The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF virtual intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> MARKUS KUMMER: I'd like to welcome you all. Let's hope we'll get it up on the screen, but it's very straightforward agenda. The traditional agenda items that are part of our bylaws. They require us to go through these agenda items. So, agenda item one is adoption of the agenda. Agenda item two is approval of the last General Assembly. Then we have Executive Committee election. And adoption of the contents of the reports and financial statements for the year. And approval of the annual budget based on recommendation by the Executive Committee.
Next item is fundraising. And the next item is legal nicety that we have to go through and finally, any other business. It's getting there, yes. So, are there any comments on this agenda or can I? Yes, please? That's an excellent comment.
[laughter]
If there's no other comment, can I take it that we have agreement, we approve this agenda? So, that we can move forward. Okay.
Also, I invite the executive committee members to come forward so we can actually see them. Okay, we take it, then, that at agenda is approved as proposed. With that, we come to agenda item number two. Approval of the summary record of the 2021 General Assembly. And can I ask Jennifer to introduce this briefly?
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you, Markus. Hopefully I can be heard. Okay, perfect. My name is Jennifer Chung. I'm secretary for IGFSA. I've sent around to the membership the summary record of the 2021 General Assembly. Yes, exactly, this one. And I'm happy to go through and briefly to highlight just some key points.
It is actually pretty straightforward. It's a record of our last year's meeting that was held in Katowice, Poland and virtually online. If tech can give me permission to share screen, if you can give me permission to share screen, I can share. My name is Jennifer. I should be in the room. If that's possible? If not, I'm happy to go through very quickly.
That is not me ‑‑ I don't know what happened here. Can we have this back on? Oh, okay. I'm still not able to share. In the meantime, as they're fixing that, just a brief recap of last year's summary record. It was in Katowice. We had an election last year where we welcomed two new EC members. (?) Over there ‑‑ maybe if we could just go back ‑‑ it may be too difficult. Let's go back, oh! Perfect. Okay, now we have Zoom. That's great.
Let me just bring this up. And talk through as I share. Give me one second.
The second EC member we welcomed last year's election, Anriette. She sends her apologies. She's moderating the Youth Summit at the same time. She sends her best wishes for our General Assembly. We also went through and ‑‑ it's still not working. No, I don't ‑‑ uh ‑‑ yes, I'm going to get to that.
One of our EC members, Brian Cute [phonetic] had to step down from the Executive Committee. Subsequently, we invited the third candidate who received the most impromptu votes in the 2021 elections to join the Executive Committee. Her name is Fiona Fonga [phonetic]. I don't believe she's here with us today either. She's been an up standing member in our community. Has been doing a lot of work in the EC as well. Still not able to find the share button, sorry about that. Give me one second.
Okay, so, I'm still not able to share, but I'll just finish the wrap‑up for this. We also had, going through the executive report of last year, as well as the financial budgets, 2021, we had Jimsin [phonetic], who might have been in the room earlier ‑‑ there he is. Our treasurer the year before. He prepared the financial reports and then we also, as a whole, at the General Assembly, with the members, adopted the annual budget as well as the going forward budget for this year.
For fundraising, there were several points suggested by IGF members last year. Am I able to share yet? I'll try. If I'm able to share screen, we can go through as I'm... and it will show up momentarily.
Perfect. There were some points that were discussed in the fundraising portion, which I anticipate we'll also have this year. There was a point raised that we could consider looking at funding for schools of Internet Governance. There was some fundraising outreach activities that Chris Mondini took with Brian last year.
Announcing a pledge on behalf of Google via the Tides Foundation to go through the IGF operation and small grants we give to separate NRI requests we receive.
Finally, I think Markus, our chair, noted that it might have been possible to schedule a brainstorming session on fundraising. We weren't able to do that last year, because of various logistical problems, but we're hoping, also, perhaps, to be able to do this year.
