Minutes 4th Executive Board Meeting

Version: 0.2

Present:
Keith Mitchell, Chairman (KM)
Wilfried Woeber (WW)
Wim Vink (WV)
Frode Greisen (FG)
Kees Neggers (KN)
Daniel Karrenberg (DK)
Rob Blokzijl (RB) only present during discussing item 4
Frederike Ritzema (FR)

1. Agenda
The agenda was agreed as follows:

1. Agenda
2. Approval of minutes of last meeting held 3/3/98
3. Outstanding actions
4. Internet Governance Issues
5. Internal Restructuring
6. Finances
7. Operational reports
8. Presentation of Board on Web page
9. Remuneration of General Manager
10. Any Other Business

2. Approval of minutes of last meeting held 3/3/98
The minutes and were approved.

3. Outstanding actions
A-EB01: Ongoing. DK mentioned that he will first have to make a
a formal year 2000/millennium plan, before the board liability insurance can be effected. The insurance costs have been estimated to be about 5000 ECU a year.
New action A-EB12/DK: to make a millennium plan.
A-EB02: Done
A-EB03: Done
A-EB04: Done
A-EB05: Ongoing
A-EB06: Done, see the new action A-EB15
A-EB07: Done, DK: to remind Board to choose a few dates for
meeting with ARIN Board.
A-EB08: Open
A-EB09: Ongoing, KM will forward a copy when it is ready.
A-EB10: Done
A-EB11: Done


3.1. Date of next meeting
Next meeting: to be held in Amsterdam, 7 September 1998, 13:00
start.

3.2. Annual General Meeting (AGM)
AGM: to be held in Amsterdam 15 October 1998.

Continuing the practise of the RIPE NCC contributors meetings, the Board decided to call AGM's ones a year in October such that
the activity plans and fees for the coming year can be properly  discussed. The financial results will be published to the memberships early
in the year and formally discussed at the AGM.

A-EB13/DK: to prepare the agenda, including a motion to formally
postpone the 1999 AGM until after October 1999. To call the AGM
on behalf of the Board.


4. Internet Governance Issues

4.1. Cooperation with other RIR

ARIN
DK reported that the delegation of ARIN, including ARIN president, attended the RIPE meeting and visited RIPE NCC afterwards. All issues of cooperation between ARIN and RIPE NCC were discussed. ARIN staff were able to observe RIPE NCC operations and procedures. ARIN expressed concern about RIPE NCC policies concerning initial allocation of address space to new LIR's. DK has noted the concern and explained the policy setting process in the RIPE LIR working group to the ARIN delegation. He explained the reason for the rational of the particular policies, especially the need for the RIPE NCC to avoid restricting access to Registration Services.

A-EB14/Board: The Board is asked to establish working relationship and take up policy issues with the ARIN Board. The Board is asked to explore possibilities of the RIPE NCC getting access to the proceedings of the ARIN advisory council for informational
purposes.

APNIC
DK reports on developments within APNIC and noted that relations on the working level are excellent. The Board is asked to establish regular contact with the APNIC Board.

GAR

KM and DK report on discussions about formalisation of regional registries cooperation and coordination with ARIN Board during Los Angela's IETF conference. This is generally referred to as GAR (Global Address Registries). De board wishes to concentrate on whois database and conflict resolution procedures initially. The Board recognises that the coordination activities are such that they need to be intensified and may need to be formalised. Care should be taken that such formalisation is not regarded as antagonistic to other Internet governance activities, especially establishment for a formal structure of IANA. The Board wishes to hold a teleconference about governance issues once the US government publishes their white paper on Internet governance.

A-EB15/DK: to organise the telephone conference on the governance issues after receiving the white paper on Internet governance.

The Board wishes to meet with Board members of other RIR's during the INET conference in Geneva.

A-EB16/KM: to organise a meeting with Board members of other RIR's  during the INET conference in Geneva on the 22th of July.


4.2. IANA Developments
DK reports that no significant process has occurred since the last meeting and that further process is expected after the publication of the US government white paper. DK reminds the Board that an initial IANA Board member representing our RIR will need to be designated.


4.3. Russian Regional Registry
RB and DK report that since last Board meeting, there were no positive developments on the proposed Russian Regional Registry as expected. RB informed the RIPE meeting that these plans would not be pursued further. Publishing a RIPE document about this development was deemed unnecessary. RB, RIPE NCC and ROSNIIROS representatives have met during the RIPE meeting and agreed on further steps to deal with those LIR's served by ROSNIIROS. The first step will be to document current practices thoroughly. RB
and DK will pursue this further.


