Minutes

1. Welcome, Preliminaries
2. Financial and Administration Update
3. Reports from the RIPE NCC
4. Reports from the Executive Board
5. Draft RIPE NCC Activity Plan 2009
6. Draft RIPE NCC Budget 2009
7. RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2009
8. RIPE NCC End User Assignment Agreement
9. RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2008 Addendum - Introduction of Charging Scheme for Direct End Users
10. RIPE NCC Supporter Agreement
11. Close

1. Welcome, Preliminaries

The RIPE NCC Executive Board Chairman Nigel Titley opened the General Meeting (GM) at 18:05 local time and welcomed the attendees.

2. Financial and Administration Update

Jochem de Ruig, the RIPE NCC Chief Financial Officer, gave a presentation on the RIPE NCC financial status for the year to date 2008 and on the financial outlook for the full year 2008.

The presentation is available at:
https://www.ripe.net/lir-services/ncc/gm/october-2008/financialupdate.pdf

During his presentation, Jochem noted that the sound and secure cash management implemented by the Board has been successful. The financial crisis has had no effect on the RIPE NCC reserves. He added that the effects of the global financial crisis on the RIPE NCC were impossible to predict so far. He will monitor this and report to the Board.

A question was asked by a member whose company could not pay the RIPE NCC membership fee and was informed there would be a restart fee of EUR 2,000 to rejoin. He suggested that the restart fee should be lower than the fee for a new member considering the smaller level of work involved and the RIPE NCC's non-profit status.

The Executive Board Chairman responded that the RIPE NCC has a very tolerant policy on late payers – it gives three warnings and email notices so if the member does not pay there is no reason why the other members should be forced to subsidise them.

Executive Board member Fahad AlShirawi commented that when factors such as capital delay and time spent by the Finance Department investigating who has not paid are taken into consideration, the cost to the RIPE NCC of restarting a member is roughly the same as that for starting a new member.

The Chairman asked what was the general feeling from the membership on this issue and there were a number of comments expressing concern over members shutting down and not paying fees, then restarting as a member and requesting more resources. There was a general discussion on what happens to the resources held by LIRs who have had their membership terminated.

Jochem explained that in the event of non-payment by LIRs, the RIPE NCC terminates the contract and IP Resource Analysts contact the registry for the return of resources. He added that in the contract between the RIPE NCC and LIRs, it says that unassigned space allocated by the LIR should be returned to the RIPE NCC.

Fahad suggested that the Board should look at this issue and come back to the membership with a response or action plan. The Chairman agreed to this course of action.

3. Reports from the RIPE NCC

The report on the RIPE NCC's activities was presented during the RIPE NCC Services Working Group on Tuesday, 28 October 2008 from 16:00 to 17:30 and it was not repeated here.

The presentation is available online at:
http://www.ripe.net/membership/gm/gm-october2008/presentations/ncc-update.pdf

4. Reports from the Executive Board

The Chairman gave the report from the RIPE NCC Executive Board.

The presentation is available online at:
http://www.ripe.net/membership/gm/gm-october2008/presentations/eb-report.pdf

The Chairman welcomed Fahad AlShirawi and Andreas Wittkemper to their first GM as Executive Board members and thanked the previous Board members, Kees Neggers and Jim Reid, for their work on the Board.

A member asked if any progress had been made with new Articles of Association and if there would be a draft version available for the membership to view.

The Chairman said that the membership could expect to vote on new Articles of Association (AoA) at the next GM. Axel said that there was a draft version of the new AoA and these would be made available.

5. Draft RIPE NCC Activity Plan 2009

The draft Activity Plan is available online at:
https://www.ripe.net/lir-services/ncc/gm/october-2008/activityplan2009.pdf

The Chairman asked if there were any questions regarding the RIPE NCC's planned activities for 2009. There were none.

6. Draft RIPE NCC Budget 2009

Jochem de Ruig, the RIPE NCC Chief Financial Officer, gave a presentation on the Draft RIPE NCC Budget 2009.

The presentation is available online at:
https://www.ripe.net/lir-services/ncc/gm/october-2008/draftbudget.pdf

A member commented that he would like the budget presentation at the Autumn GM to show the latest estimate for the year at issue compared to the Draft Budget.

