(Draft) Minutes of the meeting of the PICISOC Board

June 3/4, 2013, 0600UTC

 

Present: Maureen, Emani, Etuate, David and guest, Naveed Haq (ISOC AP Bureau)

Apologies: Ellen (stuck at Wellington airport)

No Apologies: Andrew and Louise

 

Formal Motions endorsed by the Board

  • ICANN web pages prepared by Emani to go live on the PICISOC website – congratulations on the work that has gone into those pages, Emani.

Actions from meeting

Actions By whom? When?
1 All references to personnel matters to be removed from public copy of minutes MH Before they go online
2 Etuate to start putting together the PacINET pages as he can fit in time between work commitments EC By end of July
3 David to devise a brief which he will send to new members when they register, and then notify the membership list of a new member. DL asap
4 Election Committee to meet to discuss election process – and involvement of InternetNZ ES Before PacINET
5 Next meeting Tuesday July 2 at a time TBC by Louise and Andrew LNAM asap

 

Notes from meeting

  1. Meeting  with Naveed – discussed
  1. PICISOC website – PICISOC is appreciative of ISOC’s support for information about internet-related activities or projects that Pacific IT organisations are participating in, and involving PICISOC members. Although it is unknown exactly what caused PICISOC not to pursue an original request, we are glad that it is resolved, and that our website can be more inclusive.  Emani has already started the trend by uploading  “An Introduction to ICANN for Pacific Newcomers”. This was endorsed by the Board at tonight’s meeting.
  1. PICISOC Bank account – ISOC is OK with the Board making its own decision about where we hold our account, as long as it does not create a situation that any move away from its current placement in Fiji,  may happen again in the future. Currently PICISOC has co-opted two PICISOC members in Fiji to act on behalf of the Board in all matters. They are also signatories of our bank account. Our current practice, if any payments are required to be made from the account, is that cheques can only be written according to an invoice provided and signed by the Treasurer, and co-signed by the Board Chair.
  1. New Pacific Islands Chapters. ISOC has received requests from Pacific Island communities wanting to establish their own ISOC chapters. We discussed what reasons they might have for wanting to do so. The Board acknowledges and has discussed how we might better support some of our PICISOC colleagues who live in parts of our region that are not easily accessible. The cost of doing so for a PacINET is prohibitive. It is easy to drive across a continent to an isolated area of a landlocked region, but more difficult for us to outreach to distanced islands.  We have asked ISOC to suggest that communities who are contemplating such a request, discuss the matter first directly with the Board so that together we can work out what might be a solution to their concerns. Naveed had already acknowledged the amount of support that our members give each other on the list. If a small island group separated themselves from PICISOC they would also lose touch with some valuable support from among the nearly 800 members that we have on our very active mailing list.
  1. Etuate asked why it has taken so long for ISOC to recognise and acknowledge PICISOC, and to finally take a personal interest in it. Naveed explained that he has only been in his  position for the past 5 months and is really enjoying the contact he is having with the Chapters. His responsibility is Chapter support so that if we have any questions or queries, he is the one we should make our first port of call. Naveed’s attendance and his support for the work of PICISOC was very much appreciated by the Board. If we have any queries, we definitely will call on him for advice and guidance.  In the past we also had brilliant Chapter support from Anne Lord (who was based in Australia).  Anne resigned last year which opened up the position for Naveed.
  1. Regional contacts. David raised the importance of being a member of the CROP, and also valued the contact we were able to make with Vanuatu Government through their consultation process.  Kisione Finau will try to facilitate remote access to CROP meetings.
  1. Board elections 2013.  We discussed the pros and cons of standing again at the next election. Ellen was selected as the Chair of the Election committee with Emani, Etuate and Louise. The new Board must sit at PacINET AGM in Tonga (Sept 9-13, 2013).
  1. The meeting ended at 710UTC. Our next meeting must include our Treasurer Louise and Board member, Andrew. The Board has requested that they let us know what time would suit them for our next meeting on Tuesday July 2.