Well, some have asked or said something every now and then, sometimes even providing [subjectively] constructive input in the past.
There have brief discussions w.r.t. what could be reduced or changed in either the budget or in activities at least:
- Prior to 2023 AGM (a year ago),
- When the 2024 draft activity plan was published (last fall),
- Now, prior to the 2024 AGM
Won't go summarizing the whys or whynots. You can find the threads in the archives. But yes, other than that you're entirely correct. :)
While the volume of the list has grown significantly in the last few days, I believe it is better. I mean, better than when this list was moderated, and discussions weren't
possible due to approval latency. So, some positive feedback right here.
I would also take the opportunity to note that when the draft plan for the following year is published it is probably too late to expect change anything beyond a word here or there. Realistically only small changes can happen along with some
kind of juggling as was seen with the slight reduction in operating budget for this fiscal year. This is good for continuity of the organization as well as its goals but of course annoying for those who have called for larger changes, whatever they might be.
The implication is that feedback can be given but not necessarily lead to anything meaningful. Maybe some people do not understand this.
If one wanted or needed to do larger changes targeting the following fiscal year, they would really have to be agreed and decided on already in the spring. This should be obvious to anyone who has soft budgeted anything for a ramp up or
a ramp down.
Now that the proposed budget that will pass includes last year's increase, which didn't happen, it is like going one step forward, two steps back.
I would observe that if quite many people, representing the membership, are seemingly unhappy there is probably an underlying reason for it. Anecdotally it is true that one can't make everyone happy, ever. But looking at what has been written
here now and, in the past, as well as at the short proposal on the agenda getting 700+ votes in support... well people do not seem to get/feel/perceive the implied value of everything RIPE provides or does.
On the other hand, there are people who to talk about the community feeling and the wonderful meetings and all of that and reminisce of the past when everybody knew each other. I would observe here that many people cannot get travel permission
to spend a week at a meeting. If they do, they need to show relevance and value to their manager. Yes, I know a survey was done and having looked at the survey results in detail have this question. If everything is
so peachy and appreciated, why are customers unhappy?
Around 1/4 of the budget is annually spent on what can be termed as marketing or as the organization labels it on community engagement. If people do not understand
the benefits, well, something is off. :)
It would probably be in the organization's best interest to show better the true value of the services they provide. One-liners, slogans, and blog posts do not seem to be enough. One cannot
force your customers to change. To stay relevant for its customers the organization must accept that change is inevitable. Sorry, not sorry.