[members-discuss] [ncc-announce] [GM] Consultation on RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2024

I believe we are not being provided with enough possible options to make 
sensible decisions about both our own situations and the situation we 
would really want for RIPE.

When faced with "more cost method X" and "even more cost method Y" we 
are being pushed into thinking firstly that these should be the only 2 
options and secondly that only the impact on a specific LIR/member 
matters.

The primary functions of all RIRs are to maintain a 'list' of who a 
(finite set of) resource are allocated to, and to manage the community 
who set the policies around those resources.

Yes the type and number of resources has grown over the years, but even 
today, it's not large enough to tax a 20+ year old copy of excel, let 
alone require dozens of staff and millions of Euros.

Whilst I can appreciate a PI request, by virtue of the policies in place 
regarding a PI request, involve staff time ( and therefore an actual 
cost ) the totality of the DB shows there are not hundreds of new 
requests every week, nor are there realistically any significant ongoing 
cost once the resource is documented in the DB at the RPE end (there is 
for managing the DB to the LIR, afterall, we all do the bulk of the 
actual work maintaining the database content, except where policy stops 
us doing so !)

Similarly for other resources, a line in a text file (which is all it 
functionally needs to be) or a record in a db does not constitute a 
massive ongoing cost.

This does not require 100+ staff, and if RIPE incorrectly believe it 
should, perhaps now is the time to consider transfer of RIR function to 
a new organisation, who can be limited in role and expectation to the 
actual tasks an RIR is supposed to perform for those of us who pay the 
RIR bills.

I would like to see proposed Method 3,4,5 etc to be able to do a real 
comparison of options, taking into account

* looking at why RIPE believes there will be quite so many mergers - 
what are the perceived, actual and incidental benefits of multiple LIR 
per member, are they mostly "gaming the system" or were there actual 
reasons - and why, knowing this (and knowing the very-short-term 
financial benefit ripe will have received for it when it happened) 
better forward planning, budgetory constraint and so on were not in 
place

* whether the fees are actually appropriate for the RIR task performed - 
where is the option to reduce fees to half and discard all the mission 
creep and extraneous services that has occurred

* would some of the "added extras" that RIPE are "bundling" in the 
budget be optional/pay-per-use rather than paid for by us all if we are 
not to use or benefit from them

and so on.

With the ability to migrate resources between RIRs, perhaps RIPE should 
remember that it is at least technically possible for us to vote with 
our wallets and shift to an RIR that better meets our need vs spend, or 
has different policies/procedures in place.

And just as prudent for RIPE and related orgs to remember they have no 
divine right to exist, they continue to do so because we choose to allow 
it.

Maybe the board should be looking at ways to incentivise LIRs around the 
world to move to RIPE rather than constantly increasing the burden on 
those of us who have shouldered the funding it for 3 decades.

The switch to annual for quarterly billing for example places a 
disproportionate burden on smaller lirs when the additional work to 
handle sending 4 emails not 1 is hardly a massive utilisation of stray 
electrons for a computer system !

TL:Dr; I vote no to both without even looking at the financial impact on 
us of either option, rejecting the underlying premise that there needs 
to be additional charging at all.

And yes, while the ARIN model may not be considered perfect, something 
does not have to be perfect to be worthy of learning from, or taking 
inspiration from, or even using if more appropriate than alternatives - 
perhaps someone more s/sheet capable than I could add options on there 
for "what it would cost at ARIN, APNIC, LACNIC ..." and we can see if we 
are at least getting comparable value

Rob