Finally there, was a small change of an Articles of Association based on recommendations of the EC last year. The small change was to note that the IGFSA has currently Secretariat services provided by DotAsia Organization. The modification is to remove the line item that would show Internet Society at the Secretariat. Very minor, administrative change.
That concludes my summary of last year's summary record.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you, Jennifer. Also for overcoming the challenges screen sharing. Any comments? Additions? Comments? Yes, please?
>> This is just a question about current state of finances. As we go into calendar 2023, can we get a sense for what you have available?
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you, that'll be part of the following agenda items. Finance and budget. If not, then can I take ‑‑ if there are no comments and no objections, that we can approve, for the record, the annual summary record of last year's General Assembly as submitted to the membership? And posted accordingly, on the website?
I take it as there are no comments, that there is agreement and it is so decided so, we have approval of last year's ‑‑ summary record of last year's General Assembly.
Then the next item, Executive Committee election. We shared with membership, two members of Executive Committee. (?) And myself coming to the end of their second term. In our bylaws, times three years. So, we open up the election procedure. If there are no statements of interest delivered within the deadline we have given, so there, is nothing really to add here. Unless somebody present in the room would like to declare their interest for the latest stage of election in an online procedure?
Right now, we cannot do that as we would have to have some time to consider a candidacy. Our bylaws are flexible. We don't have a fixed number of members. It says we should have at least five and not more than nine members with Eduardo's retirement from the Executive Committee, a little bit of a hole in the Latin American region. So, it'd be nice if we could have a candidate from that part of the world. I'd kindly encourage you to think about it, if somebody, on the spot, can say "yes, I'm interested," we could take notice and not proceed to the election now, but prepare an online procedure for that.
If not, we can still leave that open and get back to it subsequently. Is there anyone who has questions? Comments? On this agenda item? Or would like to declare their interest to serve on the Executive Committee?
>> My name is Tasha Nadeen [phonetic] and I'm serving as board member from Asia‑Pacific region. I'm very much interested in taking part of the committee and taking things forward.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Okay, note has been taken. We can start an online process. We don't need to have physical elections right now here. The only condition is that you need to have paid your membership fee and be a member in good standing.
Any other declaration of interest? Again, specifically looking at people from the GRULAC region. Any interest?
>> Yes, I'm in good standing. I could volunteer, yeah.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Not only in good standing, but you're an excellent candidate. We do have two candidates with open seats. I think I'd leave that to my success as chair of the Executive Committee and Secretariat to formalize the online procedure. This is one important aspect that we have diversity in our Executive Committee. Thank you for that and we can go to the next agenda item that is adoption of the contents of the reports and financial statements for the year.
Again, back to Jennifer and our treasurer, Nigel. Jennifer first, please?
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Thank you, Markus. Everything is showing on my end, which is great. The annual report from 2021 to 2022, this was also shared with the membership through the mailing list. There's been a very small adjustment on the list of NRIs that was supported because although we, as the EC has approved and the funding to Moldova IGF, they had technical difficulties being able to hold their meetings.
We informed them, we're happy to have them submit again, when they finally do prepare the actual meeting. So, briefly going through the reports. This is just a recap of my previous recap of the General Assembly that was held in the Katowice area. We called a moment of silence because one of our former members, Makane Faye, passed away in 2021. He was a pillar of the community here and held in very high esteem.
I already mentioned, we had the two new candidates, Amrita and Anriette and welcome Fiona to IGF EC. You see the full IGF EC for 2021 and 2021. I'm not going through all the names. You should already know them all here.
And this year, we've had eight meetings over the course of this year. We had separate individual committee meetings that were convened to talk about expanding the donor base and also, we had a call with an expert in the private sector, talking about how private sector and big tech think about their philanthropy and how we're able to target our messaging to be able to create more space here for them to contribute to the IGF as a whole, as well as IFGFS.
It's been a bit of an uphill climb here, I think the EC has done very good work this year to try to get some inroads in the network there. I think we'll hear more from Chris, if she's online and other members in the fundraising category of the General Assembly.
