Statutes

This text is a translation (partially automated) of the statutes (in french), it hasn't any form of legal value, only an informational value.

Article 1
Association Name

It is founded between the members of the present statutes an association, governed by the law of 1st July 1901, whose name is : Fédération des fournisseurs d’accès à Internet associatifs also known as « Fédération FDN ».

Article 2
Head office location

The head office is located at :

16, rue de Cachy
80090 Amiens

 

It may be transferred to any other address, in France, by formal vote of the Assembly of Volunteers.

Article 3
Purpose

The association's purposes are :
  • to encourage the emergence and development of non-profit, associative Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with an ethical and civic-minded approach;
  • to help its members, and more generally any operator with aims close to those of the federation, by sharing knowledge, know-how, technical information, and more generally by any means compatible with the statutes and the Charter;
  • to assure the promotion and defense of the Internet in accordance with its ethics and as defined in the charter respected by its members ; and in particular the Net-Neutrality, its openness, and freedom of expression online;
  • to represent its members, including in court if necessary, to defend the objectives defined in the charter, its own objectives, or those defined by the statutes of internet provider members;
  • to inform the authorities and the general public about what the Internet is, how it works and what is at stake in its development;
  • to assist any provider willing to become a member, in particular by encouraging current members to provide technical assistance, all or part of the logistics (in particular scarce resources such as Autonomous System numbers or IP addresses) and training necessary to allow the candidate provider to respect the Charter.

 

Article 4
Charter

A "Charter of Good Practices and Common Commitments" is established and respected by all ISP members.
 
This charter defines in particular :
  • a few elementary rules of internal democracy to be respected by all ISP members of of the Fédération FDN ;
  • rules, positive or negative, aimed at defining what Net neutrality is;
  • the commitments made by ISP members to the people to whom they provide Internet access.

 

Article 5
Rules of procedure 

The Federation has established rules of procedure which are binding on all members, in the same way as the statutes. These rules set out the rules for the day-to-day operation of the Federation, as well as certain elements specifically mentioned in the statutes.

Article 6
Members

The FDN Federation is composed of ISP members and volunteer members.

§1 ISP members

Are ISP members the Internet Service Providers who have applied for membership of the Fédération and have been approved by the Administration Council, in accordance with the membership procedure defined in the rules of procedure.

§2 Volunteer members

Volunteer members are those persons who make up the Volunteer Assembly or are designated as such by the Volunteer Assembly because of their significant contribution to the Federation.

§3 Loss of membership

Membership can be lost by: death (for a natural person) or dissolution (for a legal person), resignation, or exclusion, according to the modalities specified in the rules of procedure.

 

Article 7
Corresponding structures

 

Corresponding associations, companies, legal entities, which do not have a statutory vocation to be members of the Federation, but with which there is a common and reciprocal will of collaboration and exchange in order to satisfy the purpose of the Federation.
The terms of membership and loss of corresponding structure status are similar to those of member providers.

Article 8
Means of action

The Federation shall take any initiative, either on its own behalf or on behalf of its members, with any local, national, European, community or international authority, aimed at defending its object, the objectives defined in the charter, or the statutory objects of its members.
 
It shall have at its disposal all the means of action authorized by the laws and regulations and in particular :
  • all means of information and formation;
  • the carrying out of studies and analyses, made public, on behalf of public or private persons;
  • the contribution to the construction and application of sources of international or national law.

 

Article 9
Administration Council

§1 Role

 The Administration Council administers the Federation in the following areas of action:
  • validating the entry / exit of members
  • political issues (such as political positioning, participation in a petition, ...)
  • contracting on behalf of the Federation
  • taking any decision not specifically related to a group or to the Assembly of Volunteers
In case of need, the Administration Council can take legal action.
 

§2 Composition

Each ISP member designates two persons to be part of the Administration Council and thus carry its voice within the Federation. Reciprocally, the pair will keep their original ISP informed of what is happening within the Federation.
 
The ISP Member is free to change his pair at any time. The ISP Member may choose to keep the same pair for several years in a row, but must explicitly state this for each new fiscal year.
 
When the statutory reform introducing this notion of two representatives comes into effect, and in order to ensure the transition, two of the officers of each ISP member will be considered, by default, as the two representatives of the ISP Member.

§3 Discussion and decision-making procedures

The procedures for discussion and decision-making are specified in the rules of procedure.

