[ncc-services-wg] RIPE tasks

On Wednesday, Aug 20, 2003, at 17:40 Europe/Amsterdam, Peter Galbavy 
wrote:

> Kurt Erik Lindqvist wrote:
>> Are you also saying that having to have the AGM vote is a problem? In
>> that case how would you else want to do it? Voting anytime through out
>> the year if enough people called for a vote? That would make it more
>> or less impossible to make or follow a budget in any reasonable way.
>
> I do not believe that the use of the AGM is appropriate for the "big 
> switch"
> being used to approve a proposed budget that included 100% of 
> projects. The
> budget needs approval, but it appears to much "yes or no".

When you set up an association in any country, there are laws that tell 
you about things like statutes that regulate the operation of the 
association. There are also some constraints on what can and can't be 
in those statutes. In the case of the RIPE NCC the applicable law is 
the Dutch one.

As part of defining proxy voting in the statutes, to address the issue 
of requiring personal attendance to the best it could be done at the 
time, it was a requirement that the agenda points of the AGM be 
published well in advance so that people considering using a proxy for 
voting could know what they were voting for. As a consequence, yes, the 
activity plan needs to be accepted or rejected as a whole.

The articles of association are at 
http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/articles-association.html. It even 
includes an article on how to change the document itself.

As times change, changes may be necessary, but honestly, I don't think 
assuming bad will from anyone's side is fair or true.
Yes, like many long running organisations, things may settle into 
auto-pilot or even drift away from the intended purpose, but then it is 
the community's part in this whole thing to nudge it back into track.

> There is no
> consultation - formal, bot mailing list chatter - on what projects are
> approved for inclusion into said budget approval.

Maybe, but the activity plan is always publish well in advance and 
since it is not approved until the AGM, the time in between publishing 
and approval (or rejection) is the time to make changes to it.

Joao