Dear Jon,
Saving 2-3% isn't going to cut it really .. so cutting training completely wouldn't help - and I think that would also be an exceptionally bad idea.
Please use real numbers from budget. Expenditure: Meeting + Courses = 857 + 383 + 263 = 1503 kEUR Income: 250 kEUR Total Expenditure: 1253 kEUR. Service Fees: 17,191 We can save: 7,3% ( or 1253 kEUR. ) About free courses. Yes, we had free courses all time, but we changed Sign-up Fee. Lets look RIPE NCC Charging Scheme 2011: [1]http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-499 Minimal Sign-up fee was 2000 euro. Minimal annual fee was 1,300 + 50 per independent resource assignment It was enough for free courses, meetings, etc. Let's lookRIPE NCC Proposed Charging Scheme 2012: [2]http://www.ripe.net/lir-services/ncc/gm/november-2011/ripe-ncc-proposed-char... Minimal Sign-up Fee is 250 euro. Minimal Annual Fee is 250 euro. New LIR will pay only 500 euro. Now we can check cost of Meeting: [3]http://ripe63.ripe.net/registration/how-much-does-it-cost/ The regular meeting fee is EUR 400. However, you can get a EUR 50 discount if you register and pay by Friday, 28 October at 15:00 UTC. Wow! Great! RIPE will receive 500 euro from LIR and expenses for Meeting will be 400euro per person. Is It Logical? I have the same questions about RIPE developing activity. May be we can optimize expenses for developing services. May be not. Very simple stop developing, but it is very difficult to continue it later. Developing Services is similar startup activity. May be better to make this activity as another startup company. -- Alexey S Ivanov General Director LeaderTelecom Ltd [1] http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-499 [2] http://www.ripe.net/lir-services/ncc/gm/november-2011/ripe-ncc-proposed-char... [3] http://ripe63.ripe.net/registration/how-much-does-it-cost/