Dear Peter, Activities of the RIPE NCC, including its operation and yearly fee structure, are approved by the membership as proposed in the annual RIPE NCC Activity Plan. The RIPE NCC Activity Plan is formed on input from the RIPE community and users of RIPE NCC services. The RIPE NCC's Activity Plan for 2003 was published for comment to the community on 17 September this year. The plan was then presented by the Executive Board of the RIPE NCC for membership approval at the annual General Meeting (GM) of the RIPE NCC. This year's GM was held 29 October 2002. At the meeting, the membership voted unanimously to approve the fee structure, thereby increasing their fees. The RIPE NCC, operating as a not-for-profit organisation, budgets on a cost-recovery basis. This implies that we make an expense proposal and a matching charging scheme. 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. Membership decisions taken over the course of the years have made it possible that we can rely on our reserves to cover the cost of operations this year. To ensure that the prime goal of our membership is met, namely to run RIPE NCC operations stably, we have proposed the current figures for the year 2003. The RIPE NCC appreciates membership feedback and encourages active participation by our members. More information is available from the following RIPE Documents: - "Highlights from the RIPE NCC General Meeting 2002" located at: http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/about/gm/gm2002/highlights.html - "RIPE NCC Activities, Expenditures, and Charging Scheme 2003" located at: http://www/ripe/docs/ap2003.html - "RIPE NCC Billing Procedure and Fee Schedule 2003" located at: http://www/ripe/docs/billing2003.html kind regards, Axel Pawlik