We have the Secretary and Secretariat doing the day‑to‑day functions. We have our accountant who is based in Switzerland, Michael Parratt, who helped us prepare the financial reports which we'll see later.
And here we have the membership categories. We haven't changed since our founding. Two categories, one is individual membership, dues of $25. The other is organizational membership, the annual membership dues of $100.
This year, we have three new individual members and one organizational member who joined the Association, which brings our total registered members to 260.
Here, you see the names of our new members. I won't read them out. And then, there's a brief mention here, in the paragraph with the activity report on fundraising. In 2022, IGFSA received contributions from Google via the Tides Foundation. This is the net amount we received. 99,090 U.S. dollars. From ICANN we received 30,078 U.S. dollars. From NRO, 48,950 U.S. dollars. We did receive 125 from regular membership dues and individual donations.
We'll have a detailed breakdown later. In 2017, we decided to prioritize requests we receive. This year, we have received and approved three regional and subregional IGFs, ten national initiatives and four youth initiatives. And this brings a total contributed for these requests in 2022 to 26,000 U.S. dollars and brings us to the cumulative total that IGF has given to the NRIs and youth NRIs to date to 525,000 U.S. dollars.
We'll look at the financial situation later when we go to the reports, but this is a rough estimate of funding we'll be allocating in 2023, also subject to the financial health of the IGFSA accounts and situations as well.
For UN‑IGF Trust Fund, we've contributed 10,000 U.S. dollars annually to them. Our projected ‑‑ oh goodness. That's ‑‑ very interesting. Okay, thank you very much. I'll just go on. For national, subregional, regional and youth IGFs, we're projected 70,000 U.S. dollars. We're anticipating more requests coming in next year. Every year, there'll be additional youth NRIs, subregional and regional initiatives popping up, which is healthy for the NRI ecosystem as a whole, as well as the general IGF ecosystem.
We'll have that projected. For accessibility, which is captioning, website accessibility and improvements, we'll be projecting an allocation of 20,000 U.S. dollars. This will include the captioning we already support for MAG meetings, NRI meetings and Dynamic Coalitions, if I'm not wrong. Correct me if I'm wrong.
For the IGF website, they've requested an allocation to maintain the accessibility standards and I think the, whatever technology that they're currently using on the website.
This is maintenance fee for the IGF official website. And then we have the projected administrative expenses, which are Secretariat fees, banking fees and accountant fees of 20,000 U.S. dollars.
I think I mentioned already, the contribution to the trust fund. A contribution of 10,000 U.S. dollars was given to the trust fund this year. Which brings our cumulative total to 310,000 U.S. dollars to date.
Okay, now we get to the funding requests we received this year and have approved. This year, we received three requests for the regional and subregional initiatives. The first is the ‑‑ I believe Central Asia and IGF, and EuroDIG. The asterisk is because it's still being processed and in progress right now.
The following national IGFs were approved and received funding. IGF Cameroon, FGI, Benin, Comoros IGF, Kenya, Armenia, Liberia, Guatemala, Ukraine, who just had their meeting under very difficult circumstances, South Sudan and Uganda.
Youth IGF Ukraine happened under difficult circumstances. Georgia, Bangladesh and India.
We think the IGF contingency funds, which would be, I think in the projected administrative piece. That's probably looking at the 20,000 U.S. dollars. The projected funding allocation for 2023.
And then, for accessibility funding, the contribution from Google and previous years have been earmarked, but not this year. For accessing the accessibility of the IGF, this is used to provide realtime transcription for the MAG, Dynamic Coalitions, NRIs and we're supporting, like I said before, the operational costs of the collaborative and accessible linguistics in the new IGF website.
Finally, we come to the outreach and communications. This year, we have continued to have a small group within the EC to look at value proposition for donors. There's been various targeted efforts, messages and presentations made to different stakeholder groups.
