[members-discuss] Legal compliance doubts

Dear Athina, All

First of all:
<quote of Athina>

One point that we want to make clear is that the RIPE NCC has not waived any membership fees.
</quote of Athina>

Please do not distort reality - permission not to pay invoices without:
a) consequences of termination of the contract
b) without without specifying the final repayment date

_is in fact a fee waiver_.


Next:
<quote of Articles of Association>
12.2 The Executive Board shall delegate to the Management Team all 
operational decisions with respect to the Standard Service Agreements. 
The Management Team shall be authorised to suspend a member if the 
member does not fulfil their obligations according to the Standard 
Service Agreement.
</quote of Articles of Association>

Athina - when You refer to this article, you are contradicting yourself.
It says, that EB may suspend the participant who does not comply with 
the provisions of the SSA. There is not a single word in this article 
about exempting members from payment obligations.

Resume:
Issue invoices and simple allow some members not to pay, is the more 
dire (even stupid?) option possible, because:
1. causes unequal treatment of Members, and Article 12.2 above does not 
apply,
2. it causes a fiscal burden for the RIPE NCC - you must demonstrate 
income on which there will be no payment,
3. causes doubts about needing at all: RIPE policies, community, voting, 
etc. when in one sentence You are showing us, that the Management will 
do what it sees fit - without looking at the rest.

Regards,

-- 
Stary Bezpiecznik


W dniu 23.03.2022 o 17:23, Athina Fragkouli pisze:
> Dear Stary, all,
>
> One point that we want to make clear is that the RIPE NCC has not waived any membership fees.
>
> We decided to postpone invoicing sanctioned members and members in Iran and Syria due to concerns our bank has with receiving payments from these entities and countries. We have invoiced members in Ukraine and Russia but decided not to terminate their Standard Service Agreement if there are external factors that prevent them from making payment. However, all of these members have the same payment obligations as any other member will have to pay the full amount.
>
> These are operational decisions with regards to the payment obligation as defined in the Standard Service Agreement. According to Article 12.2 of the Articles of Association, all operational decisions with respect to the Standard Service Agreement are delegated to the Management Team (i.e. the Managing Director) of the RIPE NCC, and as such it does not require a GM resolution or a policy change.
>
> Having said that, it is possible for a group of members to propose a resolution for the next GM meeting as defined in Article 15.6 of the Articles of Association:
>
> “15.6 On the application In Writing of a group of Members who are jointly entitled to cast at least two percent (2%) of the total number of possible votes, other subjects will be added to the agenda. Such an application, accompanied by the verbatim text of the resolutions proposed by the said Members, shall have to be sent to the Executive Board at least two weeks before the Meeting.”
>
> Please note that according to Article 18.1 of the Articles of Association, such a proposed resolution can be adopted by an absolute majority of the votes cast at the GM, i.e. greater than fifty percent (50%) of the votes cast.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Athina Fragkouli
> Chief Legal Officer
> RIPE NCC
>
>
>
>> On 21 Mar 2022, at 09:16, Stary Bezpiek <stary.bezpiecznik at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> W dniu 19.03.2022 o 06:59, Taras Heichenko pisze:
>>
>>> Peace.
>>>
>>> I am glad to see that RIPE NCC is legally clean. There are questions about humanism but of course this is not a cope of work of RIPE NCC.
>> In my opinion - it is not.
>> RIPE NCC claims to operate in accordance with its own policies, that are
>> created by the community.
>>
>> Meanwhile, we have a selective treatment of Members in terms of payments
>> without:
>> a) RIPE NCC resolutions
>> b) without annexes to contracts with users.
>> c) policy change
>> Neither the Agreement nor the existing policies allow for discretionary
>> behavior like "this user may not pay, and others must" without formal
>> authorization.
>>
>> Of course Ukraine as an attacked country can and must be treated with
>> any aid, including exemption from payments, when possible. But it has to
>> be passed by a resolution of the RIPE NCC ordinance. The resolution may
>> contain one sentence: "We do not issue invoices to Ukrainian members
>> until the end of the war." Vote: who is in favor? All? The End.
>>
>> On the other end is Russia, as a country that has been subject to
>> sanctions. It should not be of our interest, that they cannot pay. In
>> result, recognizing that Russia users may not pay, because they have
>> "banking difficulties" means, that no one from Russia will pay. Without
>> any consequences. Although they probably can pay. Letting go at this
>> point is very unfair to other Members.
>>
>> I also have a difficult in payment because the Euro exchange rate is
>> very high. Does it interest someone?
>>
>> --
>> Stary Bezpiecznik
>>
>>
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