Hi Simon, Thanks for your reply. I have seen the activity plan brought up before several times, but I've not seen anywhere that the membership has been asked to provide input on it at all, much less provide any vote for it. The membership clearly stated last year that they did not agree with the charging scheme change, and, from my perspective, during discussions stated that the budget was of serious concern and that RIPE should work to reduce the budget. It does not appear that concern was taken seriously, and if I recall somewhere in this mailing list I believe someone at RIPE stated that reducing services to reduce the budget was not on the table or something to that effect. The RIPE leadership and by extension the board simply does not appear in-tune with the voice of the members. Daniel~ On 5/14/24 7:37 AM, Simon Lockhart wrote:
On Tue May 14, 2024 at 07:27:57AM -0500, Daniel Pearson wrote:
It feels like presenting the membership with a vote that results in the same outcome, is not providing the membership with a genuine choice and feels very manipulative. I'm not an expert on Dutch law at all, but would this charging scheme even stand up to the scrutiny of the legal system there? Can it truly be considered a choice when each choice results in increased fee's and a larger bloated budget for RIPE? Yes, because you persist in thinking that this is a vote on what the budget should be. It's not. It's a vote on how the budget should be funded.
The budget is set from the activity plan. The activity plan is already set.
Want a lower budget (and thus lower membership fees) in the next cycle? Sure. Just persuade the membership that RIPE should drop things from the activity plan.
Simon