§4 Legal responsibility

A group of 5 people is drawn from among the members of the Administration Council to carry the legal responsibility of the association.
 
They have the responsibility to warn in case of doubt about the legality of an action carried out by the association and have the possibility to resign from this group in case of disagreement with the choices of the rest of the Administration Council or if they do not wish to carry this responsibility.
 
The drawing of lots to designate these people takes place each year during the physical meeting of volunteers as provided for in Article 11.
 
If one or more people do not accept the role or resign and this causes the group to shrink to strictly under 3 people, a new draw is held to fill the vacant positions to complete the current year.
 
The Administration Council, the Volunteer Assembly and the working groups cannot make decisions until the minimum of 3 people in that group is reached.
 

Article 10
Volunteer Assembly

§1 Role

The Volunteer Assembly is responsible for the operational functioning of the Federation.
 
The Volunteer Assembly meets at least monthly to
  • monitor the progress of the working groups and ISPs
  • detect working groups or ISPs at risk
  • follow other current affairs
  • allow the working groups to obtain a wider opinion (and thus reinforce their legitimacy) concerning difficult decisions
  • maintain cohesion
 
To fulfill its mission, the volunteer assembly can
  • propose a vote to the Administration Council if it considers that it is a decision that requires its approval
  • appoint, recognize a new working group or dissolve one
  • decide on an exceptional meeting to deal with a specific subject
  • disavow the work of a working group
 

§2 Composition

The volunteer assembly is composed of volunteer members of the ISPs who have participated in at least one monthly meeting in the last 6 months as well as the working group members.
 
Outsiders may participate in the meetings but without decision-making rights.

§3 Discussion and decision-making procedures

The procedures for discussion and decision-making are specified in the rules of procedure.

 

Article 11
Physical meetings of volunteers

 

At least once a year, as far as possible, the members of the ISP members and correspondents, volunteers of the Fédération FDN, meet during a meeting at least partially physical. This meeting is a time of exchange between the working groups, each of them being able to take advantage of it to meet. The main purpose of this meeting is to create cohesion and maintain the human link between the people who do volunteer work for the Federation.
 
During these meetings, a meeting of the Assembly of Volunteers is organized (which implies the possibility of participating remotely for volunteers who could not make the trip). All those present at the physical meeting may choose to participate in this Assembly.
 
Outsiders may participate in the meetings but without decision-making rights. During this Assembly of volunteers, the moral and financial reports are written by the members present under the same modalities as a standard decision. These texts will be formally validated by the Administration Council in the following month. In case of refusal of the text by the Administration Council and if the two authorities do not manage to agree, there is no moral report.
 

Article 12
Working groups

§1 Composition

A working group is made up of volunteers and a person or a pair of "touillette" whose role is to facilitate the group.
 

§2 Role and operating mode

A working group aims to fulfill one or more operational missions. The Assembly of Volunteers decides on the validity of the role and the missions that the group gives itself.
 
The working groups are legitimate to make decisions concerning their fields of action provided that
  • the group communicates regularly at the monthly open meeting about the decisions the group is making and the work in progress. It must also listen to and take into account the feedback expressed
  • it offers at least one presentation session per year in order to allow volunteers from outside the group to gain a better understanding of the issues.
 
The assembly of volunteers can delegate to a working group the possibility of taking legal action in its field of activity, which it can then use without having to request explicit authorization for each action. However, any legal action must be reported promptly, for example at the next monthly meeting.

 

Article 13
Amendments to the charter and statutes

A modification of the statutes or the charter of the Federation can only take place during a physical meeting of volunteers (annual or exceptional), and this modification project must imperatively be announced and presented to the whole Federation at least one month before the said physical meeting. In the event that the physical meeting validates the modification of these founding documents of the federation, this decision must be ratified later by a vote of the Administration Council (a vote that cannot be accelerated).

Article 14
Amendments to the rules of procedure

Amendments to the statutes may be made at any time but require a dual decision by the Volunteer Assembly and the Administration Council.

Article 15
Dissolution

The dissolution of the Federation may be pronounced with the same modalities as for the modification of the statutes.
 
The property of the Federation shall then be distributed, upon decision of the Administration Council, either to the member suppliers or to any non-profit structure aiming at promoting freedom of expression, and by default to the League for Human Rights.