Minutes of Board Meeting No. 19

12 – 13 Nov 1999, Washington, D.C., United States

Author(s): M. Burack (Secretary)
Date: 1999-11-12
Committee: BOT
Document: 99-03
Revision: 0
Supersedes:
Status: Draft
Maintainer: M. Burack
Access: Confirmed

The Annual General 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 Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., U.S.A., on Friday, November 12, 1999 and Saturday, November 13, 1999.

Geoff Houston, Chairman of the ISOC Board of Trustees called the Meeting to order at 1:00pm on November 12, 1999. Martin Burack, Secretary of the ISOC Board of Trustees, recorded the Minutes.

1. Attendance

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

Geoff Huston, Christine Maxwell, Martin Burack, John Gilmore, Christian Huitema, Tarek Kamel, Jun Murai, Kees Neggers, Manel Sanroma, Don Heath

Apologies:

Trustees Vinton Cerf, Srisakdi Charmonman, John Gage, Jose Luis Pardos, and Ben Segal.

A quorum was present on both days.

Also attending the meeting were:

Michael Conn (Treasurer)
Daniel Kaplan (Vice President for Membership)
Glenn Kowack (Vice President for Planning and Strategy)
David Maher (Vice President for Public Policy)
Richard Perlman (Vice President for Conferences)
George Sadowsky (Vice President for Education) |
Nicholas Trio (Vice President for Publications),
Brian Carpenter (IAB Chair)
Steve Coya (IETF Executive Director)
Michael Goodman (ISOC Consultant)

ISOC Advisory Council Officers: Osten Franberg (Chair), Lajos Balint, Helmut Schink, Stefano Trumpy
ISOC: Lynn St Amour, Torryn Brazell, Mary Burger, Lance Laack, Terry Weigler, Wendy Rickard, Michelle Spengler, Mike Sadowski. The meeting was open to observers.

2. Agenda

The agenda for the meeting was circulated prior to the meeting.

3. Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the 1999 Regular Meetings of the Board of Trustees held on June 21-22 1999, at San Jose, California, had been distributed for review prior to this meeting (ISOC Board of Trustees Document – Minutes of Meeting 17; ISOC Board of Trustees Document – Minutes of Meeting 18. The minutes, amended to correct minor typographical errors, were unanimously approved.

4. Ratification of Electronic Votes

The Board ratified the confirmation of the appointments of the following officers of ISOC:

Resolution 99-19 Confirmation of Appointment of ISOC Officers
RESOLVED, that the Board of Trustees confirms the appointment of the following individuals to serve as officers of the Internet Society until replaced or resignation:

Chapters	Tarek Kamel
Communications	Christine Maxwell
Conferences	Richard Perlman
Education	George Sadowsky
INET 2000	Tommy Matsumoto
Membership	Daniel Kaplan
Planning & Strategy	Glenn Kowack
Public Policy	David Maher
Publications	Nick Trio
Standards	Scott Bradner

5. State of the Society

5.1 President’s Report

President and CEO Don Heath noted that our year began with a resolution by the Trustees to launch an effort to reach a membership level of 100,000 individuals in the year 2000. A substantial investment in this has been made.

INET’99 was very successful from the perspective of content, attendance, and speakers, but the financial results were not as good. Between the Network Training Workshop (NTW) and INET’99, ISOC experienced a loss of about US$500,000. That represents a swing from the budgeted plan of about US$750,000, and has constrained our ability to aggressively and fully execute the recommendations in the strategic plan. Implementation on a reduced scale is being pursued and, as we reestablish our finances, we will increase our efforts in the growth initiative.

Immediately after INET’99, we increased our fund raising efforts. This included collecting overdue organizational membership dues, upgrading existing organizational members’ membership levels, and recruiting new organizational members. Annual dues from ISOC’s 151 organizational members generate just over US$1,500,000 in baseline revenue for supporting ISOC’s goals and objectives, programs and initiatives. We are beginning to see tangible results from the fund raising campaign and, although there is a projected loss for 1999 of about US$960,000, cash flow is expected to return to a reasonable level by March 2000.

Individual membership was at 6,785 at the end of 1998. As of 22 October, it stood at 7,567. A significant majority of individual members do not participate within our chapter structure, but as the number of chapters continue to increase, and as the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) emerge, we see this statistic reversing.

