Preamble

The purpose of the Uganda Internet Exchange Point (UIXP) shall be to encourage the exchange of Internet traffic in a free-market environment, between all interested parties. By locating an Internet exchange in Kampala, near the majority of Uganda's Internet Service Providers and large Internet users, competition will be spurred, consumer prices will drop, operational costs will be reduced, reliability and redundancy will be improved, and a vast amount of new local Internet bandwidth will be created for sale to consumers.

The UIXP has been unanimously recognized to be in the beneficial interest of all stakeholders. In the wake of meetings on August 12 and 13, 2002, unanimous consensus has also been reached among the ISPs who will be the initial parties to the IX, on all points of technology, policy, and finance necessary to begin immediate operation of the IX. Furthermore, three ISPs who already own their own fiber to the IX location have committed to have their traffic flowing across the IX on or before the 31st of August.

To wit:

The UIXP shall be legally constituted as a neutral and independent organization, a not-for-profit corporation governed by an unremunerated board of three, elected annually by the members of the UIXP. The members shall have the right to attempt to recall a member of the board mid-year by a 51% vote of no-confidence if 75% of the members agree that such a vote is necessary. In all voting, each member present shall cast one equally-weighted vote, and the members shall be defined as each of the organizations which directly connect to the exchange. All votes shall be cast in real-time, in person or by telepresence, at the annual or properly-noticed interim meeting of the UIXP membership. All members' votes, as well as all business of the meeting, shall be recorded in minutes, which shall be made publicly available on the UIXP web site. Any individual can be nominated or self-nominate for election to the board, with the caveat that the board members are individually and jointly responsible for the labor of maintaining the exchange. That is, no one should volunteer to stand for election to the board if they are unwilling to perform at least a third of the small amount of work necessary to keep the exchange operating, and to do so without compensation of any kind.

The membership should, in considering how to cast their votes for board members, carefully evaluate the technical and business competence, as well as the energy and spirit of volunteerism, of the candidates. Board members shall act upon their own personal and individual authority, and shall not be representatives of any employer, UIXP member organization, or other party. Board members shall attempt to govern the IX in accordance with technical and policy best-practices generally accepted within the global community of IX operators as represented by AfIX-TF, APOPS, Euro-IX, and similar associations.

General UIXP technical, business, and operational policies shall be made publicly available on the UIXP web site.

The UIXP shall never impose a mandatory fee upon any member, nor shall it bill any such fee on behalf of another party. Furthermore, no monies shall ever flow between members through the UIXP corporation. Any costs (currently foreseen to include only property insurance and electricity) shall be met through the voluntary donations of any party, whether member or non-member, and donating parties shall be encouraged to donate according to their means, but not in excess of the UIXP's present need. The UIXP board shall endeavor to operate the exchange in a manner which insures a fairness of the value to each member.

The UIXP shall not endeavor to act as a go-between, point of aggregation, or distributor of regulatory or licensing burden among its members