Dear colleagues, 

Over the past year, our task force has been reviewing the structures, documentation, and processes of RIPE to identify our accountability as an organization. At the last RIPE meeting, we finalized our mission and scope which we continue to work against. 

We will be giving an update on our work at RIPE 75, on Monday 23 October at 16:00 local time (UTC+4).

We invite you to attend and encourage you to comment from the floor or via remote participation. We have allocated plenty of time for comments and we'd like to hear your thoughts.



In case you are not familiar with the task force and our work, here are a few key details. The task force was established at RIPE 73 in Madrid. Our focus is to identify the areas of accountability and to report back to the community with a review of RIPE's accountability. 

It is our goal to provide a final report which will include suggestions where the task force sees opportunity for improvement. The greater RIPE community will then decide how to respond or what actions to take. The task force will not be making corrective changes, that will be the responsibility of the community. 

We are mindful of the impact our recommendations might have on the community. Our intent is not to create bureaucracy, but instead to simplify and empower the values that have established RIPE and sustained the community for so many years.

With that in mind, we have a few questions that have come up in our recent discussions that we would like to pose to the community. You can reply on this mailing list, or give us your feedback during our presentation at RIPE 75.

1. Do you think the "public benefit" or "the greater good" is a core aspirational factor in decisions made by the RIPE community? Alternatively, are RIPE community members merely working/cooperating for their own benefit? (If the community is only working for its own benefit, why have a last /8 policy that benefits newcomers, for example).

2. There is no explicit obligation anywhere that the RIPE NCC will adhere to policies developed by the RIPE community. Strictly speaking, the RIPE NCC is accountable to its membership only. Does the community feel that the RIPE NCC should make a declaration or perhaps sign an MoU stating that it will follow RIPE community policies? 

3. There is no definition of consensus as it is used within the RIPE community. Is this something that is worth documenting? 

We will share some more details on this mailing list after our presentation at RIPE 75. 

We look forward to seeing everyone in Dubai next week and to receive community feedback on our progress.

On behalf of the Accountability Task Force,  

William Sylvester, Chair