Alex,
Due to the economic situation, we saw substantially less influx of new members over the course of the last twelve months than forecast, also we have lost member due to closures and mergers. As a result of that, the RIPE NCC will have a sizeable deficit this year.
I have not read the plans for next year so my apologies if this is stated in there, but I was curious at to what cost cutting measures have been taken at RIPE NCC? In the rest of the business we are by now pretty used to that... I hope that no one takes this as an offense, but I am just trying to understand better how RIPE NCC works. During this autumn I have had my first experience at establishing a LIR with RIPE and trying to work RIPE. It has been quite interesting and I have long been thinking of putting this as a presentation at the next RIPE meeting but I am not sure this would be useful or fill a purpose. Others have suggested I should wait for the outcome of the survey. - kurtis -