Dear WG It is now two weeks since we entered the review phase and we still have four candidates David Hilario Piotr Strzyżewski William Sylvester Denis Walker In my view nothing has been raised by any member of the WG that disqualifies any of these four from standing. Since we have four candidates for the three co-chair positions available I would like to take us to the next phase of the process which is to ask the four candidates if any of them would like to step down. In particular I would like them to consider whether they have: 1) The approval of their employer and/or the resources to attend the majority of RIPE meetings during their term of office. 2) The time and resource available to properly monitor the mailing list between RIPE meetings. 3) A sufficient knowledge of the RIPE Database to enable them to adequately understand and comment on proposals that the WG may make 4) The temperament to deal with members of the WG who may get very passionate about technical matters related to the DB, may not have English as their first language and may have different ideas on what constitutes reasonable debate. 5) An understanding of the Policy Development Process (although the WG has not developed policy for a long while, such knowledge is part of the equipment of any WG chair). Candidates have three days to consider these questions and either stand down or continue. If they wish to stand down they may either do so on the list or by direct email to me and I will relay it in a neutral fashion to the list. At the end of three days, if no candidate has taken a decision to stand down, I will invoke the random selection process. This is likely to take place during next week when the Board and RIPE Chair are available in Amsterdam and a suitable hat and witnesses may be procured. Best regards Nigel