Hi Erik, As I'm stepping down as a chair next meeting I have no benefit from this, so I think I can speak without any conflict of interest.
The only ‘benefit’ of picking up the WG Chair hat … is a WG Chair lunch somewhere during the RIPE meeting
You mean that lunch that chairs use to do work for the community instead of talking to their customers/friends/etc ;)
I asked the Executive Board during the GM, if it is possible to add a RIPE meeting voucher for the RIPE WG Chairs as compensation.
Considering that being a chair involves work (depending on the working group it may be a different amount, but all chairs do work and have responsibilities) and that the ticket price is only a smaller part of the total cost (flights, hotel etc cost more than the meeting ticket) I think it would be a nice token. I don't think this will make people dependent on the NCC as Jim fears, or that people will suddenly become chair just to get a relatively small discount on the total price of traveling to and attending a RIPE meeting, or that it would influence how the working groups select their chairs in any other way. It would however show some appreciation and recognition for all the work the chairs do in their spare time, and I think my fellow working group chairs deserve that. Cheers, Sander