The member also asked why the budget for Information Services has doubled from 2008 to 2009.

Jochem responded that there were very detailed reasons for this change. He said that there has been a shift in activity reporting, an increase in spending on services such as Test Traffic Measurements (TTM), DNSMON and Routing Information Service (RIS), as well as Science Group projects. Jochem also explained that these activities have overhead allocated to them, for example for invoicing, HR and customer services.

7. RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2009

Jochem de Ruig, the RIPE NCC Chief Financial Officer, gave a presentation on the Draft RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2009.

The presentation is available online at:
https://www.ripe.net/lir-services/ncc/gm/october-2008/chargingscheme2009.pdf

Gert Doering, the Co-Chair of the Address Policy Working Group (AP WG), commented on the Charging Scheme 2009 in relation to RIPE Policy Proposal 2007-01, Direct Internet Resource Assignments to End Users from the RIPE NCC. He said that the Charging Scheme 2009 as presented to the membership was not in line with the charging model proposed by 2007-01, which envisioned a separate fee for each individual PI assignment. He said that the AP WG felt that the charging model that would be in line with the goals of 2007-01 would be one that did not take PI assignments into account when calculating the billing score but rather charged for each individual PI assignment. He said that under the proposed RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2009, the End User may be charged a varying amount depending on whether they went to an LIR that moved up a category in the billing scheme because of their PI assignment or an LIR that didn't move to a different category because it was in the Extra Large category already.

A member commented in response that the RIPE NCC should not do anything that discourages End Users from signing a contract with the RIPE NCC.

Jochem noted that the proposal suggested under 2007-01 would affect some members substantially and a smaller number enormously.

Jochem also noted that the proposed Charging Scheme is just for next year and it does not mean a different scheme cannot be implemented in the future.

Executive Board member Fahad AlShirawi noted that not every LIR actively participates in policy discussions so a formal notice needs to be made in advance of any action that will affect them.

Daniel Karrenberg from the RIPE NCC received permission from the Chairman to address the membership with regard to the process because it is important to distinguish between the Policy Development Process of the RIPE community and the Executive Board's management of the RIPE NCC. He said that although the community might have wanted a quick implementation of 2007-01, the RIPE NCC Executive Board could not do this immediately if it was to run the RIPE NCC as a proper business.

The Chairman said that if 2007-01 had passed consensus in May 2008, a different Charging Scheme could have been devised, but under the circumstances this was not possible.

The formal resolution "The General Meeting adopts the RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2009" was accepted and there were four abstentions noted.

8. RIPE NCC End User Assignment Agreement

The RIPE NCC End User Assignment Agreement is available to view online at:
https://www.ripe.net/lir-services/ncc/gm/october-2008/enduseragreement.pdf

The formal resolution "The General Meeting adopts the RIPE NCC End User Assignment Agreement” was accepted and there was one abstention noted.

9. RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2008 Addendum - Introduction of Charging Scheme for Direct End Users

The RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2008 Addendum - Introduction of Charging Scheme for Direct End Users is available to view online at:
https://www.ripe.net/lir-services/ncc/gm/october-2008/chargingscheme2008addendum.pdf

The formal resolution "The General Meeting adopts the RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2008 Addendum effective upon adoption" was accepted and there were three abstentions noted.

10. RIPE NCC Supporter Agreement

The RIPE NCC Supporter Agreement is available to view online at:
https://www.ripe.net/lir-services/ncc/gm/october-2008/supporteragreement.pdf

The Chairman noted that the RIPE NCC Supporter Agreement provides a means for those people who would like to support the RIPE NCC through financial contribution.

A member noted that the text of the Agreement should be adjusted to say “250 Euro minimum” in all cases where the sum to be paid is mentioned.

The Chairman said these would be made before the Agreement is finalised.

The formal resolution "The General Meeting supports the RIPE NCC Executive Board's ratification of the RIPE NCC Supporter Agreement and welcomes supporters to attend future General Meetings" was accepted unanimously.

11. Close

The Chairman thanked the members for attending the GM and officially closed the meeting at 19:25.