Dear members, For the upcoming RIPE NCC General Meeting (GM), the Executive Board is proposing three options for the RIPE NCC 2019 financial surplus. The Board feels strongly that this is an appropriate moment to strengthen the RIPE NCC's capital position to make sure that it can continue its work with a solid financial basis in the coming years. Therefore, the Board suggests that the membership vote for the option to add 50% of the financial surplus to the RIPE NCC Clearing House reserves and redistribute 50% to the membership in 2020. This option is a good compromise between adding more capital for improved stability and a predictable redistribution process where we return the financial surplus to our members. Although there are three possible outcomes (the two usual choices and the 50% choice), there are two voting options. This avoids the possibility of all options being rejected and no decision being made on the surplus. Option A (to add 100% to the reserves) is approved if it receives over 50% of Yes votes. Votes for Option B (to add 50% to the reserves) are only considered if Option A does not pass. If both options receive less than 50% of Yes votes, then the entire surplus will be redistributed to the membership in 2020. You can find more information in the supporting document: https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/gm/meetings/october-2019/redistrib... And we encourage all members to register to vote at the upcoming GM: https://www.ripe.net/s/gm-registration-october-2019 Regards, Christian Kaufmann RIPE NCC Executive Board Chairman