Hi guys People who work for a national lottery company are also citizens and residents of the country. But they are usually not allowed to buy lottery tickets. Pro footballers are also football supporters. But they cannot gamble on the outcome of a game. There are many examples of a group of people who act as an executive body or secretariat but cannot make decisions for the larger body they serve. For RIPE NCC staff, my view would be that it is fine for them to be involved in making decisions (openly and transparently) about technical and operational matters and to be actively involved in discussions about policies, which they often have a deep understanding of. But to determine the outcome of policy discussions and setting the policies that govern those operations, which they then implement, may be crossing the line on conflict of interest. cheers denis co-chair DB-Wg
From: Leo Vegoda <leo@vegoda.org> To: Franziska Lichtblau <rhalina@old-forest.org> Cc: RIPE List <ripe-list@ripe.net> Bcc: Date: Wed, 10 May 2023 08:01:45 -0700 Subject: Re: [ripe-list] New Draft Document: RIPE NCC Staff Participation in the RIPE Community (Please review) Hi,
On Tue, 9 May 2023 at 02:29, Franziska Lichtblau <rhalina@old-forest.org> wrote:
[...]
One question, as it's not clearly forbidden, is NCC staff allowed to be a WG chair, partake in NomCom, etc? I would say yes.
[...]
Regarding "to avoid giving direction" I am bit torn. I think to put the staff into a safe situation they need a little bit of freedom there. The line between what could be perceived as "giving direction" vs "sharing expertise" is very thin.
If a RIPE NCC staff member was a WG chair, could they make a decision on a policy proposal?
Kind regards,
Leo