Board Report to the AGM at PacINET Rarotonga

Board report to the Annual General Meeting of  The Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society

25 September 2014

 

On behalf of the Board of the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society, I would like to present the following report on our activities during the year 2013-2014.

The report consists of the following sections:

• Board members
• Membership – with country breakdown
• Regional /International Events the Board has attended
• General Report

 

1. BOARD MEMBERS

The Board for the 2013-2014 year and their assigned responsibilities were:

• Maureen Hilyard: Board Chair, ISOC ,ICANN and Regional Relationships
• Ellen Strickland: Vice Chair Policy, ByLaws
• Emani Fakaotimanava-Lui: Vice Chair Technical, Website Developments
• Patrick Queet: Board Treasurer
• Jackson Miake: Board Secretary
• Louise Nasak
• Etuate Cocker: Research activities

I would like to thank the Board for sharing the responsibilities of the Board during what has been a very busy year. I would like to thank my colleagues, Emani, Etuate and Louise for their contribution during their term on the Board and I hope they will continue to support PICISOC in the future. At the time of writing this report, the successful candidates for the 2014 election have been announced.  The newly elected Board members are: Ellen Strickland (NZ Winnie Kula Amini, Priscilla Kevin (both of PNG) and Edwin Liava’a (Fiji)

 

2. MEMBERSHIP

We continue to attract new members and I am very appreciative of those who register from outside of the region and the support that they give to our email list.  I am often amazed at the wealth of expertise we have within our membership and I know many of our members are grateful for the information that is offered from others on the list – whether it is related to technical, policy or even just general news about IT and internet related matters.  This is what PICISOC is all about.  It is the sharing of knowledge with each other to build capacity across the region.

COUNTRY BREAK DOWN – 2012 figures compared with 2013						2012/2013	754/661
18/08/2013	2012/13/14
American Samoa	12/12/11		Micronesia	9/3/7		Samoa	28/27/29
*Australia	40/42/42		*New Zealand	40/40/48		Solomon Is	43/31/34
Christmas Is	1/1/1		Niue	10/9/9		Tokelau	1/1/1
Cook Islands	15/14/14		Northern Mariana Islands	2/1/0		Tonga	10/10/13
Fiji	220/191/218		Palau	2/2/2		Tuvalu	15/9/8
French Polynesia	3/3/3		Nauru	8/8/9		Vanuatu	42/33/37
Kiribati	33/19/20		New Caledonia	22/15/15		*United Kingdom/ Europe	24/19/35
Marshall Is	4/4/6		PNG	72/65/80		*United States	46/40/35

 

3. REGIONAL / INTERNATIONAL EVENTS THAT MEMBERS OF THE BOARD HAVE ATTENDED SINCE THE LAST AGM – SEPTEMBER 2013. 

Event	Where	When	Who
ISOC training	ISOC Leadership  workshop, Kuala Lumpur ISOC Leaders Workshop, London	April 2014 June  2014	Patrick Queet Maureen Hilyard
ICANN	Buenos Aires   Singapore   London	Nov 2013   March 2014   June 2014	Maureen Hilyard, Ellen Strickland Etuate Cocker, Ellen Strickland, Maureen Hilyard, Louise Nasak Maureen Hilyard, Ellen Strickland
Global IGF	Bali, Indonesia   Istanbul, Turkey	October201   Sept 2014	Maureen Hilyard, Ellen Strickland, Jackson Miake, Patrick Queet Ellen Strickland, Maureen Hilyard (remotely)
Regional meetings	NetHui, NZ	July 2014	Ellen Strickland
Diplo Foundation	Diplomacy Capacity Building for the Pacific, Geneva, Switzerland	June 2014	Jackson Miake, Maureen Hilyard

 

4. GENERAL REPORT

 During  2014 the Board were involved in:

1. Deciding on the for PacINET 2014 – Rarotonga, Cook Islands and for PacINET to be included in a larger INET in Brisbane 2015
2. Deciding to collaborate with other regional organisations within OCEANIA to create a major INET to be held in Brisbane in 2015.
3. Continuing our engagement with international organisations (ICANN and ISOC)
4. Dealing with issues related to our Westpac account in Fiji

 

Our achievements included:

4a. PacINET

 2014 – Rarotonga, Cook Islands – to be coordinated by the Cook Islands Internet Action Group. Because of the issues relating to access to PICISOC funds in our Fiji Westpac account, the Board moved a minute to allow funds being applied for to fund expenses for the event in the Cook Islands to be managed by CIIAG.

2015 – A bid has been proposed to join with ISOC-AU, the Australian IGF and possibly some other regional organisations, in Brisbane

4b. Relationship Building

Regionally, the PICISOC Board has made use of what few opportunities are provided to expand on our relationships with our members and with other organisations in the region.

The email list – whenever possible new members have been personally welcomed to the email list. It was through this introductory process that I made initial contact with two our new Board members. Their involvements in PNG and their interest in the development of the internet in their home country was inspirational and I am very pleased that they are now part of our Board and will be able to contribute to development in their own countries and in the Pacific in general.

PICISOC website – Website content has not been as organised this year, but new news items have been added whenever appropriate to keep our web viewers news as it happens.

ICANN Oceania – Ellen and Etuate attended the meeting in Fiji where the group has developed a strategy for development in the Pacific in consultation with Oceania stakeholders.

4c. Continuing engagement with regional organisations (ICANN and ISOC)

As indicated in the table above, the Board Chair and other members of the Board have participated actively in regional and international events.

 

Regards

Maureen Hilyard

BOARD CHAIR  (2012-2014)

Pacific Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC)