Board Minutes 29 September 2009

 

Eve Salomon (Chair)

Emma Ascroft (industry Vice-chair)

Rodney Brooke

Naomi Cohen

Mark Gracey

Stephen Locke

Hamish MacLeod

Tink Palmer

Ian Walden (Independent Vice-chair)

Suzy Walton

IWF Staff:

Peter Robbins

Keren Mallinson
 
1 Apologies
 There were no apologies.
 
2 Minutes of previous Board meeting  – 30th June 2009      
These were approved as a true record.

 

3 Matters arising - (including action summary from 30th June 2009)
It was noted that the action to collate the Board skills set and experience had not been undertaken.

 

ACTION 1: Keren Mallinson to capture the Board skills set in October 2009, with the task being extended to include information about Board members’ networks.
 
All the other actions from the previous Board minutes had been carried out or were scheduled to be discussed at the meeting or at December’s Board meeting.

 

 

4 Chair’s report
a) Key issues arising from the morning discussion

The Chair thanked everyone involved in the morning’s event, which had been received positively. It was noted that there was general support for extending notice and takedown internationally but that blocking was required as a safety net when content cannot be removed.

 

Action 2: The executive to prepare a draft rewording of the role of the IWF in relation to blocking, consistent with its benefit as a safety net, for further discussion.

 

Action 3: The executive to work towards expediting the international removal of potentially illegal child sexual abuse content, particularly in the U.S. where most of the content is hosted. Relationships to be developed with hosting companies to aid the removal of content, bearing in mind that these relationships may also lead to membership opportunities.

 

b) Executive Committee
The minutes had been circulated and all items were covered on the agenda.

 

c) Meetings past and future
The Chair said that, in accordance with an action agreed at a previous Board meeting, she had undertaken media training with the Chief Executive, Deputy Chief Executive and Communications Director. They had all found it to be very useful.
 
5 CEO’s report
The Chief Executive’s briefing paper was noted.

 

Action 4:  The Terms of Reference of the Nominet Trust research project regarding international notice and takedown to be forwarded to Emma Ascroft.

 

Action 5: The Executive to check they retain the ownership of the research report prior to signing the contract with the Nominet Trust.
 
6 Audit Committee report
(a) Standing Orders and Financial delegations

Hamish MacLeod introduced a Standing Orders and financial delegations report.

 

The Board approved the standing orders and financial delegation scheme subject to the Audit committee ratifying a number of amendments.

 

Action 6: An amended standing orders and financial delegation document to be submitted to the Audit Committee and, once approved, distributed to the Board.

 

(b) Risk summary and register
This item was deferred to the December meeting.

 

Action 7: Any detailed comments on the risk register to be submitted to Keren Mallinson and Hamish MacLeod.

 

(c) Review of budget

The revised budget, which had addressed the previously forecast deficit, was approved.

 

(d) Other

Hamish MacLeod indicated that as balances and cashflow are positive, consideration is being given to depositing monies in a managed fund which would spread our investment risk and/or a longer term bank deposit account.

 

Action 8: A report bringing recommendations on investment options to be brought to the December meeting.

 

(a) CAIC verification update and Executive response

Mark Gracey indicated that the Funding Council was supportive of operating a pilot self-certification scheme based on the process they had approved (but without the remedies and sanctions component).

 

The Board supported the pilot but indicated that consideration should be given to its duration as three months may not be long enough. During the pilot period, a definitive list should be produced of who wants to benefit from self-certification and upstream:downstream issues should be resolved.

 

Action 9: Mark Gracey and Keren Mallinson to develop the pilot scheme

 

(b)  Non-photographic images (“NPI”)
The Funding Council has agreed to the inclusion of prohibited non-photographic images of children within the IWF’s remit, with its inclusion being subject to the same conditions which applied to extreme pornography. The Funding Council requested that the response to the Ministry of Justice (“MoJ”)should make it clear that the material would not be suitable for inclusion on the ‘block list’. The Board agreed that the response should include an option for the IWF to withdraw from including NPI within its remit if the conditions for its inclusion were not met and that MOJ attention should be given to the PR implications of the legislation.

 

Action 10: A letter to be sent to the MOJ from the Chair reporting the industry and the IWF’s willingness, subject to certain conditions being met, to include prohibited non-photographic images of children hosted in the UK within its remit.

(c) Other
It was noted that the Funding Council had issued a response to the contextual assessment consultation paper.

 

Action 11: The Board will consider the Funding Council’s response to contextual assessment in the December meeting, along with other outstanding Wikipedia issues.

 

Lee Turner is the new Vice-chair of the Funding Council, replacing Dave Simpson.

 

The Funding Council is supportive of a blocking code of practice scoping group being established, which should include consideration of splash pages.

 

Action 12: A blocking code of practice scoping group to be established, comprising Stephen Locke (with support from Ian Walden), a member of the executive and two Funding Council representatives.

 

8 Financial update 2009/10

The positive financial situation was noted.

 

Action 13: The management accounts to August will be re-issued, with corrections being made to the variance columns

 

(a) Access control companies
The report was commended as being very clear and was accepted by the Board.

 

(b) Full funding framework
Industry members advised, and it was agreed that, as the new framework would affect each individual member differently, it would not be appropriate to ask the Funding Council for a single, industry view on the consultation document.  The Funding Framework Consultation Paper was agreed, subject to some  additions.

Action 14: An amended paper (to be signed off by Naomi Cohen and Suzy Walton) to be circulated to member companies for consultation with responses by 30th November, 2009.

 

10 Membership update

The Board approved the membership application by Elitecore Technologies and noted the resignation of Sentry Software and BP.

 

The report was noted.

 

Action 15: Future reports should contain hosting country trend data and should indicate clearly the percentage of hosting which is occurring in Inhope hotline countries

 

It was noted that a letter had been received from Stonewall asking the IWF to take on responsibility for receiving reports of incitement to homophobic content. It was agreed that the Chief Executive should respond to Stonewall indicating that the IWF would not be able to take on responsibility for receiving such reports without the necessary government partnerships being in place. (Stephen Locke did not participate in this item as he declared a conflict of interest.)

 

Action 16: Peter Robbins to reply to Stonewall’s letter

 

It was noted that Board meetings will be held on 1/12/09, 9/2/10 and 30/3/10. Meetings will normally finish no later than 1pm although the December meeting will be followed by a lunch to mark the departure of Tink Palmer and Ian Walden from the Board.

 

The meeting closed at 5:20pm.