INET 2000 conference co-chairs, Toru Takahashi and Brian Carpenter and the program co-chairs, Jun Murai and Jean-Claude Guidon have been operating since before INET’99 and there has been considerable progress made in the program definition, plenary speakers, and sponsorships. .

We recently co-sponsored Geonetix 99, a conference for the Oil & Gas industry with a focus on their activities in and with the Internet.

The NTW is a great service to the global Internet; but ISOC cannot sustain continued significant losses. We are reevaluating this activity and considering a new paradigm for achieving the same results without risking substantial losses.

Ten Vice Presidents were appointed and ratified by the board, and this should enable ISOC to amplify our efforts and intensify our activity in the defined areas of focus.

The ISOC Advisory Council has demonstrated an eagerness to become more involved in the activities and strategies of ISOC. They have restructured in order to focus on the key elements that are driving the evolution of the Internet.

In 1999, there have been many activities in which ISOC played, or is playing a leading or key role. These include:

• Internet and Societal Task Force (ISTF) – Within the scope of the ISTF is the opportunity to identify ways in which the Internet can be a positive force in social and economic dimensions.
• Internet Fiesta ’99 – This enthusiastically embraced event occurs simultaneously in many areas around the world. The Fiesta is a primary activity for ISOC chapters.
• WIPO Panel of Experts – ISOC was represented on this panel chartered to make policy recommendations to ICANN in the areas of dispute prevention, dispute resolution, process for the protection of famous and well-known marks in the gTLDs, and effects on intellectual property rights of new gTLDs.
• ITU Reform Committee – ISOC is represented on this committee to advise the International Telecommunication Union on how it should look in the future.
• ISOC continues its efforts in the realm of Internet self-governance. Our objectives are only to facilitate and foster ground up consensus building and not to seek a significant role in the structures that result. We have taken a reasonably active role in the organization of the Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO), and particularly in the creation of the Non-Commercial Domain Name Holders Constituency NCDNHC).

Much remains to be accomplished, but we are executing the correct approach, with the right vision clearly in mind, and are committed to doing everything in our power to achieve our goals.

5.2 Executive Director’s Report

Executive Director Lynn St. Amour pointed out that the last six months have been an extremely hectic time for the Internet Society. This, mainly as a result of our activities completing the Strategic Marketing Plan and in the testing and launching of many new initiatives in support of the membership growth plans for individual and organizational members. In addition we had to redouble our membership fund-raising efforts as a result of our INET’99 and NTW losses.

In spite of the increased focus on INET and NTW we were still able to make reasonable progress in bringing on new organizational members, albeit late in the year. There are 25 new organization members to date with approximately 5 more expected by year- end and momentum is building. While our financial position is still very concerning, we are confident that we have turned the corner and expect to be in a more comfortable position by next March.

In addition, in support of our individual member growth target we have been quite aggressively testing and/or implementing a number of initiatives. This coupled with the organizational membership activity mentioned above significantly stretched our finances and our human resources and we are focusing very hard on gaining additional operating efficiencies and on doing everything we can to improve ISOC’s financial position. The priorities are very clear:

• Improve ISOC’s financial position
• Increase member value for organizational and individual members.

At the Strategic retreat in March 1999, we identified nine critical areas for ISOC, each with a set of actions and a timetable for implementation. They covered areas such as PR, Communications, Membership Growth, Societal (ISTF), Technical Standards, Education and Conferences and these coupled with the key goals below have been the drivers behind many of our activities.

Key goals:

• Increase the effectiveness and visibility of ISOC on a global level.
• Become the recognized global Internet user constituency organization.
• Ensure that ISOC is at all times positioned to deliver on its mission and commitments.

This Board review focussed on three components of the above:

1. Delivering real and apparent value to our members and the global Internet community (e.g. “doing the work of the Internet Society”);
2. Creating a broad awareness of the organization, its mission and its activities – so that we are in a position to become – and become accepted as – the true user constituency of the Internet; and
3. Proactively reaching out to and soliciting membership, individual and organizational, from a diverse community with a common interest in the Internet and our mission.

Efforts have begun in all three areas, although it’s clear that the funding situation will force us to look critically at where we spend our efforts and obviously our monies.