Several targeted private sector as well as domain name industry. I believe Brian Cute and Chris Mondini presented to introduce the subject of NRIs and how they're important to the ecosystem and looking at how some of the large registries do support some NRIs in their region or country and for them to consider looking at supporting it through IGFSA.
We do place a priority on funding requests that come from Developing Countries, as well as the south. These would be the NRI youth initiatives not already covered by the IGF Secretariat grants they do every year.
Finally there, was a dedicated communication messaging sent via the IGF secretariat to let the network they hold know more about the IGFSA's work and how they support the IGF ecosystem and also the NRI as a whole.
And I think that is it. For the ‑‑ oh. Here we go again. I'll stop here for any questions and hand it back to Markus.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you for this comprehensive [voice is garbled].
>> What does the asterisk mean, since you didn't explain?
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: [Too far from mic].
>> I see, thank you. Second to my comments. [Voice is garbled].
>> Thank you very much. [Too far from mic].
>> Thank you, Markus. I'm asking the coordinator of the European (?) Internet Governance activity report. There was a question about which schools should be supported by, I understood, particular funds that Google is pledging into this, but I don't see any earmarked budget in the 2023 budgets for this.
I'm asking because for a coordinator of the European (?), Google wasn't a direct sponsor. I think this is a good move and understandable. We should have clarity to what extent schools and Internet Governance are able to apply.
In the past we, or others as well, have possibly received directly from Google. Thank you very much.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you for this question. It's an excellent question. Decided not to provide funding to school on Internet Governance. But this is a decision that may be open in the future.
The decision was taken because we had a difficult time budget‑wise. We had to change our banking relations, but now, the funding looks more stable and this is something the Executive Committee might wish to reconsider. As I said, it was a decision taken at the time, but not for the future.
Are there other questions? Comments? Yes? Aubrey, also former Executive Committee member. Please, Aubrey.
>> AUBREY: A quick question, when you list participants, is there a ‑‑ are they all paid up participants? I mean, members. Are they all members in good standing or anyone who was ever a member, whether they're in good standing or not? Thanks.
>> Thank you, Aubrey, for the question. I'm assuming you are talking about the 260 registered members? In good standing are members that have paid up for the particular calendar year. Which I believe we have, I don't know the number we have right now. I think it's 25 to 26 people who are paid up.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you. Other questions? Comments? Yes Amrita?
>> I think the members are not sure they are repaying the fees to be members of good standing. We were thinking we'd want to send a reminder to all the members to pay their fees. Even I wasn't aware that you have to renew it each year. There's no reminder coming.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you, excellent comment. Yes. It's always worthwhile. I think it's a problem many associations face. It's sometimes difficult to chase after the members to remind them that there's an annual member fee.
If there are no other comments, I'd suggest you go to the financial statement ‑‑ oh, sorry ‑‑ there was a ‑‑ okay? We have a request.
>> For the record, I just want to comment. [Voice is garbled]. Was able to assist, in terms of assessing IGFs. [Voice is garbled].
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you for that comment. It's always nice to know it has a positive impact. I often said, it's a little like seed money. [Voice faded].
>> My name is Nasa Nicholas Karama [phonetic]. Coordinator for Tanzania IGF. As you go along with the meeting, we would also like to get a clarification on the conditions for applying for those who would like to apply for funding.
I think it is important for those who are applying online, to know the criteria, first of all and second, if they apply and they do not, for some reason, qualify, I think it is also important for the IGFSA to regulate saying "you didn't qualify for this specific reason." I think it's polite, for those who are struggling, from sites out in the field, to get this information, this critical information to their local constituencies about the internal governance. To know that their efforts have been recognized when they apply and if they don't qualify. They are also appreciated that way.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you for the question. I thought the website was sufficiently clear, but maybe it's not. We'll ask the Secretariat to look into that. Essentially, it's very simple. We only provide fundings to NRIs that have been recognized by the IGF Secretariat and that are in good standing with the IGF Secretariat. At least they have provided a report of their last meeting, provided an annual report and so on.
