Minutes 87th Executive Board Meeting

Minutes of the 87th RIPE NCC Executive Board meeting, 26 March 2013

RIPE NCC Offices Amsterdam, 1300-1700

Author: Paul Rendek
Date: 2013/03/26
Status: Final
Maintainer: Sabine Mader

Attendees:

• Fahad AlShirawi, Member
• Dmitry Burkov, ICANN Liaison
• Christian Kaufmann, Secretary
• Nigel Titley, Chairman
• Remco Van Mook, Treasurer
• János Zsakó, Adviser
• Rob Blokzijl, RIPE Chairman, RIPE
• Sabine Mader, Assistant to the Managing Director, RIPE NCC
• Axel Pawlik, Managing Director, RIPE NCC
• Paul Rendek, Director of External Relations, RIPE NCC
• Jochem de Ruig, Chief Financial Officer, RIPE NCC

Agenda

0. Lunch (1200-1300)

1. Agenda / Comments (1300-1315)

1.1 Apologies, New Agenda Points

1.2 Approval of Previous Minutes, EB#86

1.3 Date of Next Meetings

• 3 & 15 May during RIPE-66, Dublin, informal meetings
• 25 June 2013, RIPE NCC offices, Amsterdam
• September 2012, date tbd, RIPE NCC offices, Amsterdam
• 14 & 16 October 2012, during RIPE-67, Athens
• December 2012, tbd

1.4 Conference Attendance by Executive Board until Dec 2013 (1315-1320)

2. Remaining Outstanding Actions, not covered by agenda (1320-1330)

3. Report from the RIPE NCC (1330-1430)

3.1 Financial Report

3.1.1 Clearinghouse Update

3.1.2 Treasury Update Q1/ 2013

3.2 Legal

3.2.1 Court Verdict

3.3 Services

3.4 Other

3.4.1 IT Support

3.4.2 Arbitration Process

4. Approval of Annual and Financial Reports (1430-1530)

4.1 Review Auditors' Management Letter 2012

4.2 Draft RIPE NCC Financial Report 2012

4.3 Draft RIPE NCC Annual Report 2012

5. Preparation General Meeting May 2013 (1530-1600)

5.1 Draft Agenda & Draft Resolutions

5.2 Candidates

Timeline:

• 17 April - Publish RIPE NCC Annual Report (incl. Financial Report) 2012
• 24 April - Close nominations for Executive Board elections
• 1 May - Deadline for proxy vote nominations, members to propose resolutions and publication of final GM Agenda
• 14 May - Close registration for electronic voting
• 15 May - RIPE NCC General Meeting May 2013 begins with main meeting
• 16 May - RIPE NCC General Meeting May 2013 ends with vote announcement

6. External Relations (1600-1645)

6.1 ICANN / IANA

6.2 NRO / RIRs

6.3 ITU

6.4 RIPE

6.5 IETF

7. AOB (1645-1700)

Nigel Titley, RIPE NCC Chairman, opened the meeting at 13:30

0. Lunch

1. Agenda / Comments

1.1 Apologies, New Agenda Points

No apologies were received. All Board members were present.

Nigel asked the Board members if they had any additional agenda items to add. No new agenda items were brought forward.

Remco was feeling ill and asked if the Board could cover agenda points earlier that related to his function as Treasurer so that he could excuse himself. The Board agreed and Nigel asked to first cover agenda points 3.1 and 4 directly after agenda point 1.4

1.2 Approval of Previous Minutes, EB#86

No comment was brought forward on the previous minutes; the Board approved the minutes of Executive Board Meeting #86.

1.3 Date of Next Meetings

The dates of the subsequent meetings are as follows:

• 12 & 15 May during RIPE-66, Dublin, informal meetings
• 12 May 2013 at 18:00
• 15 May 2013 at 12:30-13:30
• 17 May 2013 from 14:00-16:00 (informal meeting with APNIC board members)
• 25 June 2013, RIPE NCC offices, Amsterdam
• 2 September 2012, RIPE NCC offices, Amsterdam
• 14 & 16 October 2012, during RIPE-67, Athens
• December 2012, tbd

1.4 Conference Attendance by Executive Board until Dec 2013

Nigel asked for the Board to return their conference attendance to Sam no later than Friday, 29 March 2013.

Paul asked that a short review of their attendance be made once submissions were received to make sure there was appropriate coverage for events relevant to the Board and that not too many Board members were committed to any one event. The Board agreed to this approach.