Re; the first component – ‘delivering real and apparent value to our members and the global Internet community’ – we have begun implementing a number of initiatives, such as Sustainable Internet Training Centers/regional NTW’s, as well as a Members Only section of the web-site with a number of new features such as searchable, electronic versions of OntheInternet, a Volunteers forum, etc. A number of Special Interest Groups (SIG’s) were also formed and we are strengthening our services to chapters as well as SIG’s.

The second component – ‘creating broad awareness of the organization, its mission and its activities – so that we are in a position to become – and become accepted as – the true user constituency of the Internet’; is being addressed through activities such as the Internet Fiesta and some soon to be launched public policy initiatives. In addition, we have developed and are actively promoting banner ads (in five languages) and landing pages. We also have a button on http://www.gecportal.com which is a site developed by the World Trade Centers Association to facilitate the deployment of a Global E-Commerce Network, as well as on a number of other sites, etc.

And finally the third component – ‘proactively reaching out to and soliciting membership, individual and organizational, from a diverse community with a common interest in the Internet and our mission’. Here, we have implemented special programs such as one encouraging the sponsorship of individuals from developing countries. We are implementing an Industry Outreach program and significant efforts are underway to reach out to non-IT industries, such as Banking, Oil and Gas, Pharmaceuticals, Consulting, etc. We have had quite good success with this approach and expect it to pay significant dividends. We have also worked with a number of associations on a member outreach program and while it has proved difficult to sign them up ‘wholesale’ we will be able to solicit their members for individual memberships through targeted mailings.

While we have accomplished a lot there is still a lot we need to do.

The Internet Society has always had a lean staff, dedicated largely to “keeping the wheels on” and ensuring that the operational mechanics of the organization work. As we continue to improve our systems and automate some of the more time-consuming processes, we expect to be able to free up additional staff time (and/or salary) to more aggressively tackle some of the “new work” of our organization, as necessitated by our key goals. Over the course of the year, we have reduced the staff by 2-3 people and absorbed their workload into the responsibilities of remaining staff. In fact this ‘tightening up’ has already allowed us to invest significantly in improving our website and offering new services to our members. The next step is to put additional resource into developing and implementing programs and/or partnerships. We also need additional resource, primarily sales/customer management, to allow us to extend our organizational membership activities. This position should largely be self-funding after an initial start-up period and this is likely to be our first area of investment as soon as funds permit.

We have identified other solutions to alleviate some of the resource pressures and with support and input from our vice presidents, chapters, trustees and advisory council members, this should improve even further.

Each member of the Board of Trustees, each VP, each chapter officer and each individual and organizational member was invited to help us deliver on these goals. We’ve been working diligently to deliver on them and are confident of success, but we could do it faster with your support, guidance and direction.

6. Advisory Council Report

Chairman Osten Franberg reported that three officers were recently elected: Ole Jacobsen, Hui-Lan Lu, and Stefano Trumpy.

An IAC meeting was held on November 12, 1999. 44 people attended. A variety of issues were discussed. The meeting resulted in some follow-up items:

• The Advisory Council requests that ISOC put together a fact sheet on Quality of Service to be sent to org members. This would be a good benefit.
• The Advisory Council would like a tutorial to be given at INET for people wanting to know more about the IETF. Franberg will send a request to the Program Committee co-chairs.
• Visibility and Revenue: ISOC should position itself to work with policy oriented orgs such as GIP, and ask for and get visibility for those efforts. ISOC members sometimes make presentations at sessions put on by Forrester. Perhaps ISOC can get some revenue from this type of effort done with various research firms.
• ICANN might need help building at-large membership. ISOC might be able to help, perhaps by getting ISOC members to become members of ICANN.
• Lajos Balint will maintain relations with the Internet Societal Task Force (ISTF) and submit to the AC a first list of problems to be addressed.
• The IAC will submit a recommendation to the Board of Trustees concerning increased support for the Internet Fiesta.
• A model for future INET conferences will be submitted to the ISOC VP for Conferences.

