By Prof. Wayne
Spivak, President ISOC-NY
President@isoc-ny.org
© Wayne Spivak 1998
On the InternetMarch/April 1998
So you want to start a local chapter of the Internet Society but you’re worried it will be too difficult. Fortunately, it's not as difficult or daunting as you may think. With proper planning and by taking small, well-thought-out steps, you can have your own local chapter in under a year. One warning, however: the undertaking must be a group effort if you are to accomplish your goal.
A group effort usually starts with someone, and that someone for the New York chapter was Kevin J. Connolly, Esq. From beginning to end, the establishment of the New York chapter took six months. I should point out, however, that this was the third attempt at creating a New York chapter. During this time, we developed our bylaws and had them approved by the membership; incorporated under the laws of New York State; and got recognized by the ISOC Secretariat as a chartered chapter. Our red-letter days were 3 November 1997-bylaws passed by the membership-and 19 December 1997-chapter recognized. Not bad for an idea that started in April 1997.
The turnaround time from concept to completion was as short as four weeks for the Bulgaria Chapter and can be as long as a year. The time it takes your proposed local chapter to form hinges on many factors, such as location and region and the experience and professions of those who want to form the chapter. We were fortunate to have a group that included both lawyers and those experienced in not-for-profit environments.
How did we start the process? It started when Connolly was able to get a list of all area members of ISOC from the ISOC chapters department. He sent e-mail to those individuals asking if they were interested in starting a local chapter. The minimum number of ISOC individual members required to start a chapter is 25. Once we had the 25-prospect-member minimum, we held a plenary meeting to create a Charter Committee.
Not everything went smoothly, though. As is human nature, people floated in and out of the Charter Committee. One crucial piece of advice is to have more members than you need to start with in case a few drop out; attrition is inevitable. Fortunately, the original core group of individuals who volunteered to create the bylaws at that first meeting remained, and the process was under way. By September 1997 the Internet Society Chapter of the Greater New York Metropolitan Area-hereinafter referred to as ISOC-NY-had received ISOC approval of its bylaws.
In regard to creation of a chapter, the Internet Society specifically states that "Chapters of the Internet Society serve the Society’s purposes by serving the interests of a segment of the global Internet community through a local presence and focus on local issues and developments, including cultural, commercial and use of local languages. Every chapter shall have an explicit statement of purpose."
One of the most important aspects of creation of a chapter is the idea of a group or team effort. No one individual can create a chapter. No one individual can create bylaws. And no one individual can run a chapter. Sure, an individual may make major contributions and may even be the main focal point for communications. However, it is the group that finally approves the work that is done. Our bylaw committee, which in the end became the Charter Committee, worked together to accomplish all of our goals.
Such individuals deserve recognition. Most of them went on to become either officers and/or members of the chapter's first Board of Directors. They are Everett Carbajal, executive vice president; Kathy Dee Zasloff, treasurer; Philip Lee, and Beads Land, board members; and your author, Wayne Spivak, president.
Perhaps the most daunting task in the process was creation of the bylaws, the document that serves as the constitution of a chapter. In fact, it was quite a bit of work, even with the availability of several other bylaws from ISOC chapters and those of other organizations. The bylaws are a weave of different ideas and backgrounds. Their quilt-like structure is the by-product of a group of individuals with different ideas, much like the Internet. One could possible draw the analogy of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton used in her book It Takes a Village.
Our bylaw committee consisted of an attorney-not a required individual but who by happenstance was interested in the Internet-two technical consultants, a person involved with nonprofit agencies, and an accounting consultant-again, by chance and not required. A more diverse group of people one could not find. But by using a work-group mentality and putting aside the I and individuals' egos, we were able to create what we believe is a workable and modifiable document. Some might think our bylaws are too complex-and they might be for their localities. But whatever structure you give your bylaws, they must work for you.
The process of developing our bylaws took several months-partially because we all have professional and personal lives but also because we had to work out and congeal a process we thought would be workable. Our mission statement for the most part was written at the first Charter Committee meeting. We simply refined it a bit. That was easy in relation to other facets of the bylaws. Next came the political structure of the organization.
No organization can survive without a political structure. However, before a political structure can be formulated, determination of the constituents must be made. Remember that you are creating a local chapter. What does local mean? Can it mean a city, state, or province or even a country? Yes to all. Can there be more than one chapter in a given locality? Well, it depends on the locality chosen. Once those decisions have been made, you can decide what type of structure is needed or wanted.