So, the process is very simple. Whenever we have a request, we ask the IGF Secretariat to ask Anya [phonetic] in particular, overall, is this NRI in good standing? If she says yes, then normally the Executive Committee approves it and yes, we can approve the communication of those who are (?) [too far from mic]. Make sure in a nice way, they provide all the elements and documentation necessary. They have a functioning website also. Does that answer your question?
Okay, thank you. There was another request, please?
>> My name is Gres [phonetic] and am current coordinator of IGF. This is my first IGF. I'm interested to be a member of the IGF Association, so, if I can, I don't know who I can talk to, probably offline, or after this meeting. Okay, thank you.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you for that, it's always nice to welcome new members of the Association. Thank you. There's another request, yes?
>> Hello, everyone. My name is Abdeldjalil Bachar Bong. It's nice to see what you've done. It's been very difficult with COVID to assist or to help to support. Thank you. So, I have a reflection that some of our leaders of the DC here. How to incorporate the school to receive funds. Nowadays, in different countries, this is the only way you see people emerging in the ecosystem. I think we need to take this into account and planning for next few years. Thank you so much.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you.
>> You're doing a lot of things. As we are moving second level of IG ecosystem, thank you.
>> Is the application, can you apply any time? Is it any time?
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Yes, you can, any time, but we strongly recommend that you do it as soon as possible, not just last‑minute. Two days before the meeting, that'd be too late. We need some time to process it and also, if you want the funds in time, the sooner you make the request, the better, the transfer of funds usually can take some time. As you saw in the report with these NRIs listed. There are problems with the financial transactions.
The sooner you apply, the better. Four weeks would be preferred as a minimum, not shorter than that. It's in your interest if you want the funds, in time, to help you organize the meeting. If it comes after the meeting, it's sometimes difficult.
>> Thank you for answering my stupid question.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Are there other questions?
>> NIGEL: Perhaps I just make a comment on what you said, yes, I mean, we welcome applications in good time. That allows us to assess them. As a committee, we rarely turn down applications. We're here to support the national and regional initiatives and we want to be very supportive of them. And we have been both the youth part of the national IGFs and regional IGFs.
But of course, we do look at the applications and we, we feel it's an obligation on us as a committee to look at the applications. Because we have limited funds. We hope to be able to support the applications that come to us in 2023.
We're not, if you like, out to support initiatives that, perhaps, are really well‑funded and have great sponsors. And that's excellent if you have that. But we'll obviously, in terms of our financial support, we'll be looking to support everyone we can. But we'll be focusing clearly on those that need the support.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you, Nigel. With that, can we move on? And essentially, I'd ask you, then, to approve the activity report as presented by Jennifer. I will do it bay assuming that we have tacit agreement there's no objection. I take it the committee report has been approved. It is so decided and will be posted on the website.
With that, we come to the financial statement. I pass on the floor to our treasurer, Nigel can dissent.
>> Can we please allow the Zoom screen sharing? Thank you.
>> NIGEL: Thank you very much. Certainly, I'll be brief. This is, perhaps, not the most‑important part. First of all, thanks to the contributions we received this year. Which were noted in the annual report. Thanks to the Tides Foundation, Google, thanks to Vint for facilitating. Thanks to ICANN and NROs for their support in this regard.
So, in terms of the ‑‑ in terms of this sheet, perhaps we can start ‑‑ in terms of total assets, you can see the total assets we've got in Swiss francs. For those that don't know Swiss francs. They're not quite as much as dollars, but I suppose near. Near term dollar mark.
And if we go, if we go up, so, that's the total assets and the net assets, 209,000. The sub‑liabilities are clearly those that were funds that are still to be allocated.
If we go further down, to the total revenues, so the 178 here, 179, sorry. Got a different figure here. 178, 179 is the revenues and you can see that the revenue come from membership fees of 840 and the contributions which we just noted.
