Updating CIRA’s statement of purpose at the 2019 AGM

At the 2019 Annual General Meeting, members will be voting on approving the changes to CIRA’s statement of purpose in our articles to better reflect what CIRA does.

It’s that time again, governance season is beginning at CIRA!

The 2019 CIRA Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be on September 25^th, 2019 in Ottawa. Leading up to the AGM and election season of our board of directors, we want to ensure CIRA members are informed, and understand how they can be involved.

This year, CIRA members will be voting on approving changes to CIRA’s statement of purpose to better reflect the organization’s mandate and current activities.  

What is the statement of purpose?

CIRA is a member-based not-for-profit organization. Under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act, not for profit organizations are required to set out a statement of purpose in their articles of incorporation, which is meant to provide guidance on an organization’s activities. 

The statement of purpose is in essence the same as corporation’s articles. CIRA’s statement of purpose is set out in section 6 of its articles.

The wording  in CIRA’s statement of purpose has not been changed in over ten years! At the board meeting last November, CIRA’s board of directors approved to update CIRA’s statement of purpose to better reflect the organization’s mandate and current activities.

CIRA members will be asked to vote on a motion to approve the changes to CIRA’s statement of purpose at the AGM.

What’s different and why?

The proposed changes to CIRA’s statement of purpose are the following.

The purposes of the corporation are:

1. to act as the registry for the .CA Internet domain;
2. to provide professional registry, Domain Name System (DNS), and related services comparable to other major national and international Internet registries;
3. to develop, carry out and/or support any other Internet-related activities in Canada that promote the good governance, development and use of the Internet for Canada; and
4. to do all such other things as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of the above purposes.

Note there are no changes under item (a) and item (d).

The previous purposes are outdated and it is good governance practice to have them updated to reflect CIRA’s activities.

CIRA has always operated the Domain Name System (DNS). Furthermore, for a number of years now, CIRA has been providing professional registry services, DNS anycast and firewall services, and related services. For example, we are now providing our DNS anycast and firewall services to a multitude of universities, schools, hospitals, and municipalities to protect Canadians online. We are updating section (b) of the statement of purpose to better represent this.  

The changes to section (c) provide more clarity regarding the Internet-related activities provided by CIRA. This wording reflect those activities that CIRA participates and leads in promoting the good governance, development and use of the internet for Canada, both domestically and internationally. This includes CIRA’s work around building a better online Canada, like supporting Canada’s IXPs, engagement in ICANN and policy conferences such as the Canadian Internet Governance Forum.

How does this affect CIRA and members?

As mentioned, this change being made is so CIRA’s statement of purpose better reflects CIRA’s activities, priorities and the breadth of our work for the Canadian internet. This will not change the direction of CIRA, but rather will align that direction with our articles for consistency.

CIRA values its members and ensuring members are informed prior to voting at the AGM. The change to our statement of purpose will not affect your role as a member. At the AGM in September, CIRA members will vote to approve this amendment to the statement of purpose. Although anyone can attend the AGM, only CIRA members can vote.

Not a member?

If you are a .CA holder, you can become a CIRA member. As a member, you get the opportunity to be involved in our governance processes, attend local events for networking, business development and knowledge sharing and stay in the know of Canadian internet and CIRA news.  

Questions?

As a CIRA member, we want you to understand these changes so you can vote on the motion at the Annual General Meeting.  If you have questions or concerns about the purpose changes, email us at [email protected] or reach out on social media, on Twitter or Facebook.

Stay tuned for more info about our AGM and upcoming elections.