RESOLUTION 99-20 ISOC Sponsorships of Conferences
RESOLVED, that the Internet Society should only sponsor commercial conferences when it does not compromise ISOC’s integrity, does not lock ISOC into an exclusive arrangement, and is beneficial for ISOC. (7-0-1)

RESOLUTION 99-21 Expression of Gratitude to the Officers of the IAC
RESOLVED, that the Board of Trustees expresses its appreciation to the officers of the ISOC Advisory Council for the work they have done in making the IAC a more vibrant and useful group that is contributing to the success of ISOC

7. Financial Report

The President spoke to the ISOC Financial Report. All renewals for 1999 have been invoiced (141 orgs); the total invoiced was $1,432,500. 19 Organizational members either cancelled or were dropped for non-payment, representing $129,750 in dues. So far this year, 94 renewals and 19 new members have paid, amounting to $1,090,000; an additional $300K+ is expected to be collected. The estimated number of org members is 151, with a base revenue of $1,581,000. The target is 217 orgs, with a base of $2,000,000.

Month-end cash flow is projected to range from $55K for November to $97K for February. Payables are being managed in cooperation with the vendors to whom the money is owed. Due to the accrual way in which ISOC recognizes revenue, the fund balance is unlikely to be positive until late in 2000 or later.

George Sadowsky met with Tenku Azzman (MIMOS, Malaysia) and negotiated a settlement of $56,000 on the amount they owed us for registration and sponsorship revenues for INET’97. Tenku will send a letter confirming this.

8. Conferences

8.1 INET2001

Vice-President for Conferences, Richard Perlman, reported to the Board on the INET conference activity.
ISOC is attempting to get an RFI for 2001 out to potential sites by the end of November, although it may take a bit longer. This will be posted on a convention center web site, publicized to ISOC members, forwarded to those who contacted ISOC previously interested in hosting an INET event, and publicized to ISOC members. The RFI will project a paid attendance of 600-850. Although the draft RFP in the Board meeting handbook doesn’t yet show it, ISOC would only select a local organizing committee that would commit to absorbing the financial risks. The 2001 MOU may be modified to say we will favor bids that don’t require use of an expensive conference facility.

The current pattern of rotating between the Americas, Asia, and Europe may be obsolete. An analysis will be done of holding regional conferences and/or conferences with a narrower focus than ISOC has had in prior conferences. The way in which INET2000 is being handled will be evaluated and used as a guide for recommending adjustments that may need to be made. The VP of Conferences will come up with recommendations. An RFI for 2002 and 2003 will be sent after the recommendations are reviewed.

8.2 INET2000

Conference and Education Director Torryn Brazell reported on the status of fundraising and other items pertaining to the conference to be held in Yokohama, Japan, in July.

Some sponsored ads have been sold, for a gross of approximately 30million yen (US$285,000). Comments have been received from Japan about the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU); we are close to signing.

JPNIC will be responsible for executing all contracts relating to INET2000, and will guarantee no loss to ISOC. If there is a surplus, it will be divided by the 1st $250K going to ISOC, with the remainder split 50-50 between ISOC and JPNIC.

ISOC will be responsible for raising $300K. We have $211K firm; of which $81K has been collected. he Japanese sponsorship target is $2,186,363. In addition, there is a goal of Japan Newspaper Advertising sponsorships bringing in $1,090,090. The bulk of the revenue from Japan will be received in March-April (fiscal year impact). Japan Fundraising status: $620K in verbal commitments; $656K more expected soon. IBM Japan will be lending 150 PCs. Cisco Japan is sponsoring the Gala, and will also donate cash.

Registration for 1,200 is estimated at $793,095. That covers only 17% of the costs of INET2000. Thus far, $57K has been spent for INET2000. Projected expenses for INET2000 are $3,700,000.

The Chair suggested that ISOC’s books show the amount of deferred revenue that is “encumbered” (e.g., earmarked for INET2000).

JCOM is the Professional Conference Organizer. It is important that ISOC continue to have international conferences so that people from around the world can network together. INET can continue to fill that role provided it does not lose money. Smaller (regional) INETs might not draw attendees from as many countries but would still offer similar possibilities for those who wish to network.

Program Committee Co-Chair Jun Murai reported that 334 abstract submissions, from 50 countries, have been received. The conference theme is Global Distributed Intelligence for Everyone. A new addition to the program is called “Live Demonstrations”.

The Chair expressed the Board’s gratitude to JPNIC for stepping up to assuming financial responsibility for INET2000.

A decision on holding the Network Training Workshop (NTW) in conjunction with INET will be made sometime between the end of January and the end of February. Japanese support is heavily dependent upon government support. We’ll understand what the Japanese government will be willing to do to support the NTW by early December. The INET2000 MOU contains some references to the NTW and imposes some responsibilities on the Japanese. It is the sense of the Board that those references be taken out and put into a separate document so that the MOU process can proceed cleanly.

8.3 NDSS

Conference Director Torryn Brazell reported that NDSS’99 generated a $64K surplus. NDSS2000 projections have been developed based upon 175 and 220 registrants; these show a likely surplus estimated to be in the range of $60-86K.

NDSS might serve as a role model for other small niche conferences that ISOC could organize based upon work done by other working groups of the IRTF; e.g., Quality of Service.

8.4 Network Training Workshops (NTW)

Education VP George Sadowsky reported that NTW’99 was a training success but financially did not achieve a surplus. The instructors are not of one mind as to future direction. It seems as though at least one track can be added and perhaps two tracks can be removed. NTW2000 has no committed funding yet, but a few prospects have indicated a strong interest. There is a concern about the applications process and a major change may be needed. e.g. We go to organizations we know and trust and ask for recommendations.

There is possibility of doing a regional NTW in Mexico next year. Edmundo Vitale, who did a lot to make the previous two Latin America and Caribbean workshops a success would manage this. The Board does not wish to do more NTWs without assurance of protection against financial loss.

9. Committee and Action Reports

9.1 Internet Architecture Board (IAB)

Chairman Brian Carpenter reported that the IAB held an important workshop in July, kindly hosted by SURFnet Expertise Centrum in Utrecht, Netherlands, to discuss the future of the network layer. A report is available as an Internet-Draft and is planned to become an Informational RFC.

• The IAB has spent considerable time this year dealing with ICANN issues, especially the creation of the ICANN PSO and, recently, the creation of the ICANN Ad Hoc Group.
• The IAB is just starting a discussion of Quality of Service architecture.
• The IAB has handled one appeal against IESG action by William A Simpson, and is currently handling a second appeal from Mr. Simpson. Further appeal may be made to the ISOC Board.

9.2 Standards

Geoff Huston reported for Vice President for Standards Scott Bradner. IESG and IAB members met with 13 of 15 study group chairs of ITU-T to discuss ways of cooperating. Joint documents between ITU-T and the IESG will be produced when work is done together. The IESG is interested in ways of cooperating with other standards groups.

9.3 Planning and Strategy

Vice President Glenn Kowack reported to the Board. ISOC has a vision that humanity will be well served by realizing the full potential of the Internet. And ISOC can make a critical difference in this through its continued support activities that foster the growth and stability of the Internet.

Work has begun that will result in an enhanced long-term strategy for ISOC. This will progress with a variety of tasks being performed in logical fashion. A strategy evaluation team with varied perspectives and experiences will be put together. They will brainstorm, and seek input from others, about the future directions of the ‘Net and its possible impact on society and industry, as well as the resulting implications for the roles, structure, and activities of the Internet society. Some 5-year out scenarios will be developed. These scenarios will then be used as the basis for a proposal which will presented to the ISOC Board of Trustees at the Board meeting during INET2000, in Yokohama, in July. This effort is distinct from, and complimentary to, the Strategic Marketing Plan effort.

9.4 Communications

Vice President Maxwell reported to the Board. The key goals are to strengthen ISOC’s image, and to improve internal and external dissemination of information. A strategic communications plan will be developed. Actions taken already have included conducting a member survey; and implementing a Lyris server that is being used to facilitate various ISOC member discussion groups. There is a need to prioritize many communications opportunities so limited resources can be deployed most effectively. ISOC’s computing systems are relatively old and will certainly impact our ability to enhance the web site, handle a significantly larger association, etc. work should start on looking carefully in to what a major overhaul of our support systems would entail. Maxwell also reported to the board on the need to go for major endowments such as that from the Rockefeller foundation to help fund ISOC efforts in the future. Other Internet related organizations are obtaining major funding; so it does seem that the Internet Society should be able to do that, also. It has not been tried up ’till now.

9.5 Elections

Trustee Maxwell stated that ISOC needs to create a package so that prospective Board members can understand in advance ISOC’s mission, issues, values, and other things that would help them realize what will be expected of them. Diversity on the Board s fundamental to good governance.