2. Remaining Outstanding Actions, not covered by agenda

a) Completed

EB247 29/11/2012 AP

The Board asked the RIPE NCC to check its members' list once a year against the current list of sanctioned entities, and to take the appropriate actions.

Status 26/03/2013: Done: check-info standards were incorporated into operating procedures

EB248 29/11/2012 AP

The Board asked Axel to produce a more detailed plan including timeframes and expenditure for Phase 1 of the RIPE NCC Resiliency Plan in time for the next Board meeting.

Status 26/03/2013: Done

EB249 29/11/2012 AP

The Board asked Axel to draft a message for Nigel to send to the RIPE NCC membership for comment, outlining a proposed way forward for the certification of PI Address Space.

Status 26/03/2013: Done

EB250 29/11/2012 AP

The Board asked Axel to provide a more detailed breakdown of the 12.5 FTEs that provide IT support services at the RIPE NCC.

Status 26/03/2013: Done

EB251 29/11/2012 AP

The Board asked Axel to re-draft the Arbiters process proposal to include the changes agreed by the Board and circulate it to the Board for final approval.

Status 26/03/2013: Done

b) Ongoing

EB235 08/12/2011 RM & CK

Remco and Christian agreed to closely cooperate with Daniel to prepare future project plans for RIPE ATLAS.

Status 8/03/2012: ONGOING, a meeting has been held. Deliverables are expected.

Status 14/06/2012: ONGOING, Remco and Christian will review the information provided by the RIPE NCC and suggest a way of moving forward.

Status 02/08/2012: ONGOING

Status 29/11/2012: ONGOING – Remco and Christian agreed to contact Daniel to coordinate a meeting.

Status 26/03/2013: ONGOING – The Meeting has taken place and two services are identified, using measurement services to support an accurate registry.

EB246 08/03/2012 AP

RIPE NCC will hand over the secretariat support for the financial accounts of MENOG by July 2012. The RIPE NCC will coordinate this with the MENOG Chairman.

Status 14/06/2012: ONGOING, expected to meet the target deadline.

Status 02/08/2012: The RIPE NCC is awaiting the MENOG Chairman's signature. IN PROGRESS

Status 29/11/2012: IN PROGRESS - Paul and Fahad to speak to Osama and suggest a way forward for the MENOG accounts. The Board asked for a proposal by the MENOG 12 Meeting.

Status 26/03/2013: ONGOING – A meeting has taken place between Nigel, Axel and Osama and further action will be taken once an MoU is signed.

3. Report from the RIPE NCC

Axel reported that in addition to his regular reporting that largely covers external activities and impacts on the RIPE NCC that he would place more focus on internal services in his reports to the Board.

Axel reported on the Resiliency Plan document that was published for Board review. The Board discussed the progress and thanked Axel for the further detail on different ways forward to secure the resiliency they expect for RIPE NCC services. After discussion, the Board approved the proposed way forward for phase 1. The Board tasked Axel to report back to the Board regarding progress.

The Board examined the continuation of the DB Proxy service. The liabilities of providing this service were discussed. One of the main points brought forward was that it was necessary for the RIPE NCC to adhere to EU privacy laws on personal data. Jochem stated that this aspect would be covered by a contract. It was agreed that, based on the discussions to date, the service should be continued free of charge under a formal contract with the users of the service. It was noted that the feedback cut-off date for this discussion is set for 15 April 2013.

ACTION: The Board asked Axel to prepare a DB Proxy Service contract for their review and approval.

3.1 Financial Report

Jochem provided a short overview of the Financial Report. No questions were raised.

3.1.1 Clearinghouse Update

Jochem gave an update of the advice received from the Clearing House review by the tax attorneys. He reported that the maximum financial reserves in the Clearinghouse should be reviewed as the tax attorneys thought this was too high.

The Board discussed what financial reserves requirements were needed if a scenario to cease RIPE NCC operations ever became a reality. Dmitry brought forward the model that was used for ICANN's AGB contingency requirements and asked that the RIPE NCC investigate this model. The Board agreed on this approach.

ACTION: The Board asked Axel to investigate ICANN contingency plans and to incorporate the relevant aspects into the reply letter to the tax authorities. The Board asked Axel to liaise with Remco for the final approval of the text.

3.1.2 Treasury Update Q1/ 2013

Remco and Jochem summarised the Treasury report. Jochem informed the Board that two extra government bond portfolios had been investigated and purchased. This would increase the reserves in bonds to roughly 8 million EUR.

