RFC 2134

RFC 2134: Articles of Incorporation of Internet Society ✨

Network Working Group 🦋 Author: ISOC Board of Trustees 💖 Organisation: ISOC 🎀 Category: Informational 🌸 Date: April 1997 ⭐ Obsoletes / Updates: the title block doesn't list any, so this one doesn't obsolete or update anything 🫶

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Status of This Memo 💅

okay so this memo is for the Internet community's information 📖. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind 🙈, and you're free to distribute it as much as you like 🌈.

Abstract 🧚

These are the articles of incorporation of the Internet Society 🌐. They're published for the information of the IETF community, at the request of the poisson working group 💜.

1. ISOC articles of incorporation 👑

This is the filing sent to the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs in Washington, D.C. 💼

To:    Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs
       Washington, D.C.  20001

The incorporators are natural persons aged eighteen or over, and they adopt these Articles of Incorporation under the District of Columbia Non-Profit Corporation Act 🎀. Here's the whole thing, article by article:

1. The name of the corporation is Internet Society 🌸.

2. The period of its duration is perpetual ♾️.

3. The corporation is organised as a non-profit corporation without capital stock. It's operated exclusively for educational, charitable and scientific purposes, and those purposes include carrying on these activities 🧠:

• A. To facilitate and support the technical evolution of the Internet as a research and education infrastructure, and to stimulate the involvement of the scientific community, industry, government and others in that evolution 🔥;
• B. To educate the scientific community, industry and the public at large about the technology, use and application of the Internet 📚;
• C. To promote educational applications of Internet technology for the benefit of government, colleges and universities, industry, and the public at large 🍓;
• D. To provide a forum for exploring new Internet applications, and to stimulate collaboration among organisations in their operational use of the global Internet 🌈.

The corporation also gets to use all the powers that the District of Columbia Non-Profit Corporation Act gives corporations, so it can reach those purposes. It can take any other actions that are necessary or convenient for any or all of its purposes too 💅.

4. The corporation shall not issue any capital stock 🙅‍♀️.

5. The corporation has classes of members. Their qualifications and rights, including any right to vote, are set out in the by-laws 🗳️.

6. The board of directors is called the Board of Trustees 👑. Except for the initial Board of Trustees, which is named in these Articles, the way Trustees get elected or appointed is in the by-laws 🫶.

7. Rules for running the corporation's internal affairs, including how assets are distributed on dissolution or liquidation, are these 🧚:

• A. No part of the corporation's net earnings goes to the benefit of, or can be distributed to, any Trustee, officer, member of the corporation, or any other person. The one exception is that the corporation is allowed to pay reasonable compensation for services it has received. No substantial part of its activities can be propaganda or any other attempt to influence legislation 🙈. The corporation can't take part in or intervene in any political campaign for any candidate for public office, including by publishing or distributing statements about one 🗳️.
• B. The Articles of Incorporation can be amended by an affirmative vote of at least four-fifths of the Trustees in office at the time. However, Article 7 can only be amended with the unanimous consent of the Trustees in office 💖.
• C. When the corporation is liquidated, dissolved, or winds up, and all of its liabilities and obligations have been paid, satisfied and discharged (or adequate provision has been made for them) ✨, its assets are distributed exclusively for educational, charitable and scientific purposes. The Trustees (or whoever is in charge of the liquidation) decide which purposes. The distributions must go to one or more organisations that qualify as exempt organisations under Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code as amended (or under the corresponding provisions of any future United States Internal Revenue law) 🎀.

8. The initial registered office, including street and number, is c/o C T Corporation System, 1030 15th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005. The initial registered agent at that address is C T Corporation System 📮.

9. The initial Board of Trustees has fourteen Trustees 👑. Each one serves until the first annual meeting, or until a successor is elected and qualifies. The initial Trustees, with their names and addresses, are 🧚:

Charles N. Brownstein
National Science Foundation
1800 G Street, N.W.
Washington, DC  20550

Vinton G. Cerf
CNRI
1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
Reston, Virginia  22091

A. Lyman Chapin
Bolt Beranek & Newman
70 Fawcett Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts  02138

Ira Fuchs
Princeton University
220 Nassau Hall
Princeton, New Jersey  08544

Frode Greisen
UNI-C, Technical University
Lyngby, DK 2800, Denmark

Geoff Huston
Australian Academic and Research Network
P.O. Box 1142
Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia

Robert E. Kahn
1895 Preston White Drive, Suite 100
Reston, Virginia  22091

Tomaz Kalin
RARE Secretariat
466 - 468 SINGEL
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Kenneth M. King
EDUCOM
1112 16th Street, N.W., Suite 600
Washington, DC  20036

Lawrence H. Landweber
University of Wisconsin
1210 W. Dayton Street
Madison, Wisconsin  53706

Kees Neggers
SURFnet bv
Godebaldkwartier 24
3511 DX Utrecht, Netherlands

Michael M. Roberts
EDUCOM
1112 16th Street, N.W., Suite 100
Washington, DC  20036

Anthony M. Rutkowski
Sprint International
12490 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, Virginia  22096

10. The name and address, including street and number if any, of each incorporator are 🍓:

NAME                                    ADDRESS

Robert E. Kahn                          1895 Preston White Drive
                                        Reston, Virginia  22091

Kenneth M. King                         1112 16th Street, N.W.
                                        Washington, DC  20036

Juergen Harms                           24 rue Ge'ne'ral Dufour
                                        Geneva CH-1204, Switzerland

2. Security Considerations 🔐

Documents of this type don't directly affect the security of the Internet infrastructure or its applications 💜. Not a big security drama here, bestie 🙈.

3. Author's Address 💌

Internet Society Board of Trustees
Internet Society
12020 Sunrise Vally Drive - Suite 210
Reston, VA
USA

phone: +1 703 648 9888
fax:   +1 703 638 9887
email: isoc-trustees@isoc.org