We chose-with the knowledge that there would be some overlap at some point in time-the New York metropolitan area, which encompasses the city of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. This regional area is larger than some European countries. We figured our membership could eventually grow to more than a thousand persons. As such, we understood that other chapters whose proximity to some of our members might eventually form. Much of this discussion took place at our first Charter Committee meeting.
In terms of the political structure, because the laws in every location differ and because I'm not a barrister, I'll forgo some of the more legal aspects that need to be dealt with, such as incorporation. We decided that ISOC-NY would be formed as a membership nonprofit Corporation. As such, all power derives from the membership. That power is then delegated to the Board of Directors and the Officers of the Corporation.
Great! That said, what are those bodies supposed to do? How many members are needed for each group? What will be the span of authority for each officer? How long is an officer's tenure? Are the officer positions stepping-stones or separate and distinct? What other official committees should there be? On and on went the discussions.
As we talked via telephone, fax, and e-mail or in person, a consensus arose. We then had to decide how many times a year each body should meet and how those meetings would happen. Who would lead each group? In other words, the bylaws would give ISOC-NY the exact nature and/or form that it would use to conduct its daily business.
One aspect that was written into the bylaws was the ability of the president to create temporary or discretionary committees. Included in those paragraphs was the right of the president to delegate the duty of creation to either of the vice presidents, which means that temporary Committees could be created on the fly charged with working toward specific goals. Examples of such committees might be a Web creation committee, a rules committee, a planning committee, an educational conference committee, and an external Internet organization liaison committee.
Specific aspects of the bylaws addressed who in the chapter was entitled to enter into an agreement or contract and who was authorized to sign checks and how many signatories were necessary. ISOC-NY is a corporation and can enter into contractual obligations. We tried to be careful but not stifling in this area. Why careful, you ask? Because we needed to protect the chapter from the possible misguided deeds by an individual. An accounting principle states that the ability to conspire is inversely proportional to the number of participants. In other words, the threat decreases as the number of participants increases.
Eventually, we created the bylaws and elected our officers and Board of Directors. The next major hurdle for any chapter is creation of its business plan. A business plan is a document in four parts. The first part is the mission statement, which defines the ultimate objective of the chapter: what the chapter wishes to accomplish by its existence. A portion of our mission statement is as follows:
* engage in a wide range of Internet educational initiatives
* expand Internet access at all levels of the local community
* promote recruitment and job market development in local technology industries
* provide forums for professional networking and knowledge sharing
To meet those objectives, we will create a more detailed plan, called a strategic plan. Here we further define and describe what we mean by each goal of our mission statement. The strategic plan should include broader specifics, but it still paints a picture-similar to a sales brochure describing a product.
The last two aspects of the planning stage are the tactical and financial plans. The tactical plan details how we plan to get from here to there. It describes in clear terms what is identifiable, measurable, quantifiable, and achievable during a specific time frame. For example, the tactical plan may indicate that the budget should be completed by the third week of January. By establishing a plan and a logical time frame, we can quantify and measure the output as well as identify whether and when it gets done.
The financial plan is also key to the livelihood of a chapter. Without assumptions on what types of money will be needed to complete each milestone in the tactical plan, the chapter would not know how much money needs to be raised. So far, with the exception of the incorporation-and maybe the securing of a domain name-the cost of creating a chapter has been zero dollars. But a chapter cannot survive without some money or contributions, which can be used in lieu of the barter system we have employed.
The financial plan is the basis for determination of the assets needed to fund chapter events. The financial plan, in addition to the strategic plan, can be used to sell the chapter to possible corporate and educational sponsors. Walking into a company president's office with a fully developed budget and plan will do more to sell your chapter as an integral part of your local business community than anything else.
As of this writing, ISOC-NY is working on the last three areas of its business plan. We've existed officially for only a couple of months, but we have created mailing lists for communication, a temporary Web page, and an FTP site to enable people to find us.
We hope that by the beginning of the second quarter of 1998, fully functional strategic, tactical, and financial plans will be in operation. Who knows? By that time we just may be working on creating our first educational conference.
So, now that the rumors that starting a local chapter is nearly impossible have been dispelled, start talking with your fellow community members. One word of caution: the road to a chapter is not always a straight line. But if you follow this road map, it will be easier. Once you decide you want to start a local chapter, contact the Vice President of Chapters Vint Cerf by sending e-mail to chapters@isoc.org. The process and the results may astound you.