A discussion was held on bloc voting in ISOC Trustee elections. i.e., Currently, a member can cast votes equal in total to the number of Board positions to be filled and can distribute them in any manner, including giving all of the votes to a single candidate. This enables a relatively small group of members to elect someone to the Board. Trustee opinions varied: Some felt that bloc voting can ensure regional representation. Others felt that there are other ways of achieving diversity, and there are ISOC guidelines that call for a broad diverse makeup of the Board. The consensus opinion was that there is no longer a need for bloc voting and a resolution was passed providing for no more than one vote for any single candidate by any member.

RESOLUTION 99-22 Elimination of Bloc Voting in Elections for ISOC Trustees
RESOLVED, that an ISOC individual member may cast one vote for each Board vacancy, but cannot cast more than one vote for any one candidate for the Board of Trustees. (This modifies Section 3.3 of ISOC’s Procedures for Nomination and Election of Trustees).

9.6 Membership

Vice President Daniel Kaplan reported that membership is basically stable; we are losing as many members as are joining. We lose people (and gain) regardless of whether or not they came in through attending INET. Reaction to E-Members sponsorship plan (launched 18 October) has been good, although it is too soon to project numbers. Chapter membership is now up to 36% of ISOC membership, from 27% 6 months ago. Part of this is due to it being easier to join a chapter through the ISOC web site. A new membership page has been posted, in five languages.

Organizational dues levels are being reviewed and will be discussed with the IAC. Can the IAC help us get support from org members to recruit more individual members (e.g., contacting employees, providing web links, etc.)?

Immediate Priorities

• Build value for members through community
• Web site members only
• International SIGs
• Member directory and member web pages
• Surveys
• Collaboration tools and services

Membership Management and Services

• Improve renewal
• Reduce paper communications
• Information sharing with chapters

ISSUES

• Staffing resources
• Budget
• PR Agency
• Technical

9.7 ISOC Web Site

Webmaster Lance Laack reported on recent actions taken: Integrated ISOC’s new logo into the web site. Developed ad banners and “landing” pages in multiple languages (with translation help from chapters). Implemented capability for E-member sign up online.

Work in progress includes: developing an overall site strategy, developed mockups for members only section, working group is reviewing alternatives for electronic version of OTI.

Future Projects include developing guidelines and improving workflow; investigating site redesign.

9.8 Chapters & SIGs

Vice President Tarek Kamel reported that there are 52 chapters currently recognized (vs. 37 at end of 1998). Developed countries have 36 (the US and Canada have 9); developing countries have 16 (of the 162 developing countries on the world map). 73 Chapters are in various stages of development; 34 of them are in developed countries; 39 are in developing countries.

Chapters’ Role:

• Entry point for new ISOC memberships
• Local Internet promotion
• Help determine ISOC policies
• Communications link between ISOC and chapters

Future: Launch Chapter Council

• Provide input to the BOT about chapters development and Internet development isues
• Will provide structure to help chapters communicate with each other
• Share best practices
• Support start-ups
• Coordinate with Secretariat on specific issues and recommendations
• Review and recommend changes to administration process
• Review and distribute chapters’ annual reports.

Organize sistership programs between chapters (Nov-June)

• Support newly established chapters
• Help grow chapter capabilities
• Exchange of knowledge

Improve Services Inside Chapters (Nov-June)

• Best practices exchange
• PR Support
• Establish chapter minimum operating criteria
• Establish policy development and communications process for greater chapter involvement.
• Encourage more chapters in developing countries as a vehicle for Internet awareness and penetration.
• Educational programs for chapters

RESOLUTION 99-23 To form a Chapters Council
RESOLVED, that the Board of Trustees recommends to the President of ISOC that a Chapters Council be formed, reporting to the VP of Chapters.

9.9 Publications

Editor/Publisher Wendy Rickard and Vice President Nick Trio reported that the hard copy version of OTI will be replaced by a web version (e-OTI) in January, with two hard-copy special issues per year. One hard copy issue will be on Public Policy (spring/summer edited for year 2000 by Mike Nelson); one will be on Developing Nations (fall/winter; edited by Larry Press)

e-OTI – Working with ISOC staff and consultants to develop a database backend to fit with ISOC’s membership management system. E-OTI is being established as English- language site, but chapters will be asked to do as much translation of articles as possible. Contributing Editors are being solicited. E-OTI may impact Inside ISOC and ISOC Forum; this needs more evaluation.