The Board was pleased with the Treasury report and no further comment was made.

3.2 Legal

3.2.1 Court Verdict

Jochem provided the Board with a summary of the court verdict reached on the RIPE NCC court case against the Dutch Police. He reported that the case was dismissed from court. He stated that after review the RIPE NCC lawyers do not recommend to file for an appeal.

Jochem reported that this case has prompted the RIPE NCC to complete the documentation of its procedures on how orders are dealt with in the future. This is now part of the RIPE NCC corporate governance documents that have been made publicly available.

The Board agreed that it will not pursue an appeal and will fully inform the GM on the outcome of the court case at the upcoming GM meeting in May.

3.3 Services

There was focused discussion on all feedback recently received about RIPE NCC services on the Services WG mailing list but also from the RIPE NCC Member and Stakeholder Survey focus group meetings held by independent consultants in preparation for the actual survey. In particular, the Board discussed the way forward with development of RPKI.

After discussions the Board agreed that the RIPE NCC should continue implementation to completion, however that the RIPE NCC would not issue certificates for PI space as part of the current service. They suggest that if the RIPE community wants to include PI space in the service that a policy proposal be submitted following the RIPE PDP process.

ACTION: The Board asked Axel to prepare a message for the RIPE NCC services WG list to explain the Board decision on future development of RPKI. It was agreed that Nigel would send the message.

3.4 Other

3.4.1 IT Support

The Board reviewed the IT support resources deployed at the RIPE NCC.

It was pointed out that IT supports both internal and external facing services. The Board thanked Jochem for the update.

ACTION: The Board asked Axel to report on the progress of improving efficiency and integration of (legacy) systems at the upcoming Board meeting in June.

3.4.2 Arbitration Process

Based on recommended amendments brought forward for the Arbitration process, the Board discussed the way forward. The Board concluded that the proposed changes and the draft Arbitration procedure be shared with the Arbitration panel for their review.

ACTION: The Board tasked Axel to publish the amendments of the Arbitration Procedure document ripe-502 to the Arbitration Panel for their review. The Board will discuss this further after the Arbitration Panel has concluded its review.

4. Approval of Annual and Financial Reports

4.1 Review Auditors' Management Letter 2012

The Board reviewed the Auditors' report. The Board discussed the access to systems in the RIPE NCC. This was pointed out in the Auditors' report but was mainly concentrating on financial systems and Human Resource files.

ACTION: The Board requested that Axel report back after the Interim audit Q3/Q4 2013 based on the action points raised by the Auditors in the 2012 management letter.

4.2 Draft RIPE NCC Financial Report 2012

Nigel asked if there was any comment to the RIPE NCC Financial Report 2012. No comment was brought forward. The RIPE NCC Board formally approved the Financial Report 2012.

4.3 Draft RIPE NCC Annual Report 2012

After a short review the Board suggested to draft the outstanding text and complete a review by 5 April 2013. The RIPE NCC will publish the Annual report by 17 April 2013 as required.

5. Preparation General Meeting May 2013

The Board discussed the preparations for the GM May 2013.

Nigel asked a member of the Board to volunteer to run the elections for the RIPE NCC Board as his seat on the Board is due to expire. Fahad agreed to chair the election process at the upcoming General Meeting.

ACTION: The Board asked Axel to propose a Charging Scheme for the upcoming General Meeting with a fixed fee as well as the EUR 50 charge for PI space.

Following the Board workshop with RIPE NCC Senior Management staff that took place before the Board Meeting, Nigel asked for Board members to assign themselves to the briefing workshop topics. A Board member was assigned to liaise with a Senior Management staff member on a particular aspect of RIPE NCC business. He thanked them for their commitment to the topics.

The Board discussed recent mails brought forward on the Services WG mailing list. It was agreed that the Board presentation at the upcoming RIPE NCC General Meeting would address the proposals brought forward on the list.

5.1 Draft Agenda & Draft Resolutions

The Board reviewed the draft agenda & resolutions for the upcoming RIPE NCC General Meeting in May. Apart from adding a resolution determining the Charging Scheme 2014, no further changes were proposed to the agenda.

