To the RIPE NCC Board, Stop pulling our legs and don't take us for fools. With this proposal, you intend to live very well at the expense of all your LIR members. It is not necessary to increase annual fees; you already have an annual contribution surplus that must be returned the following year. Manage the budget better. * Are the Board's expenses reasonable, and especially those of your Managing Director? One need only look at Hans's annual expense reports from recent years. * Is it reasonable that when your staff flies to other RIRs, such as APNIC, they do so in Executive Class? At our expense. * Is the size of the RIPE NCC staff reasonable? You have triple the staff of other RIRs, such as APNIC. * You have projects that are worth absolutely nothing and represent a staggering waste of money… * If there is a problem with Russia or any other part of the world, cut services in that area, but do not make us pay for it. You are raising annual fees in a Kafkaesque manner—a little bit each year, so it goes unnoticed. That is petty. This year, you redistributed excess contributions... and yet you ask us to pay more? To the men and women of RIPE NCC: You live very well at the expense of LIR members. You squander money, have budget surpluses you are forced to redistribute, and still ask for more. Is it RIPE NCC and the company without profit? Really? I don't believe that. At least for their staff and board, they earn a lot of money at our pocket