Dear colleagues, The RIPE NCC General Meeting (GM) takes place tomorrow on Wednesday, 25 May 2016. At the GM, members will vote on four resolutions and in the RIPE NCC Executive Board election. The third resolution to be voted on concerns the ability of RIPE NCC members to open additional LIR accounts. Currently, this ability is suspended pending the vote at the GM. There will be a presentation on this issue at the meeting and a discussion afterwards. The Executive Board recommends to members that they vote Yes to allow members to open additional LIR accounts. Due to the high number of remote voting participants who are registered for the meeting, the Board would like to take the opportunity to explain via email its reasoning for making such a recommendation. The RIPE NCC has noticed that while the suspension has been in place, there has been no significant slowdown in the number of organisations becoming members of the RIPE NCC. The RIPE NCC has also noted that there has been an increase in some countries of organisations setting up separate legal entities that can become full members of the RIPE NCC and receive a /22 of IPv4 address space. This means that it is more difficult to track who is holding multiple /22s of IPv4 address space from the last /8. It also means that these separate legal entities, which can be owned by a single person, can acquire multiple voting rights at the GM. The Board therefore believes that the suspension of the ability to add additional LIR accounts has not solved the problem it was intended to solve, and it has created some new problems. By voting Yes to this resolution, the Board believes it would: 1. Bring much-needed transparency to the situation regarding holders of /22s from the last /8 2. Encourage a reduction in the amount of individuals holding multiple voting rights at the GM 3. Allow the Policy Development Process (PDP) to close loopholes relating to the Last /8 policy rather than the membership Last week, the RIPE NCC published an article on RIPE Labs that gives further information on membership growth and available IPv4 statistics: https://labs.ripe.net/Members/wilhelm/ripe-ncc-membership-and-available-ipv4... We look forward to hearing your views on this matter at the GM, and you should also feel free to discuss this matter on the <members-discuss@ripe.net> mailing list. There are three other resolutions to be voted on at the GM: Resolution 1 asks members to formally adopt the RIPE NCC's audited accounting for 2015. Resolution 2 asks members to formally discharge the Executive Board of liability in relation to their position as board members. Resolution 4 asks the members to approve the Charging Scheme for 2017. The charging scheme proposed by the board would continue the current annual membership fee of EUR 1,400 + EUR 50 per PI assignment. There will also be a presentation on this at the GM and a discussion afterwards. All items to be presented, discussed and voted on at the GM are listed in the agenda for the meeting: https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/gm/meetings/may-2016/agenda Executive Board Election ------------------------ There are four candidates for the RIPE NCC Executive Board election. Biographies for all candidates are available at: https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/gm/meetings/may-2016/confirmed-can... Voting at the GM ---------------- The deadline to register to vote electronically is 16:00 UTC+2 on 25 May. The voting window will open during the GM and will close at 09:00 UTC+2 on 27 May, giving members across the service region time to consider the discussions at the GM before casting their votes. All those who register to vote will receive an email with a link to the voting software on the day of the GM. Registration ------------ There are currently over 950 members registered to vote at the GM. All members are asked to take a minute to register to vote via the LIR Portal. You can register for your organisation at: https://www.ripe.net/s/gm-registration-may-2016 If you have any questions about the GM or electronic voting, please contact <agm@ripe.net>. Regards, Nigel Titley RIPE NCC Executive Board Chairman