5.2 Candidates

Timeline:

• 17 April - Publish RIPE NCC Annual Report (incl. Financial Report) 2012
• 24 April - Close nominations for Executive Board elections
• 1 May - Deadline for proxy vote nominations, members to propose resolutions and publication of final GM Agenda
• 14 May - Close registration for electronic voting
• 15 May - RIPE NCC General Meeting May 2013 begins with main meeting
• 16 May - RIPE NCC General Meeting May 2013 ends with vote announcement

After review of the timeline, Nigel mentioned that one more candidate was needed to fulfil the required amount of candidates for the Board elections. He reminded the Board that if no candidates were brought forward the Board would be obliged to find a candidate to stand for election.

6. External Relations

6.1 ICANN / IANA

Axel updated the Board on the upcoming ICANN meeting in Beijing. The RIRs will be meeting the ICANN Board at the upcoming meeting. Both Fahad and Dmitry are scheduled to be present at the ICANN meeting and will attend the meeting with the ICANN Board.

The Board discussed the regional strategy meetings that have been held by ICANN. It was agreed to monitor this process and report back to the RIPE community and RIPE NCC members as appropriate.

ACTION: The Board asked Axel to approach ICANN and ask whether they will be distributing the IANA function throughout the planned regional offices.

6.2 NRO / RIRs

Axel provided an update on RIR coordinated activities. No further questions were raised.

6.3 ITU

After a brief update, Axel reported that the RIPE NCC together with the other RIRs would continue to monitor and participate in relevant ITU meetings.

6.4 RIPE

Rob provided an update on the RIPE 66 meeting preparations. He reported that the agenda was almost complete and that 240 participants were registered to date.

6.5 IETF

Rob raised the existence of an Internet Draft that was published by Russ Housley and intended to replace RFC 2050. He encouraged the Board to review the Internet Draft and comment as appropriate. The Board thanked Rob for this update.

7. AOB

ACTION: The Board asked Axel to send the Board the un-aggregated response figures of the 2012 RIPE NCC staff survey.

Outstanding Action Items:

EB235 08/12/2011 RM & CK

Remco and Christian agreed to closely cooperate with Daniel to prepare future project plans for RIPE ATLAS.

Status 8/03/2012: ONGOING, a meeting has been held. Deliverables are expected.

Status 14/06/2012: ONGOING, Remco and Christian will review the information provided by the RIPE NCC and suggest a way of moving forward.

Status 02/08/2012: ONGOING

Status 29/11/2012: ONGOING – Remco and Christian agreed to contact Daniel to coordinate a meeting.

Status 26/03/2013: ONGOING

EB246 08/03/2012 AP

RIPE NCC will hand over the secretariat support for the financial accounts of MENOG by July 2012. The RIPE NCC will coordinate this with the MENOG Chairman.

Status 14/06/2012: ONGOING, expected to meet the target deadline.

Status 02/08/2012: The RIPE NCC is awaiting the MENOG Chairman's signature. IN PROGRESS

Status 29/11/2012: IN PROGRESS - Paul and Fahad to speak to Osama and suggest a way forward for the MENOG accounts. The Board asked for a proposal by the MENOG 12 Meeting.

Status 26/03/2013: ONGOING

New Action Items:

EB247 26/03/2013 AP

The Board asked Axel to prepare a DB Proxy Service contract for their review and approval.

EB248 26/03/2013 AP

The Board asked Axel to investigate ICANN contingency plans and to incorporate the relevant aspects into the reply letter to the tax authorities. The Board asked Axel to liaise with Remco for the final approval of the text.

EB249 26/03/2013 AP

The Board asked Axel to prepare a message for the RIPE NCC services WG list to explain the Board decision on future development of RPKI. It was agreed that Nigel would send the message.

EB250 26/03/2013 AP

The Board asked Axel to report on the progress of improving efficiency and integration of (legacy) systems at the upcoming Board meeting in June.

EB251 26/03/2013 AP

The Board tasked Axel to publish the amendments to the Arbitration Panel for their review. The Board will discuss this further after the Arbitration Panel has concluded its review.

EB252 26/03/2013 AP

The Board requested that Axel report back after the Interim audit Q3/Q4 2013 based on the action points raised by the Auditors in the 2012 management letter.

EB253 26/03/2013 AP

The Board asked Axel to propose a Charging Scheme for the upcoming General Meeting with a fixed fee as well as the EUR 50 charge for PI space.

EB254 26/03/2013 AP

The Board asked Axel to approach ICANN and ask whether they will be distributing the IANA function throughout the planned regional offices.

EB255 26/03/2013 AP

The Board asked Axel to send the Board the un-aggregated response figures of the 2012 RIPE NCC staff survey.