A successful, healthy and happy 1997 to all. We have received a number of questions about the RIPE meeting registration fee. Here is the story: For the last (and first ;-) 25 meetings the rooms, coffee, lunches and other facilities have been sponsored by the local host. For the majority of the meetings this cost has been bourn by NIKHEF. They certainly deserve credit for this and we are open to creative suggestions from all of you on how to express our gratitude to them specifically even more so since the RIPE NCC is planning to move to a different location in Amsterdam. More details on that at the meeting. With the growing size of the meetings such sponsorship had to come to an end at some point and 25 sponsored meetings seemd a good number even though it is neither divisible by nor a power of two ;-). While the administrative support for the organisation of the meetings is part of the RIPE NCC activities funded by the NCC contributors, the direct costs of the meeting are explicitly excluded. Thus these costs have to be recovered from the attenders. In consultation with the RIPE chair we have determined that the fee should be roughly the same for all meetings and that for the present around ECU 50.- is appropriate to cover the costs. While seperate from other NCC funds all monies will be accounted for in our the standard open way. And yes, we will try to organise a different style of lunches for a change. Since Blasco is the one who suggested a change most consistently (made me think of Cicero ;-) we are currently aiming for Italian style. I hope this answers all questions. Daniel