Finishing first year of Inside ISOC

The Chair expressed appreciation for Wendy Rickard’s role in making OTI such a well regarded publication.

9.10 Education

Vice President George Sadowsky commented that ISOC’s educational goals are to produce the NTWs, provide representation in educational forums, and provide judging support for Thinkquest’s annual contest. Funding is an ongoing problem.

ISOC’s efforts have led to offshoots of our programs. e.g., ISOC trained the CEENet people in ’95 and they have been doing two workshops a year since ’96. The next one of their workshops will have ISOC (and NATO) as a sponsor. The Mali chapter of ISOC essentially ran a workshop in that country that Jacques uidon put together. The Interpol head wants to work with developing countries on educating police on Internet crime, tools, and other things. There may be a supporting role for ISOC. The Gates foundation is meeting in February to determine how to expand their role internationally. Sadowsky will attend.

9.11 Public Policy

Vice President David Maher reported that the primary activity to date has been helping create ICANN’s Non-Commercial Domain Name Holders constituency. The most critical public policy issues are:

Censorship and freedom of expression

• e.g., some governments hold ISPs responsible for transmissions of their members.

Protection of Privacy

• Conflicts between positions of EU and USA

Taxation

• International and US concerns about stifling development

Internet Governance

• ICANN has no legal authority and uncertain financial resources.
• Question of whether governments will recognize role of ICANN

Trademarks

• Conflict between trademark owners and domain name holders; may require international treaties to eventually resolve.

Date base protection

• US and EU have separate proposals.

Acceptable Use Policies

Access to the Internet

• Open access on cable

ISOC’s role in all of these issues is still to be determined.

Deliverables

• Produce policy statements
• Establish forum for discussion of controversial issues
• Establish privacy policy for ISOC’s web site.
• Select some partners in public policy areas

9.12 Budget

The Executive Committee will work with the CEO during the next four week to get a final version of the year 2000 budget that will be put in front of the Board electronically for a vote; target date 15 December.

The Board expressed its desire to see the following reflected in the budget that is submitted for a vote:

• NTW figures should be changed to reflect the direction provided at yesterday’s Board meeting
• Clarification on cash flow vs. revenue recognition
• Thresholds, milestones, and expenditures for Strategic Marketing Plan implementation.

The budget does not include the full-blown growth initiative, but does contain some funding within the promotion line for testing of the assumptions. The growth initiative will be, in affect, an overlay that will be implemented as certain budget targets are met.

9.13 UNESCO

Trustee Christine Maxwell reported that ISOC may have an opportunity to obtain official observer status at the U.N. Maxwell will continue to work this and will have something to report on (concerning responsibilities, benefits, etc.) in the near future.
Note: subsequent to the Board meeting, Maxwell distributed a report to the BOT that provides details on the possibility, and asks that ISOC take action to begin the application process.

10. Other Business

The Chair announced the following committee appointments:

Elections Chair: Scott Bradner
Nominations Chair: Marty Burack
Audit Committee: Mike Conn (chair), Christian Huitema, and Marty Burack

A discussion took place about ISOC relationship to ICANN. It was felt that, generally, ISOC should avoid getting too close to ICANN, which has already shown signs of infringing upon some of the IETF roles. The ISOC Board needs to be more publicly visible in the future of ICANN. There is a risk that if the Board does not do this, ISOC’s positions will not be clear and confusion may result.

The Board requests a discussion at the next Board meeting of the role of the ISTF vs. ISOC itself and how the organizations will relate over time. This is not intended to cut off discussions that may take place electronically between now and then.

11. Move to Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 1:45pm, 13 November 1999.

Actions

• ISOC’s books are to show the amount of deferred revenue that is “encumbered” (e.g., earmarked for INET2000).
• Executive Director to evaluate and prioritize project opportunities being presented to ISOC by various organizations.
• A Quality of Service Fact Sheet should be put together in conjunction with the ISOC Advisory Council and distributed to organizational members.
• Launch Chapter Council. (CC)
• Produce a final version of the year 2000 budget.

All Board Meeting Minutes