This poll of the LIR membership is to be performed no later than 4 months prior to the start of the next financial year, thereby leaving the RIPE NCC sufficient time to reorganize its staff.
I am somewhat against the "poll of the LIR membership". I think a discussion at each NCC service WG is good. For practical reasons I would suggest (and this is actually something that Axel suggested to me in Barcelona as one of the tasks of the WG) that planned and existing projects are discussed in relation with the next years budget at the autumn RIPE meeting. This would give the NCC enough time to work on Budgets based on the discussions. I guess that one problem that arises is if we are also to accept the budget at the AGM that is in association with that RIPE meeting, the time in between is very short.
A discussion doesn't get a true measure of the membership. It gets the voice of the LIRs that can afford the travel, the LIRs that are closer to the venue to make travel easier, and the LIRs with a bigger voice in meetings. What is the % of LIRs that attend?
That is a good point, but holding the poll will also take resources. I am not against a poll as such, but in order to cast the vote, the LIRs will also need to dedicate resources to follow the development and make sure they understand what they are voting for. We also need to take into account what it means to cancel a project, and what the NCC management does with this.
In regards to the mechanics, budgets and timing - it very well may not work out for 2004 and I would be happy to see the above proposal hashed out and implemented in 2004 to affect the 2005 budget. -Hank
Seems reasonable to me. - kurtis -