[members-discuss] [ncc-announce] [GM] Draft RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2025 Proposals

Hello all,

The following is my observations on charging scheme changes and my 
proposed solution.
TLDR I propose a pay-per-service fee structure as opposed to a 
pay-per-resource one.

First of all let me just say that the charging scheme does not need to 
be "fair", all it needs is to be aproved by the majority of the voting 
members.
Second of all, members will once again overwhelmingly oppose any 
charging scheme that will drasticaly increase their costs and any "per 
resource" charging scheme will definitely do that for some older LIRs.
Third of all there is requirement for the membership fees to cover 
estimated expenses in their current form, RIPE can chose to drastically 
cut expenses.
RIPE, as most other large organisations tend to do, seems to have 
outgrown its initial scope and is now more interested in preserving 
itself than in serving its purpose.
Given these personal observations and my opinion on them I would propose 
the following "solution"
Develop a "pey-per-service" charging scheme that would more or less 
contain the following:
- base services related to RIPEs main purpose as a RIR (these should be 
equal to the 2024 membership fees)

    - a base service fee for having a registered LIR (that grants access
    to te LIR portal and includes access to the mailing lists, etc...)
    - a base service fee for access to the RIPE database and related
    services (this is the original purpose of RIPE, administration of
    internet resources)
    - a base service fee for access to the Resource Public Key
    Infrastructure (RPKI)
    - a base service fee for any additional resource allocation or
    resource transfer between members

- optional services (this can be "priced" based on allocated budget, 
meaning that a side project that has a larger budget would have a larger 
associated fee)

    - an optional individual service fee for *each* of RIPEs other
    services such as training, RIPE atlas, analisys, statistics, in
    person meetings, events and whatever else RIPE as an organisation
    wants to do but is not part of it's core function as a RIR

Any difference between 2025 income and 2025 expenses should be covered 
from RIPEs reserve funds (I do remember voting each year to redistribute 
leftover income to the reserve funds)
For 2026 and on any optional service stat can cover its operating budget 
from the optional fee should be continued as it is clearly providing 
value to those that choose to pay for it.
Any optional service that clearly cannot be funded from its associated 
optional fee (i'e' the collected revenue from the associated optional 
fee is much lower than the required operating budget) should be cut.
Each further side project should be proposed for discussion, have an 
estimated operating budget determined in advance and included as an 
optional fee in the charging scheme for the following year.
If the estimated budget is covered, than the project can be implemented, 
otherwise the optional fee is returned to the members that chose to pay it.

Now, members may correctly say that this charging scheme does nothing to 
address IPv4 scarcity, this is intentional. IPv6 adoption is in my 
opinion the correct way of dealing with that.
Other members may say that my proposed structure is unfair to LIRs that 
do not manage many IPv4 resources, though in my opinion that is not the 
case, that is also irrelevant as I have previously stated that the 
charging scheme has no need to be fair, only functional and accepted by 
the majority of voting members.
I do not believe that the cost associated to actually managing existing 
individual resources for RIPE as an organisation is drastically 
different between LIRs based on the existing resources, except maybe the 
actual database size that the associated objects use. Members are the 
ones that manage the day to day database changes for those resources.

TLDR pay for what you use or want to use, not for all the things that 
RIPE staff want to do that probably very few members even asked for. A 
lot of things may be nice to have for free, but when time comes to pay 
for them turn out to not be worth the price.
Remember that by their very existence RIRs have an inherent monopoly on 
internet resources, there is no fail state for any such organisation at 
its core function. However it is OK and if I may say so even desirable 
for any nonessential projects or endeavours these organisations may 
embark on to be able to fail should they prove unsustainable.

To all that manage to read all of this, congratz, you are individuals of 
great patience :)
Mediasat
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Doru Serdin*
Network Manager
Office: +4 031 82 52 657
E-mail: doru.serdin at mediasat.ro 	

www.mediasat.ro <https://www.mediasat.ro>

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On 15.04.2024 11:52 AM, sdy at a-n-t.ru wrote:
> If you pay more tax have you more rights?
>
>> On 15/04/2024 09:22, Michel Lanners wrote:
>>> Because RIPE is a MEMBERSHIP organisation. It’s not a commercial
> company selling something.
>>> If I’m asked to pay more I also want more voting rights. Consequence:
> the few big ones will dominate and steer RIPE in the direction THEY
> want. I don’t think that’s in the interest of those who yell at the
> unfair membership rate.
>>> RIPE is fair because every member has the same right and the same one
> vote.
>> No, you're not getting more voting rights by paying more.
>> It is common practice in membership orgs to charge members according to
> their category or size, and it's still 1 member = 1 vote.
>>
>> Sebastien Brossier
>>
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>
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