Re: [npoc-voice] Fw: NPOC Strategy 2012

[Alain Berranger <alain.berranger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Klaus,

Thanks for this important reminder and a bit of a roadmap at the same time.

I find it very revealing that 7 days have past and I'm the first NPOCer to
reply. What does this mean? Probably that we are all very busy with a
million things... plus the bar is set high by Klaus (but I would add it
needed to be).

Here my 2cents' worth:

1) I think we can live with our current mission until we can breathe a bit
and get our hands dirty.

2) I suggest that a *vision* to put "a hat on the mission" would be useful.
I wrote that vision (or a vision in fact! mine) for my report to GNSO
Council in Costa Rica:

*Vision: *
*
*
*A world where Not-for-profits and Non-governmental Organizations
participate fully in ICANN policy development.*

I added *priorities *(this was February 2012):

1. *Organize the Constituency as quickly as possible to become fully
functional within the NCSG, GNSO and ICANN by June 2013* - This is a work
in progress and I would now add NomCom, the Heads of Constituencies Group;
I would also add that a few of us get involved in various ICANN working
groups. I will start soon to make suggestions to anyone interested.
2. *Holding its first elections for Officers of the Executive Committee by
March 2012*; DONE
3.     * Grow its membership to all developing and emerging regions of the
world*; Mostly small NGO/NFPS : 4 new members per quarter, which would
represent a 46% increase over current and pending memberships numbers by
July 2013; work-in-progress
4. *4 ICT4D-Related events and 3 ICANN meetings related events for a total
of 7 education, recruiting and policy advocacy events*, touching new
audiences of 175 NGO/NFPs by July 2013; work in progress... but lack of
soldiers!!!!
5. *Recruit and facilitate the emergence and development of a minimum of 1
or 2 NPOC member experts in various DNS Policy Development areas by July
2013*. a work in progress... Andrei is getting his hands dirty by plunging
in NCSG-Discuss

Obviously we need to improve on these priorities (or add to them) and I
think Klaus' suggestions are very relevant: * concrete actions/lines of
main activities and also what will be the character/the values of NPOC. *So
we need to think of these as a group.
*
*
*In terms of resources, NPOC also has acquired at least 2 robust volunteers
(and more to come) in the persons of Mari-laure Lemineur and Andrei
Barburas.*

Re  concrete actions/lines of main activities and also what will be the
character/the values of NPOC, I need to think about it more. We already
have a partnership dialogue with pir.org... that will be significant if we
can prove the value of NPOC and GKPF to pir.org's community building around
dotNGO

We need proposal writters and those are hard to come by...

That's all for now

Alain



On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 4:38 PM, klaus.stoll <klaus.stoll@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

