Minutes 166th Executive Board Meeting

21 April 2023, 10:00-11:00 (UTC+2), virtual


Author:	Fergal Cunningham
Date:	2023/04/21
Status:	Final

Attendees:

Piotr Strzyżewski (PS), Secretary
Job Snijders (JS), Member
Remco van Mook (RvM), Member
Christian Kaufmann (CK), Member
Raymond Jetten (RJ), Treasurer
Ondřej Filip (OF), Chair
Mirjam Kühne (MK), RIPE Chair
Fergal Cunningham (FC), Head of Membership Engagement, RIPE NCC
Athina Fragkouli (AF), Chief Legal Officer, RIPE NCC
Simon-Jan Haytink (SJH), Chief Finance Officer, RIPE NCC
Hans Petter Holen (HPH), Managing Director, RIPE NCC
Hisham Ibrahim (HI), Chief Community Officer, RIPE NCC
Felipe Victolla Silveira (FVS), Chief Operations Officer, RIPE NCC

Apologies:

Maria Häll (MH), Member

1. Welcome and agenda

The Chair opened the meeting at 10:00 and welcomed everyone.

1.1 Apologies, new agenda points

The Chair noted all members of the RIPE NCC Executive Board (the Board) were present apart from Maria who sent apologies. There was a quorum available to carry out the meeting.

1.2 Conflict of Interest

None of the Board members noted a conflict of interest regarding the topic on the agenda.

2. Charging Schemes 2024

This discussion is a follow up of the consultation with the membership on the RIPE NCC Charging Scheme model that will be used in 2024. Draft models have been put forward and the members were invited to share their feedback on the members-discuss mailing list and during the RIPE NCC Open House. At the previous EB#165meeting, the Board discussed the different models and the feedback received so far and asked Simon-Jan to make further calculations of the different models before a decision could be made on which model(s) would be submitted to the General Meeting in May 2023.

Simon-Jan gave a presentation on potential models, highlighting the feedback that had been received from the membership so far. Hans Petter noted that he would present at the upcoming General Meeting on the RIPE NCC’s budget development to address the comments on this matter raised by the members.

The Board felt that the updated category model presented was the best option for the RIPE NCC to apply for coming years, with adjustments to address some valid concerns raised by members, but it also considered the need to provide members with a good choice given the divergent views that had been put forward. Therefore, the Board decided that the members should vote on the following charging scheme models:

Model A: A category-based model
Model B: A continuation of the “one LIR, one fee” model with a 10% price increase from the 2023 charging scheme
Model C: A continuation of the “one LIR, one fee” model with a 5% price increase from the 2023 charging scheme
Model D: A continuation of the “one LIR, one fee” model that is exactly the same as the 2023 charging scheme

The Board also agreed that it would be best to separate the vote on charging scheme models from votes on separate charges for ASNs and transfer requests. Therefore, in addition to the vote on the charging scheme models, there would be separate votes that would allow members to decide if there should be an extra charge for ASNs and for transfer requests.

The details of the final proposed charging schemes that members will vote on at the General Meeting in May will be published on 26 April 2023.

Finally, the Board expressed concerns that if Model A is presented, this may encourage a rush to submit new applications to the IPv4 waiting list. Therefore, it was decided to freeze the waiting list for new applications until a full analysis is carried out of how the waiting list might be best accommodated in a category-based charging scheme model and discussion can be had with the RIPE community about this issue. Members who are already on the waiting list will be processed as normal.

Resolution EB#166-R-01
The RIPE NCC Executive Board approves the publication of the RIPE NCC Charging Schemes 2024 and tasks the RIPE NCC to prepare the documents for the RIPE NCC General Meeting in May 2023.