5. Internal Restructuring
DK reported on the progress of the implementation of internal
restructuring, (see http://www.ripe.net/info/ncc/people.html). The
implementation is going smoothly. Current key vacancies are
Controller, PR Group Leader and Quality Manager. DK expects to hire
the Controller this month.
The restructuring has progressed well and has met with good expectance
from the staff. KM expressed the concern that the top management structure would not free DK enough of day to day management in order to concentrate on strategy and new activities. DK replies that he wants to review this once the Controller is in function and expects enough relief. DK will inform the board as soon as it becomes clear to him that the business side of his load is not sufficiently reduced by the new controller.DK also notes that the Controller's job is not a one to one replacement of the formal Business Manager position, a number of the former business manager's tasks are taken up by other people now.


6. Finances
EB(98)15
Due to the large payroll it is expected that some salary related payments will exceed the payment authorisation limit
of DK (100 kECU). It was agreed to raise the payment authorisation for payroll related expenses to 200kECU. Separate procedures for capital expenditure need to be developed. WV also asks that the payment procedures require authorisation of two managers for each payment.


A-EB17/DK: To define new payment authorisations and inform the board.


6.1. 1997 Results
RIPE NCC has provided the income and expenditures 1997 figures for Terena's 1997 report and the auditors have checked these. The auditors expect no unforeseen fiscal issues. As far as company tax about previous years goes we have to wait for the audit of the tax authorities.

6.2. Financial Reports
DK reported on the current financial state of the NCC. Personnel expenditures are lower than budgeted because of the unforeseen
restructuring and the slowing down of hiring that resulted. DK currently estimates to spend 1.4 MECU on staff while 1.9 MECU is bdugeted. The annual payroll cost of all staff employed in December 1998 is estimated at approximately 2MECU.
Responding to the question why the is a big difference in the actual and budgeted staff training, DK explained that much staff training was postponed during the restructuring and that the uptake of training was lower than expected in general.

WV noted that there are no provisions made for the bad debts  in the current P&L account. DK responded that he currently cannot make a reasonably accurate
estimate of bad debts. He is working to implement sufficient procedures
for accounts payable such that outstanding debts are collected in a more timely fashin and a reasonably accurate appraisal of the collectibility of debts can be made. DK realises that this is a problem area and will give it his special attention. The NCC has already stopped providing service to some members with multiple long-overdue invoices with encouraging results.

Suggestions from the Board were:

- to send first polite reminders
- second stop providing services
- next step is to stop in-addr delegation
- and fourth to take legal actions;

A-EB18/DK: to define and implement accounts receiveable procedures


7. Operational reports

7.1. Test Traffic Measurements / Status report A BOF was held at the RIPE meeting in Stockholm with the main subject
being the data disclosure policy.
14 test boxes have been sent out. 6 are operating and the others are coming on line. By the next meeting 20 will be operating. First publishable results are expected by the time of the next  RIPE first results. General response is very positive. Before the end of this year the number of staff working on this project will also be increased.

7.2. RIPE CENTR / Status report
During the last RIPE meeting it was discussed that there should be a collection for the RIPE CENTR funds and who should be doing the work. It turned out that they want funds collected by a third party. The first decision was to let Switch maintain it. The second  decision was that if there were tax complications, RIPE should do it. The final decision was that Switch should maintain the financial part.  DK is discussing a service contract with Switch and the CENTR policy group headed by Boudewijn Nederkoorn.

RIPE CENTR should get a separate legal status as soon as possible. The planning is to make CENTR independent in 1999. At the moment a committee is investigating this issue. There is more than enough fund for RIPE CENTR at the moment.


8. Publicity/ presentation of Board on Web page Decided is to place a short biography of each Board member on the Web site. This information will not be linked to other Web sites.

A-EB19/Board: to provide FR a short biography that can be placed
on the RIPE Web site.


9. Remuneration of General Manager
A-EB05/Board: The remuneration committee has decided to
offer a new contract to DK. It is expected to conclude
negotiations within two weeks.


10. Any Other Business
* Chamber of Commerce
Carol Orange and Paul Ridley have been taken off the list of
peoiple with power of attorney. Mirjam Kuehne and
John Crain will be given power of attorney to represent
the association when acting together.


* Statutorial Director
WV suggests to investigate whether DK should become a statutorial director.

A-EB20/DK: to list the advantages and disadvantages of having a
Statuorial Director.

* Meeting documents by regular and e-mail
Board members are requested to indicate to FR whether they require
a paper copy of meeting materials sent to them.


* AGM meeting
A-EB21/DK: to give a status report to the AGM at the meeting.