Author(s): Donald M. Heath
Date: 1997.9.22
Committee: Executive Committee of BoT
Document: 97-016
Revision:
Supersedes:
Status: Revision 1
Maintainer: D.M. Heath
Access: Unrestricted
Participants:
Frode Greisen
Scott Bradner
George Sadowsky
Haruhisa Ishida
Donald M. Heath
1. ISOC/IETF – Sun Agreement
Discussions are under way for SUN to pass change control for NFS to ISOC for the IETF. Based on history, these discussions may take a while.
2. POC Nominations
Nominations closed effective midnight 17 September 1997 Eastern Daylight Time. Twenty-seven candidates were nominated; two withdrew. Solicitation for confidential comments on the candidates announced and will be open through 10 October 1997. Comments will be sent to BoT at close of period for review. Each BoT member will have two votes to apply to the candidates of their choice. Final two will be determined and announced by 19 October 1997.
Heath will put out schedule and process to BoT before 26 September 1997.
3. Cash Flow
Current projection shows no negative cash flow. The drive to fix the cash crisis is working. Greisen will contact the Treasurer of ISOC regarding the possibility of putting together a financial statement that reflects the financial stability of ISOC.
Current cash flow projection no longer contains any income from INET’98 sponsorships to be brought in in 1997. However, the intent still remains to bring in approximately USD 250,000 of INET’98 sponsorship money this year.
4. Membership
Organization membership status report will be put out monthly from now on. Money figures now include Gold memberships as well. We currently have 155 official Organization members and will retain our target of 242 by next June.
Heath and Burack will keep working with trustees to support their pledges to recruit new members per the list worked out in Kuala Lumpur.
It has been estimated that 242 Organization members are required to assure solid financial stability.
5. INET’98
We have two Program Chairs in place: Francois Fluckiger and Stephan Wolff. Initial call for papers has been issued. The Track Chairs are key to assuring the finest quality of papers and authors are acquired for INET’98.
George Soros is the official fund raising chair, with Claude Lemay (international) and Werner Staub (local) co-chairs.
Full conference committee met during the Telecom Interactive conference in Geneva and projected an optimistic outlook. No major issues of negative consequence were evident.
The MoU between ISOC and the Geneva ISOC Chapter was signed in a ceremony witnessed by the president of the Canton of Geneva. The MoU will be sent to the BoT and will be included the December BoT briefing book. Any modifications between now and the December BoT meeting will be so noted.
6. Public Policy Committee
Meeting scheduled with chair candidate, Roger J. Cochetti of IBM, is scheduled for 23 September 1997. Executive Committee cautioned that ISOC should be cognizant of the potential for ISOC to look US-centric if we are only publicizing our position on US policy decisions.
Greisen suggested that, normally, comments on government initiatives and legislation be handled by national chapters; for the US, perhaps by the Washington chapter.
No public policy pronouncements from ISOC will be made without full knowledge and support of the ISOC BoT on specific “national” issues – of any country.
This topic will be an agenda item at the December BoT meeting and Mr. Cochetti and any committee members will be invited to attend and discuss the topic.
7. General Counsel
Of 15 BoT members to date, 11 have voted, 4 have not. The proposal is for Stuart Levi of the firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, to become ISOC General Counsel.
Electronic voting will close Friday 26 September 1997 at the latest.
8. Internet, Inc. Lawsuit
US Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) seems to have reversed its opinion from “Internet” being a private mark to being generic. We (ISOC and CNRI) filed a motion to amend our complaint as a result. The Trademark Trial and Appeals Board (TTAB) said no, we could not amend.
We have a couple of options: One is to file a motion for summary judgment on the ground that the term INTERNET is generic and thus unprotectable. This would seem to have some support given the PTO’s policy change. Another is to proceed with a settlement proposal to Internet, Inc. This latter was presented to us by our law firm, Finnigan, Henderson and was discussed at the June 1997 BoT meeting.
Both are being pursued with our current counsel, Finnegan, Henderson.
9. IANA
Scott has talked to Jon Postel about drafting a proposal for IANA to be reconstituted. Jon has said he would develop a set of by-laws for an independent IANA and we are waiting for that response. There seems to be reasonable consensus that it is time to internationalize and instutitionalize the functions of IANA.
Bradner will continue talks with Postel.
10. IETF Secretariat
When ISOC can show true financial stability, we will look into working out an agreement with CNRI for ISOC to replace NSF as the guarantor of the IETF Secretariat. Nothing will be done that would upset the stability and excellent operations of the current IETF Secretariat personnel.
This topic will be discussed in more detail at the December 1997 BoT meeting.
All Board Executive Committee Meeting Minutes