One thing that has been said already, we're very keen to, if you like, broaden the donor base. We're very keen to have more members, both corporate members and individual members because not only does this broaden the financial base, but it gives it, the Executive Committee, we think it gives us a broader sort of base of legitimacy to an extent in terms of the funding we get and the funding we disburse.
So, if we go further down, to the 32,000 figure, that's the total expenditure. That's made up of the grants we give. The 20,000 up there and the different fees.
So, no entertainment at all. You'll be pleased to know. Bank fees, professional fees, transcription services et cetera.
So, if we go further down, if we may, so, the total expenses, as I said, 32,000 and then, if we go right down to the bottom, we see the 209,000 figure again there in terms of funding balance.
That's the statement of the financial position, as you saw. You saw in the overall report, the different NRIs that we supported during the last year in 2022 up to 15th of November.
Of course, we're projecting to fund more. We fund as applications come in, as I said and we're obviously encouraging through our newsletters and outreach activities for IGFs to come forward to us.
I'll stop there and willing to take questions.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you for that. Sometimes an explanation is just strange figures from our donors, 29,700 whatever. It means our banking fees involved. Usually donors give us a round figure, but if it looks a bit strange, just as an explanation.
Are there any questions with regards to the financial statement? Yes, please?
>> Just for clarity ‑‑ oh, I've got two microphones now. That means I'll hold you all hostage. For clarity, you're starting, roughly speaking, starting the new year with 147,000 Swiss francs, not counting the balance of the fund, separating that out in your budget is 120,000, roughly.
So, you are not planning to overspend, relative to what you currently have available. You could survive for a year without any further contributions, not that I'm encouraging that, just making the observation.
So, that's good fiscal management that you have runway well over ‑‑ not well over, but you have about a year, maybe a year and a quarter at the current planned budget. Am I interpreting this correctly?
>> NIGEL: Yes, thank you very much, Vint. As we said before, the community's in a position where we're demand‑led, if you like to extend that, we encourage that demand in that it's really excellent to see the proliferation of the national and regional initiatives. And we recognize that as we come out of the pandemic, as things going on to more‑stable footing, perhaps there'll be more physical meetings arranged during 2022, which we'll fund. And as Vint said, our projections are conservative, perhaps. But as the chair said, if there's demand there and there are appropriate requests, we'll endeavor to meet them and of course, as we go forward, we're dependent on our donors and we want to broaden the donor base. We're extremely grateful for the contributions we give.
I ought to have said, give thanks to our accountant, Michael Parratt, who we work with closely in approving all these funds. It's not, not trivial, where you, you're dealing with banks in different countries and different currencies and aspects like that, thank you.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you for that and one brief comment on what Nigel said about broadening the donor base. It's also the message we get from some of our biggest contributors. They're more‑comfortable, if not the only ones they'd like to see that broadening.
>> Lima [phonetic] from Syracuse University. I have a comment, could you scroll up a little bit ‑‑ okay, 2021 ‑‑ 2020 ‑‑ we had the same year ‑‑ I think there's a typo. Before you approve the budget, you should note the typo and I'm done with my professorial correction.
>> NIGEL: Thank you for that. It's always good to be meticulous with numbers and figures, yes.
>> One of those dates is the end of 2021 and the other is as of 15th of November. That should be 2022 ‑‑ you're right.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: With these corrections, can I take it that we can approve the financial statements as submitted? I see nodding in the room. I see no objection, so, I'll take it, statement has been approved and it is so‑decided and we will post it accordingly on the website with these corrections, thank you. And thank you for noticing this.
The next item on the agenda would be approval of the annual budget based upon the recommendation by the Executive Committee. Chris Mondini has agreed to introduce that item, but I don't see him. He's remote, not physically here.
>> CHRIS MONDINI: Do you hear me or am I muted? Hello?
>> MARKUS KUMMER: We're trying to sort that out. Due to difficult faced in a war zone (?) couldn't hear us.
