Not that I mind too much - most (>95%) of our assignments are /26 or smaller, and only very rarely a larger one than /24 happens, but in that case it would be nice to be able to react more quickly...
This is my major concern, the hostmasters are not getting any exposure to larger (larger than /29 /28 /27) requests and when they do so many questions are asked it takes weeks to get an approval. Do not get me wrong i am not having a go at the Hostmasters in general, but there does seem to a real problem in motivation of the Hosmaster team in general, looking at the staff turnover in the last year if i was a manager of that team alarm bells would be ringing. I do not think its the work they have to do (although answering /29 questions all the time must be soul destroying) it seems a fundamental problem of motivation and team spirit. Generaly speaking they are a good bunch and there are some expeirienced hostmasters at RIPE but what are the NCC doing to keep our (RIPE) hostmasters working for us (RIPE)? I do not believe the way to solve the wait que problem is to throw more people at it, you just end up with an unskilled team, with the new comers relying on the "oldtimers" to get them up to speed. We have the makings of a good team the managemnet just need to get the motivation and work flow working for team and not against it. This is what has promted my recent questions the concern for the RIPE communities hostmaster team and wether they are being cared for, because at the end of the day we as ISP's /telco's are the only ones that suffer. After all we are living in a very competative fast moving market which is not slowing down except when we submit an address approval which to me is wrong. The NCC should be keeping up with all trends in technology employment and customer perceptions of a high tech industry with a lumbering giant (the NCC) slowing their connection to the internet down all for a /25 of space. Regards Stephen Burley UUNET EMEA Hostmaster