitema, Geoff Huston, Tarek Kamel, Christine Maxwell, Kees Neggers, Wawa Ngenge, George Sadowsky, Manuel Sanroma (via telephone), Don Heath.

Apologies:

Trustee John Gage.

A quorum was present on both days.

Also attending the meeting were:

• Officers: Michael Conn (Treasurer)
• Vice Presidents: George Sadowsky (Education, and Trustee-elect), Nick Trio (Publications), Tony Yustein (Organizational Membership), Richard Perlman (Conferences), David Maher (Public Policy), Tommy Matsumoto (INET 2001), Daniel Kaplan (Individual Membership)
• ISOC Advisory Council: Osten Franberg, Ole Jacobsen, Lajos Balint, and Stefano Trumpy
• ISOC Staff: Lynn St Amour, Torryn Brazell, Lance Laack, Terry Weigler, and Wendy Rickard.
• Others: Alan Greenberg, Jonathan Robbins.

The meeting was open to observers.

2. Agenda

The agenda was circulated prior to the Meeting

3. Election of Officers

Prior to the election of Officers, the Board unanimously adopted Resolution 00-15

Resolution 00-15 Appreciation of Jun Murai, Jose Luis Pardos, Ben Segal and John Gilmore
RESOLVED, that the Board of Trustees expresses its gratitude to Jun Murai, Jose Luis Pardos, Ben Segal and John Gilmore for their service to the Board of Trustees.

Election of Officers:

• Chair:  Christine Maxwell and Brian Carpenter were nominated to be candidates for the election of Chair. Both candidates made statements to the Trustees. Brian Carpenter was elected. Vote: 8 in favor of Brian Carpenter, 6 in favor of Christine Maxwell.
• Secretary: Geoff Huston was nominated and declared elected.
• Treasurer:  Mike Conn was nominated and declared elected.
• Executive Committee: Brian Carpenter, Geoff Huston, Rosa Delgado, and Kees Neggers were appointed to form the Executive Committee.  Vote 12 in favor, 0 opposed, 2 abstentions

4. Other Business

The Chair announced the following committee appointments:

• Elections Chair: Christian Huitema
• Nominations Chair: Marty Burack
• Audit Committee: Mike Conn (chair), Barbara Fraser, and Marty Burack

The Board unanimously adopted Resolution 00-16

Resolution 00-16 Appreciation of Geoff Huston
RESOLVED, that the Board of Trustees expresses its gratitude to Geoff Huston for his service as Chair of the Board of Trustees.

5. Next Meeting

The next meeting is scheduled be held on the 9^th and 10^th of December 2000 at San Diego, U.S.A..

6. Move to Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 4:35 p.m., 18 July 2000.

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The following is the candidate statement of Christine Maxwell, inserted into the minutes at her request:

In electing a new Chair for the Board of Trustees we all share an important responsibility which extends beyond the limits of the time of tenure and beyond the limits of the Internet Society – both independent of and including the IETF.  I believe this extends to ensuring ISOC’s perceived ability to influence ways in which our children and their children will enjoy the freedom of access, of choice, of protection of privacy, and of freedom of information that we have perhaps taken too much for granted over the last 50 years.  Our role in this election is to preserve, protect, and reaffirm our renewed confidence in our Mission Statement, that the Internet is for Everyone. We cannot allow ourselves to lose sight of this important role.  We exist for our members as a non-profit organisation dedicated to work as a platform providing open standards and access to knowledge for all. The role played by the IETF over the last 20 years in favor of an open environment has been essential in contributing to the success of the Internet today. However, other interests are rapidly increasing their learning curve of the internet environment, and IETF’s strength today may prove its fragility tomorrow, as whoever wins the battle for control of the Internet, a battle between the public sector and the private sector which has already begun, may seek to exert its control over the processes of standard definition.

The Internet Society faces a severe financial crisis at a time when the Internet has never been more relevant. We have only retained 39% of our individual members – with a reinforced chapter presence and a substantial loss of confidence by traditional membership and conference attendees who apparently have been attracted to organisations with a more visible, a more relevant, and a more immediate message to share. This is intolerable.

Daniel Kaplan and Tarek have stressed the importance of Chapters and their continued growth and development.  As they have stated, our Chapters have foci that combine defined societal and business processes.  They are seldom technical. The Chapters and our membership at large expect leadership which speaks their language, threads into their learning curve, and which shows a significant and sustained interest and active participation in efforts to incorporate a societal focus into its lead activities.  This interrelates to the need for a clearer understanding of the importance of standards and the unique role played by the ongoing work of the IETF.  This understanding is necessary, but ISOC’s future should not be allowed to evolve into a trade association or standards lobby at the expense of our Mission Statement. This is perceived by the active chapter members as being trans frontier and supra national. It is the ideal of a future guaranteeing the freedom of our children that has federated those that have given so much time and effort to ISOC over the years. We heard yesterday that organisation members are seeking a common platform extending where possible through the chapters and the ISTF as well as IETF – and as Don and Lynn can confirm many recent organisation members have joined because they have been impressed by the societal learning curve opportunities which ISOC provides and which can help them understand themselves.  I believe these members would not be impressed by just another lobby.

Today, more than ever, ISOC’s voice of reason needs to be heard and shared. ISOC needs to translate its uncontested historical legitimacy into perceived societal relevance. My message to you all today is to join in allowing ISOC to rediscover its relevance and challenge itself to adapt to a new paradigm allowing our voice – and that of the IETF – to be heeded in matters related to the new paradigm for the future. This cannot be done on a purely technical basis, just as the societal aspects of the Internet cannot be tackled without referring to the challenges and opportunities that tomorrow’s broadband and IPv6 environment will foster. We are about to step in to a radically new world, and I am asking you to share with me confidence in the Board of Trustee’s ability to regain both membership, initiative, and the respect of organisation members, in proving both to ourselves and to others that we have the vision and the relevance to succeed in sustaining the ideals of our Mission Statement

Thank you for support and attention.

Christine Maxwell

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