Frank, "Frank Gadegast" wrote the following on 09/03/2011 17:20:
How many of the members do you think get actively involved in policy discussions? (Hint: it is much less than 50%.)
People that are not going to vote do not care for the results, like it is for any democratic political vote in the RIPE region.
Not always true, but that's philosophy.
All of the RIRs have open policy discussion forums, just as the IETF has no members and anybody can contribute to the Internet's standards. Good luck changing that. :)
IETF is different.
RIPE is no "community", its more a association of members, that are paying money to get resources they need. And non-members still can decide (or at least block) the wishes of the members, thats really crazy.
RIPE is a community. The association of members are RIPE NCC members, who pay a membership fee. Policy is made by the community, members of the NCC vote on motions to do with the NCC. This distinction really is vital to all of this. Brian.