>> CHRIS MONDINI: Just checking, can you hear me?
>> Clearly.
>> CHRIS MONDINI: Great, I'm a proud member of this Executive Committee of IGFSA. I'm very sorry I can't be with you. I just want to make a couple comments, which really echo those that have been made already. That's about the importance of fundraising. And it's important for a number of reasons. One is for our sustainability and our resilience and to give stakeholders an opportunity to have a real stake in the good work of the Association.
The second, happy reason, is that demand is increasing in the post pandemic environment. We see new national IGFs. We see a number of IGFs adding a youth component. So, we're very pleased to see that the desired effect of the support is being demonstrated.
And then, finally, as we just ‑‑ the comment that Nigel just made, we're not complaint. We recognize we do have a healthy financial situation for the months ahead and we want to use that opportunity to really make the most of broadening and making more diverse, the funding base.
And a lot of that is, as mentioned earlier, we went to players in the internet ecosystem with help from Brian Cute. We addressed registries and registrars and we learned, in some cases, that though they are not giving directly to the IGFSA, that at least one registry is using the IGFSA's decisions on supporting NRIs to make their own decisions on supporting them directly.
I'll say, also, with many thanks to Amrita, we're in communication with a number of business stakeholders, corporates who are considering contributions.
We think a lot of material explaining the value proposition for diverse stakeholder categories, particularly business. We're happy to share that with those in a position to introduce us to maybe an employer or a company you might see in the corridor later this week.
Finally, I'd say the spectrum ranges from these corporates, global companies to your contributions, as members and individuals, as members and you will see more direct appeals, judicious number of direct e‑mails to IGF mailing lists and other stakeholders we know have an interest in our work to encourage them to visit the website, make a contribution, and again, broaden the base of, and categories of stakeholders that feel they have a stake in the work of the organization.
So, I really just wanted to highlight that while we're delighted to have a good basis of what I'd call foundational contributors, we're looking at every category of contributor and looking for your help with leads, introductions, and ideas on how we can continue to broaden that base to make it sustainable. Thanks very much.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you, Chris, for this contribution. You already went through fundraising, but it's closely linked, of course. We have not ‑‑ it's, it's not exact science, because our budget depends very much on contributions we receive, but I think it was already included in the presentation of the summary statement of the financial statement for the year. That we intend to continue like that with priority to the NRIs.
That's how we feel we have most impact and what we heard from members here in the room. Seems to confirm that that really is welcomed and helps the NRIs to get off the ground and we will continue, again, to give a contribution to the UN IGF Trust Fund. That also gives us, as an Association, legitimacy as a recognized donor in other nations.
Are there comments to these agenda items, budget and fundraising pieces?
>> VINT CERF: One thing I'd urge the IGFSA to consider is summarizing activities that should get support, generally speaking.
Here, I'm thinking about the NRIs and thinking about the schools we heard about earlier. There are a broad range of activities that are related to the IGF and we should be drawing attention to potential funders with all of those activities.
While you're able to fund on your own as a supporter of the Association. I think drawing attention to these opportunities for a broad range of support would be helpful in keeping with your charter.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you, this is a helpful suggestion. I'd like to underline Vint Cerf as chair of the leadership panel to work closely with IGF and in that sense, very important advocate for also, the IGFSA activities. That's very helpful suggestion. Other comments?
>> Just to add, we were thinking of updating our website with the details of who we've been (?) so far. The website is people get more information where they come here and we could have it sent to potential donors. So, because this is one feedback that Chris and we got from donor that "where have you been spending the money? What have you been doing?" That's also something Chris mentioned, we learned, to present it properly to donors, what we've been doing.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you again. Very helpful comment. I'd like to welcome Fiona, another Executive Committee member that has joined us. I'd also mention Joyce that has joined us online and Chris, you have already seen joining us online.
Are there other comments on this? We have approval of the membership to continue in this line? The message I get to leave that to the new Executive Committee members, also to consider contribution to the schools on Internet Governance. That seems to be a strong message to take back from this meeting.
