[members-discuss] [comms-circle] Re: [ncc-announce] [GM] Executive Board Meeting to Discuss Charging Scheme Input from Members

> On 14 May 2024, at 15:09, Daniel Pearson <daniel at privatesystems.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi Simon,
> 
> Thanks for your reply.
> 
> I have seen the activity plan brought up before several times, but I've not seen anywhere that the membership has been asked to provide input on it at all, much less provide any vote for it.

The board asks for input every year:

https://www.ripe.net/publications/news/draft-ripe-ncc-activity-plan-and-budget-2024/

If you would read an Activity Plan, which gets published as a RIPE document, you would find:

"Each year, we publish a draft Activity Plan and Budget at least four weeks before the Autumn RIPE Meeting. At this meeting, time is allocated to discuss our services in the RIPE NCC Services Working Group and during the RIPE NCC General Meeting (GM). We also invite members to ask questions and discuss our plans on the RIPE NCC Membership Discussion mailing list (members-discuss at ripe.net) and the RIPE NCC Services WG mailing list (ncc-services-wg at ripe.net).
The feedback received over this period is then incorporated into a final Activity Plan and Budget that is approved by our Executive Board and published in December."

https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-786/

In fact, it’s very hard to miss the board’s call for input for anyone who’s even slightly interested in this stuff.

> The membership clearly stated last year that they did not agree with the charging scheme change, and, from my perspective, during discussions stated that the budget was of serious concern and that RIPE should work to reduce the budget.
> 
> It does not appear that concern was taken seriously, and if I recall somewhere in this mailing list I believe someone at RIPE stated that reducing services to reduce the budget was not on the table or something to that effect. The RIPE leadership and by extension the board simply does not appear in-tune with the voice of the members

As the board expressed several times, the concern is being taken seriously.

However, you can’t just change the charging scheme to reduce the RIPE NCC income without FIRST adjusting the budget and BEFORE THAT the activity plan.

Which has also been clearly explained several times.

So anyone who’s serious about changing any of this should move their focus from the Charging Scheme to the Activity Plan because ALL charging schemes that are put up for voting will ALWAYS cover the Activity Plan and the Budget that goes along with it.

Cheers,

Alex


>  Daniel~
> 
> On 5/14/24 7:37 AM, Simon Lockhart wrote:
>> On Tue May 14, 2024 at 07:27:57AM -0500, Daniel Pearson wrote:
>>> It feels like presenting the membership with a vote that results in the same
>>> outcome, is not providing the membership with a genuine choice and feels
>>> very manipulative. I'm not an expert on Dutch law at all, but would this
>>> charging scheme even stand up to the scrutiny of the legal system there? Can
>>> it truly be considered a choice when each choice results in increased fee's
>>> and a larger bloated budget for RIPE?
>> Yes, because you persist in thinking that this is a vote on what the budget
>> should be. It's not. It's a vote on how the budget should be funded.
>> 
>> The budget is set from the activity plan. The activity plan is already set.
>> 
>> Want a lower budget (and thus lower membership fees) in the next cycle? Sure.
>> Just persuade the membership that RIPE should drop things from the activity
>> plan.
>> 
>> Simon
> 
> 
> 
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