[ncc-announce] [GM] Instant Run-Off Voting at the RIPE NCC General Meeting

Dear all,

At the upcoming General Meeting (GM) on 24-26 May, members will vote on 
six resolutions and in the Executive Board election. The full agenda 
with these votes is available at:
https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/gm/meetings/may-2023/agenda-ripe-ncc-general-meeting-may-2023

While five of these votes are Yes/No votes, two of these votes will use 
the instant run-off voting method that we use when there are more than 
two options to vote on.

We have not used instant run-off voting for the charging scheme vote 
previously - we have used it for Executive Board elections since the 
introduction of electronic voting. Due to the charging scheme vote that 
will impact the fees paid by members in 2024, we expect that many 
members will be voting for the first time and will not have used instant 
run-off voting before. So I want to explain how it works so members can 
vote with confidence on the options they’ll have at the GM.

How Instant Run-Off Voting Works

There is a short video explainer on our GM webpages that explains very 
clearly how the process works:
https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/gm/meetings/may-2023/how-to-vote

With instant run-off voting, you are asked to rank the options in order 
of preference (charging scheme models or Executive Board candidates). 
You can rank as many options as you like - you are not required to add a 
preference for more than one option. However, your second, third and 
further preferences can determine the outcome of the vote.

All first choices are counted and if an option receives more than half 
of the first choices, that option wins, just like in any other vote.

If there is no majority winner after counting first choices, the outcome 
is decided by an “instant run-off.”

The option with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who picked 
that option as their top choice will have their next choice counted.

This process continues until one option has more than half of the vote.

Instant run-off voting is designed to arrive at a result that has broad 
support among the electorate while keeping the majority-wins principle. 
It also allows more choices to be given to voters, and it means that 
even if your first choice does not win, your second choice can help to 
select the winning option.

If you want to see if you can calculate the outcome of a fictional 
instant run-off election, you can use a test slate of votes we posted as 
a challenge on the RIPE NCC Forum:
https://forum.ripe.net/t/instant-run-off-voting-challenge/455

Instant Run-Off Voting and the Charging Scheme

The vote on the charging scheme that will determine members' fees for 
2024 has seen a lot of discussion on the members-discuss mailing list. 
The four options that members will vote on are:

- Model A: Category-based model, (projected income: EUR 42M)
- Model B: Continuation of the “one LIR, one fee” model with a 10% LIR 
fee price increase (projected income: EUR 42M)
- Model C: Continuation of the “one LIR, one fee” model with a 5% LIR 
fee price increase (projected income: EUR 40M)
- Model D: Continuation of the “one LIR, one fee” model that is exactly 
the same as the 2023 model (projected income: EUR 38M)

By using the instant run-off model, the Executive Board was able to 
propose four models to give the members a choice between a new category 
based model and the current “one LIR, one fee” model. It also allowed 
the Board to include the option to retain the current charging scheme 
without any changes.

There were comments that by having one category-based model and three 
“one LIR, one fee” models that this would split the vote against the 
category-based model and ensure Model A wins. However, if a majority of 
members decide to vote for the other options as their top three 
preferences, or decide to not put down a preference for Model A, then 
the votes will be allocated to another “one LIR, one fee” model as is 
each one is eliminated, resulting in a majority for the most popular 
“one LIR, one fee” model.

For more details on the charging scheme options, please see the mail 
sent by the Executive Board Treasurer announcing the proposed models:
https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/ncc-announce/2023-April/001645.html

Registering to Vote

We have already seen 1,000 members register to vote at the GM, which is 
considerably more than we usually see at this stage of the GM process. 
We are very encouraged to see such a high level of participation and we 
ask that all members exercise their right to vote.

You can register very quickly and easily via the LIR Portal at:
https://my.ripe.net/#/meetings/active

And if you have any questions about the GM voting processes, please feel 
free to ask me on the members-discuss mailing list or contact me directly.

Kind regards,

Fergal Cunningham
Head of Membership Engagement
RIPE NCC