Minutes

Welcome, Preliminaries
Report from the RIPE NCC
Presentation of the RIPE NCC 2009 Financial Report
Adoption of the RIPE NCC 2009 Audited Financial Report
Discharge of the Executive Board
Financial Status Q1/2010 and Outlook
Report from the Executive Board
RIPE NCC Executive Board Elections
Discussion and Feedback on Revised RIPE NCC Election Process
Close

1. Welcome, Preliminaries
RIPE NCC Executive Board Chairman Nigel Titley welcomed attendees and opened the General Meeting (GM) at 18:00 (UTC +2). He went through the agenda and explained that there would be a strict timeline at the GM due to the RIPE NCC Executive Board elections having to take place from exactly 19:00 (UTC +2).

2. Report from the RIPE NCC
Axel Pawlik, Managing Director of the RIPE NCC, explained that the detailed Report from the RIPE NCC was presented in the RIPE NCC Services Working Group, which forms an integral part of the GM, and it would not be presented again at the members-only section of the GM.

The presentation is available.

3. Presentation of the RIPE NCC 2009 Financial Report
Jochem de Ruig, Chief Financial Officer of the RIPE NCC, gave a presentation on the Financial Report 2009.

The presentation is available.

A member remarked that plotting full-time equivalents at the RIPE NCC against the number of members does not give much information because some members do not generate much work for RIPE NCC staff while other, larger members generate a lot of work.
A member asked why there was an auditor's report for such a short financial report. He asked if there was a more detailed financial report available.
Jochem said that the version presented was the full Financial Report 2009.
The member said he was surprised it was so brief. He asked what the notes mentioned in the auditor's report referred to.
Jochem said that these were the Notes to the RIPE NCC Statement of Income and Expenditure 2009 and the Notes to the RIPE NCC Balance Sheet 31 December 2009 contained in the Financial Report 2009.
A member said that some of the items listed under general operating expenses in the report, such as ICANN and external relations and consultancy including legal fees, were incorrectly categorised because they are not very general. He pointed out that more detail would be useful. He gave the example that the figures showed a drop in legal expenses from 2008 to 2009, but the report showed the general operating expenses as being flat across the period mentioned.
The member asked whether the expense for travel listed in general operating expenses related to other expenses stated in the Financial Report 2009, including travel for RIPE Meetings.
Jochem said that the expenses listed for RIPE Meetings included the cost of RIPE NCC staff travelling to them.
Jochem asked the member to confirm that he was looking for more detail on the expense items, and the member said that this was the case.
The member asked what sort of depreciation scheme for software development was in effect at the RIPE NCC.
Jochem said there was a three-year linear depreciation scheme for software development in effect.
The member said depreciation should reflect the economic lifetime of the software and suggested a longer depreciation time.
Jochem agreed that this should be so but that it was very difficult to determine how long the lifetime of software would be.
Executive Board member Fahad AlShirawi said the standard was for a software asset to have aggressive depreciation to allow for potential technological changes. He added that auditors do not like depreciation on intangible assets for ten-year periods.
The member said the auditor's report looks at the statement according to the standards set in the financial report itself.
Fahad responded that it was part of the auditor's mandate to argue for aggressive depreciation on software and no auditor would sanction a long period of depreciation on such items.
The member said, looking at the cash flow figures for personnel costs and expenses, there was a gap of around 360 kEUR, and he wanted to know if this was accounted for by software development.
Jochem said he would have to look at the figures in more detail if he was to address this and he said he would respond to questions relating to the financial details after the GM. The member agreed that this was acceptable.

4. Adoption of the RIPE NCC 2009 Audited Financial Report (18:25)
The RIPE NCC 2009 Audited Financial Report is contained in the RIPE NCC Annual Report 2009.

The formal resolution:
"The General Meeting adopts the 2009 Financial Report of the RIPE NCC."

The Chairman read the resolution and asked for a vote by acclamation. The resolution was passed and there was one abstention noted by the Chairman.

5. Discharge of the Executive Board (18:30)
The formal resolution:
"The General Meeting discharges the Executive Board with regard to its actions as they appear from the Annual Report 2009."

The Chairman read the resolution and asked for a vote by acclamation. The motion was passed unanimously.

6. Financial Status Q1/2010 and Outlook (18:35)
Jochem de Ruig gave a presentation on the financial status of the RIPE NCC in the first quarter of 2010 and the outlook for the rest of the year.

The presentation is available.

There were no questions.

7. Report from the Executive Board (18:50)
Nigel Titley, Chairman of the RIPE NCC Executive Board, gave the report from the RIPE NCC Executive Board.

The presentation is available.

There were no questions.

8. RIPE NCC Executive Board Elections (19:00)
The Chairman, Nigel Titley, explained that because he was a candidate for the RIPE NCC Executive Board elections, he would pass over chairing the meeting to his longest standing colleague on the Executive Board, Dmitry Burkov, for the duration of the elections.

The Executive Board elections were to fill the seats being vacated by Nigel Titley and János Zsakó. The list of confirmed candidates is available at:
https://www.ripe.net/lir-services/ncc/gm/may-2010/proceedings/nominations-support
Sonia Garbi-Gomez from the RIPE NCC gave a presentation on the new electronic voting system.
There was a question about how the instant run-off voter system works and the Chairman explained that it was a preferential voting system, in which the candidate who came last on the first count had his second preferences reallocated to the other candidates. He said this process went on until a candidate received a majority of the votes cast.
A member asked about connectivity issues and electronic voting.
Dmitry said that if voters could not connect to the third-party system, BigPulse, that was an issue for them and the election would carry on as normal. He said that if there was a problem with connectivity between the RIPE NCC and BigPulse, then only the paper ballots cast at the GM would be counted in the election.
A member asked if invalid votes would be counted for the purpose of seeing how well the system works and how well people understand it.
The chairman said that invalid votes would be counted.
The three candidates gave brief presentations to attendees.

Election for the first seat: 202 votes were cast with the following count:

Nigel Titley: 130
Remco van Mook: 48
János Zsakó: 23
Abstain: 1

Nigel Titley was declared elected on the first count for a three-year term.

Election for the second seat: 204 votes were cast with the following count:

Remco van Mook: 110
János Zsakó: 87
Abstain: 5
Invalid: 2

Remco van Mook was declared elected on the first count for a three-year term.

Dmitry transferred the chairmanship back to Nigel.

The Chairman congratulated Remco on being elected. He also thanked János for the many years of hard work he invested in his time as Treasurer on the Executive Board.

Janos thanked the membership for their support and he congratulated Remco. He added that it was a pleasure to have served on the Executive Board.

9. Discussion and Feedback on Revised RIPE NCC Election Process

A member said the election process was more convoluted than the previous one. He suggested a single voting round instead of two.

10. Close
The Chairman declared the meeting closed at 20:07 (UTC +2).