Hello there ..

The Internet Society is to have free HQ Membership, with 'strongly
encouraged'  ISOC Chapters .. and respective ISOC Chapter events.
            
Also, congratulations to all of the new and returning members of the
ISOC-AU Chapter Board of Directors, as appointed at the Australian
ISOC-AU Chapter AGM, at the State Library of Victoria in December. 

<http://www.isoc-au.org.au/> Ross Kelso, Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Jeremy
Malcolm, Leni Mayo, Andrew McRae, Galen Townson and Gerry White.

--

Date: 21 Dec 01 16:30:02
From: newmembers&#167;isoc.org (New Membership Team)
Subject: ISOC Board Results: Revamped Board, Universal Membership Announced 

Dear Members,

At 03:30 AM 22/12/2001, New Membership Team, newmembers&#167;isoc.org wrote:

Dear Members,

As you may be aware, the Internet Society Board of Trustees held
their 25th Board meeting on December 8th and 9th 2001. The ISOC 
Board has for some time been concerned with modernizing a number 
of aspects felt to be central to a new and invigorated ISOC, and significant
first steps were taken at the recent Board meeting.

In particular, the Board felt that our governance model should be
�opened up� to ensure that expertise from our major constituencies 
was represented on the Board. So, we are moving to a new model 
where the Board will be constituted by representatives from 
Chapters, from the technical community of the IETF and IAB, 
and from Organization Members. This is obviously a departure 
from the current model where the Board is directly and 100%
elected by individual members. An election committee has been 
established and more information will be forthcoming soon on 
the changes to the Board election process. It is important 
to note that while Board members will come to the Board with 
specific backgrounds or expertise, the role of a Trustee is 
first and foremost to represent and protect ISOC�s interests,
not represent any particular party�s interest. In addition, 
the Board will now have the possibility to appoint several 
Board members allowing us to increase the strength and depth 
of our Board as we strive to become more active and much 
better known in areas such as public policy, education and 
publications. These positions are expected to be assigned to
very senior individuals with specific expertise as well as 
having high global name recognition. 

The Board has also been concerned with strengthening chapters 
and increasing individual membership growth. These areas have 
always been important to ISOC and were meant to be a very 
significant part of our global outreach, but we have not been 
able to grow either area in the way we expected. So, 
effective 1 January 2002, there will be a new class of 
universal membership and it will be free of charge at a 
central HQ level. All individual members will be automatically
enrolled in this class and from the 1st of January, 2002 
there will be no requirement to remit individual dues to 
ISOC�s central headquarters. Existing members who have 
contributed at the higher levels centrally (e.g. levels 
above $35) will continue to retain this higher level of 
recognition through the remaining period of their membership, 

after which they may choose to continue donating at this 
higher level. 

A number of chapters today collect member fees directly and 
some charge fees above and beyond the ISOC central requirement. 
Those chapters are strongly encouraged to continue doing so 
and to recruit additional members as these revenues should 
be used by chapters to increase local activities. Those 
chapters that have not traditionally charged fees are 
encouraged to do so, again to enable more activities at 
a local level. Put another way, members are still expected 
to pay dues but rather than fund central administration we 
ask that the dues be paid to chapters to facilitate local 
activities, thereby increasing both the chapter and ISOC�s 
visibility and increasing the numbers of individual members.

Many chapters are already active locally but as previously 
said, we would like to increase the number of chapter events 
significantly and to this end we are revamping our 
chapter/individual member program. We will be reviewing 
all aspects of individual member and chapter management 
(including the Chapter Council) and will likely be expanding 
the requirements for chartered chapters to include, amongst 
other things, a certain number of community based activities. 
This increase in expectations on chapters should be facilitated 
by the increased funding each chapter is expected to have 
as a result of the change in the fee structure, and therefore 
all chapters are encouraged to collect member fees. In support 
of this transition, Lynn St.Amour, the President & CEO, has 
combined the VP roles of Individual Membership and Chapters and 
appointed Bob Vaughan (ISOC�s Financial and Administrative 
Director) to this position on a temporary basis, allowing time 
to recruit a new volunteer VP in this role. I would like to 
thank Mike Todd and Tomaz Kalin for their past contributions 
in these roles and more information on this �revamp� will be 
provided soon.

The Board is quite excited by these changes and we fully expect 
it to re-invigorate not only ISOC but also our individual 
member and chapter efforts. It�s a big step but we�re sure 
that with your continued support, it will lead ISOC to a bright 
future.

Thank you in advance for your support and please accept our 
very best wishes for you and your families during this 
holiday season,

Lynn St.Amour Robert Vaughan
President & CEO Director of Finance & Administration
--

Cheers all ..
Stephen Loosley
Vermont Secondary
and also Schoolsnet