Further to the training questions

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> Not that I mind too much - most (>95%) of our assignments are /26 or
> smaller, and only very rarely a larger one than /24 happens, but in
> that case it would be nice to be able to react more quickly...

This is my major concern, the hostmasters are not getting any exposure to
larger (larger than /29 /28 /27) requests and when they do so many questions
are asked it takes weeks to get an approval. Do not get me wrong i am not
having a go at the Hostmasters in general, but there does seem to a real
problem in motivation of the Hosmaster team in general, looking at the staff
turnover in the last year if i was a manager of that team alarm bells would be
ringing. I do not think its the work they have to do (although answering /29
questions all the time must be soul destroying) it seems a fundamental problem
of motivation and team spirit. Generaly speaking they are a good bunch and
there are some expeirienced hostmasters at RIPE but what are the NCC doing to
keep our  (RIPE) hostmasters working for us (RIPE)?

I do not believe the way to solve the wait que problem is to throw more people
at it, you just end up with an unskilled team, with the new comers relying on
the "oldtimers" to get them up to speed. We have the makings of a good team the
managemnet just need to get the motivation and work flow working for team and
not against it. This is what has promted my recent questions  the concern for
the RIPE communities hostmaster team and wether they are being cared for,
because at the end of the day we as ISP's /telco's are the only ones that
suffer. After all we are living in a very competative fast moving market which
is not slowing down except when we submit an address approval which to me is
wrong. The NCC should be keeping up with all trends in technology employment
and customer perceptions of a high tech industry with a lumbering giant (the
NCC) slowing their connection to the internet down all for a /25 of space.

Regards
Stephen Burley
UUNET EMEA Hostmaster


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