>
>
>  *From:* Klaus Stoll <klaus.stoll@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, August 14, 2012 10:37 PM
> *To:* npoc-voice@xxxxxxxxx
> *Subject:* Fw: NPOC Strategy 2012
>
>
>
>  *From:* Klaus Stoll <kdrstoll@xxxxxxxxx>
> *Sent:* Monday, August 13, 2012 5:55 PM
> *To:* npoc-voice@xxxxxxxxx
> *Subject:* NPOC Strategy 2012
>
>
> Dear Friends
>
> Greetings and I hope this email finds you all well. Please allow me in the
> light of recent development and the upcoming monthly NPOC call to make some
> general comments and suggestions, which I hope will help us to develop NPOC
> further.
>
> 1. Finding a direction. NPOC is not a baby any more, it has been born, it
> has won and lost it’s first battles, it’s a teenager now, and like every
> teenager it’s a little bit confused with what to do with this apparently
> unlimited potential and strength it has. We know what NPOC is: “The
> purpose of the Not-for-Profit Organizations Constituency shall be to
> represent, specifically, the operational interests of not-for-profit and
> non-governmental organizations.”, (NPOC Charter 1.2 Mission), the
> question is how do we fill this with *concrete actions/lines of main
> activities* and also what will be the *character/the values* of NPOC,
> where is it going?
>
> Let me start with the character and values. It is all well to gather a
> number of organizations into a constituency in a very democratic way with
> everybody having a voice, but however diverse a group is in order to
> function ad to be effective it needs to have a set of values and principles
> that defines the groups character and binds it together. I think we as NPOC
> have to work a little bit on this so that we know what we are standing for
> and also those who want to join us and those we are dealing with daily. The
> re is a Mission Statement in the NPOC charter, (see just below), but as a
> first step I suggest that we create a more comprehensive Mission and Vision
> statement for NPOC. Not only will this help us with presenting us to the
> outside world and attract members, it will do us good thinking a little bit
> about ourselves. Here is the Mission statement of the NPOC charter and I
> invite your contributions towards a generic NPOC Vison/Mission statement.
> We should not spend more than 2-3 weeks on this and I suggest a deadline of
> the first of September on this. The new Mission/Vision statement will be
> the cornerstone of a lot of the other NPOC activities.
>
> *NPOC Charter: 1.2 Mission*
>
> 1.2.1 The purpose of the Not-for-Profit Organizations Constituency shall
> be to represent, specifically, the operational interests of not-for-profit
> and non-governmental organizations. NPOC Members rely on the Internet and
> DNS policies to serve their communities. Members shall include
> not-for-profit and non-governmental organizations with missions that
> include, but are not limited to, philanthropic, humanitarian, educational,
> academic and professional development, religious, community associations,
> promotion of the arts, public interest policy advocacy, health-related
> services, and social inclusion.
>
> 1.2.2 The NPOC shall engage the ICANN community on how proposed and
> existing policies and initiatives uniquely impact not-for-profit and
> non-governmental organizations and the delivery of their mission-related
> services. Specific operational concerns include: domain name registration,
> expansion of the DNS, fraud and abuse, using the DNS to provide and collect
> information to members and to serve members and communities.
>
> 1.2.3 The operational concerns described above drive how NPOC Members
> actively manage their infrastructure, create and improve internal processes
> and controls, manage risks, and respond to and respect the welfare of the
> communities they represent. The NPOC shall allow its members to affiliate,
> discuss and participate in the development of DNS policies and how they
> relate and may impact our operations, outreach programs and member service
> delivery
>
> *Concrete actions/lines of main activities*
>
> We might see giving input into the ICANN process and discussion as one of
> the main role of NPOC, but I think that this is not good enough, not only
> should be have a basic position from which we give our inputs, (see
> character and values above), we should not just comment on a process we
> should drive the process, and we can only do this by us first identifying
> what are the most important subject areas we need to become active in in
> order to serve our mission/vision and membership. Once we have identified
> the areas we need to decide which concrete actions we will take. I invite
> you to make suggestions on which areas you think are vital for NPOC to
> become active in and how concrete actions might look like. Again, I think
> in 2-3 weeks we can have this done and the input can be used for what we
> will do in Toronto and beyond.
>
> *NPOC sustaining itself*
>
> I feel there is a need for clarification on the sustainability and
> financial situation of NPOC. there might be the impression that with the
> Y13 budged published and approved by ICANN, NPOC has some organizational
> funds available, but I am afraid the reality is as always in the small
> print and not as pleasant as it might look at first sight. Yss, there are
> funds available, but all funds are besides a amount for a very limited
> number of NPOC people to attend ICANN meetings, are basically funds to
> cover the cost of ICANN staff and our use of ICANN services. Again, these
> are not funds at our disposal but funds that cover existing ICANN costs.
>
> We can now argue as long as we like if that is fair or not, but that will
> not change our reality, and the reality is that we need to go out and
> secure our own funds in order to be operational. In order to do that we
> need the Concrete actions and lines of activities and we need to identify
> potential funders for those activities, discuss and write funding proposals
> and go hunting for the cash. We need proposals for institutional NPOC
> funding for funders such as PIR.org and we need program based funding
> proposals for funders such as the Ford foundation.
>
> Yes, by describing the way to secure the NPOC funding I am asking a lot
> and it is a hard and long way that needs all our efforts, but as far as I
> see it is the only way and I also think it is the right way and there is
> one major reason for this. If NPOC would sustain itself mainly from ICANN
> funding, how could NPOC be independent enough from ICANN to give an honest
> opinion and input? NPOC would not be able to bite the hand that feeds it!
> Believe me it is better that way. Also, our job is to represent NGO’s, not
> to serve ICANN. ICANN might go away,but our job in Internet Governance will
> remain.
>
> OK, so let’s accept realties and start joint professional fundraising
> based on our mission/vision, lines of action. We can do it.
>
> *Growing*
>
> I took on the role as membership secretary of NPOC, and I am honored to be
> appointed to this task. I can go out and get members, numbers, bums on
> seats, but I think that is not good enough. We need well informed, active
> members that see there interests represented in an effective way and that
> see NPOC as THE tool for their not for profit representation in Internet
> Governance. To attract, mobilize, educate and hold those members we need a
> clear mission/vision/lines of actions/sustainability strategy. If one is
> missing, nothing will work. It’s hard work, but the price is right because
> Internet Governance is the topic that should interest us all as not for
> profits must as our future depends on it.
>
> In the hope that the above helps in the discussion
>
>
>
> Yours
>
> Klaus
>
>


-- 
Alain Berranger, B.Eng, MBA
Member, Board of Directors, CECI,
http://www.ceci.ca<http://www.ceci.ca/en/about-ceci/team/board-of-directors/>
Executive-in-residence, Schulich School of Business, www.schulich.yorku.ca
Treasurer, Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation, www.gkpfoundation.org
NA representative, Chasquinet Foundation, www.chasquinet.org
Chair, NPOC, NCSG, ICANN, http://npoc.org/
O:+1 514 484 7824; M:+1 514 704 7824
Skype: alain.berranger