With that, I think we can move forward.
>> To help members understand the process, you said you'll be stepping down as chair. When will we have a new chair?
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Right. I'd say that, is there any other business? I was asked the question now, I can't also say that. The suggestion is, we do have a quorum of Executive Committee members, so we proceed to the election of the new chair of the executive committee, immediately after, in an open session of the Executive Committee. We will close General Assembly and then open the meeting of the Executive Committee with one agenda item. That'd be election of the new chair.
With that, can I ask the membership to release the Executive Committee of obligations, that is essentially agree that we have done all according to the bylaws and you are happy with the way, not going to take legal action against board members for their activity?
That's under Swiss law. That's actually the Swiss term they use is discharge of the Executive Committee, but that's caused a lot of confusion. And I found the more understandable English term that is release of obligations of the board.
Can I take it that you kindly will release us of our obligations and I see people nodding and I don't see anyone standing up, disagreeing, so, I take it we have agreement of the membership on this release of obligation. Which is, as I said, important on Swiss law. We have to present the annual report. [Voice fading].
With that, I come to any other business. One item would be to announce the, of the holding of an Executive Committee session immediately after. I've already done that. Are there any other items anyone ‑‑ Joyce, Jennifer, yes, please?
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Can we please show slide eight? If that can be possible. There's already a preview in the Zoom room, if you're in the Zoom room, but if you're not already in the Zoom room. Of course, of course. There you go.
So, that is ‑‑ we'd like to present special thanks to our outgoing chair, Markus Kummer, who has been with the IGFSA since its founding.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you.
>> JENNIFER CHUNG: Specific to IGFSA, he started as Secretary, and we had two chairs for two full terms. We will miss you very sorely, Markus, we hope you stay on to advise us on many things we need advice on. Many thanks to Markus and a round of applause, please?
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you very much for that. Very appreciative of this kind of support. And also, obviously, our thanks go to Eduardo, the colleague who is also stepping down now, comes to the end of his second term.
With that, then, if there's no other, nobody else for the floor, we can then, come to the closure of the General Assembly. So, a declare close to General Assembly 2022, and I open the meeting of the Executive Committee.
We have established that we have a quorum. We have Nigel, Fiona, (?), and online, we have Chris and Joyce, Ariat [phonetic] can't be with us, but she made it clear who preference as a new chair would be and I'm happy to introduce Amrita as a candidate and propose the Executive Committee approve her as new chair by acclimation.
With that, I'm happy to step down and hand over the microphone to Amrita.
[laughter]
>> AMRITA: I look at all your support in terms of extending it, IGFSA, I have a lot to learn and Markus has to be around. He can't just run away from things.
Yes, as Chris mentioned, we need to look at more donors and we need your support to actually reach out to people also. Tell us whom we should go to. We will definitely try. Even small donations are good.
We thank the donations coming from Google, ICANN and others are also welcome. We look forward to working together. Markus, you have to be there. And we need a group photo after, all of us. Yes, we need to close the meeting and any feedback, any things which you find are not suitable, please let us know.
>> Thank you so much for all you've done. In our Association, we retain the past chair to the memory. I don't know what kind of adjustment we need to do, but I want to propose that we have a standard opportunity for you as chair. Thank you.
>> I want to add, in terms of corporate governance, you don't just leave, you're retained on in a different capacity. You don't forebode, you don't count as quorum, but you guide on issues. Thank you. Thanks for accepting.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: As I said, I don't want to be a back seat driver, but I'm happy to give advice when asked for. I don't want to provide advice unless asked for.
And I do understand that Amrita would like a picture of ‑‑
>> AMRITA: All of us.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Okay. You also need a picture without me.
[laughter]
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Everybody forward. It's okay? I'd like to ask (?) to come up here. It's very important to have your picture with us. To show to people that important people take it seriously.
[laughter]
Please all, let's try to find ‑‑