EURALO Outreach Strategic Plan

EURALO Outreach Strategy

Our aim remains to have at least one ALS present in every country that EURALO covers. Our efforts therefore concentrate on countries in which there are no EURALO ALSes. This year is also seeing a rise in individual members. Often, organisations that could be potential ALSes are unsure of the benefits of becoming an At-Large Structure. Often, a first step that has been taken by organisation leaders, is to join as an individual to gain better knowledge and understanding of EURALO prior to applying on behalf of their organisations. The EURALO outreach program has been indiscriminately promoting both applications as an individual and as an organisation.

Building on the previous year outreach strategy, EURALO will pursue its focus on:

• the annual EuroDIG events to take place in 2017 in Tallinn, Estonia;
• the annual ICANN Studienkreis meetings in Europe(for what we repeatedly asked ICANN support -- in vain);
• the European Summer School on Internet Governance (EuroSSIG) in Meissen/Germany where several members are involved;
• receiving feedback on ICANN-related matters from members participating in national IGF initiatives (Germany, Switzerland, France, UK and Ukraine);
• inviting and supporting up to 5 members or potential candidates to attend EuroDIG meetings via CROPP, although that number is likely to be reduced this year.

These Outreach opportunities are always used for identifying potential new members (ALSes or individuals), discussions about EURALO and its role and to attract new people. We go out of our way to speak to potential candidates, distribute EURALO flyers and encourage them to participate. One major progress over past years is the regular consultations and discussion with Jean-Jacques Sahel, VP Stakeholder Engagement for Europe and based in Brussels as well as Michael Yakushev, VP Stakeholder Engagement for Easter Europe and Russia. We have been able to coordinate Outreach at several meetings thanks to their involvement.

With EuroDIG now running its own fellowship program, emphasis on participation at EuroDIG for CROPP slots has decreased. The RALO leadership is now identifying other potential events to participate in using CROPP, starting with an event called "re:publica", the 2016 instance if which took plain in early summer in Berlin/Germany, became the biggest conference and fair on Internet politics in Europe with over 7’000 participants -- see: https://re-publica.de/en/about-republica

The challenge in identifying suitable venues comes from the variety of languages spoken in Europe. There are therefore few suitable European-wide conference that could offer the same access to potential ALSes as EuroDIG. Collaboration with the local Regional Internet Registry has been until now through the annual EuroDIG. Indeed, EURALO is a EuroDIG partner and so is RIPE. This year, we plan on building on this first link and work towards a bilateral agreement based on a MoU similar to those signed by other RALOs with their Regional Internet Registry. It is worth noting that the partnership with EuroDIG has opened a lot of doors for end user input in Europe.

We also plan to engage dialogue with other membership organisations that our At-Large Structures meet in their environment to discuss their way to conduct outreach with the aim to benefit from lessons learnt. EURALO will consider cooperation with other organisations to help the goal of strengthening our ALS base.

Perhaps most significantly in EURALO's strategy, EURALO has created a task force on ALS Engagement focussing on our already existing ALSes. With many ALSes not offering their full participation in EURALO activities, this Task Force will study the reasons for this low participation and methods to increase participation. Outreach does not only take place by recruiting new At-Large Structures, but also by recruiting more active members amongst the At-Large Structures - bearing in mind an ALS has more than just one member.