I would like to share with you what I have been
        doing as RIPE Chair since the last RIPE meeting in Warsaw in may
        now that the RIPE 69 meeting in London is just some days away.
        
      The agenda for the RIPE meeting as been published
        at https://ripe69.ripe.net/programme/meeting-plan/
      The Program committee has done a very good job in
        putting together a program for the week, all working-groups have
        published their agendas, and most working-groups have started
        working on wg-chair procedures as agreed at the last wg-chairs
        meeting.
        
      The working-group chairs will meet as usual for
        lunch on Thursday. The agenda for this meeting can be found at
      https://www.ripe.net/ripe/groups/wg/cc/agenda/ripe-69-working-group-chair-meeting-agenda
        
        
      As RIPE Chair I am invited as an observer to the
        RIPE NCC exec board meetings in order to coordinate activities
        between RIPE and the RIPE NCC. There have been board meetings in
        June and September and minutes of the meetings are posted at http://www.ripe.net/lir-services/ncc/executive-board/minutes/2014
        
      The theme of my first half-year as Chair, and
        before that as Deputy Chair, has been to get to know the
        community better, trough participating in regional meetings.
These
        meetings have given me a better view of the current issues in
        our region. While we in Western and Northern Europe have a
        multitude of Internet exchanges to improve regional and national
        connectivity, there are challenges in the Middle East and
        further east. International connectivity is also a challenge -
        limited by available international fibber, and with higher cost
        than in areas with more competition between fibber providers.
        Privacy issues were high on the agenda at ENOG. There was a
        lively discussion on how to deal with government request. It is
        great to see the participation of these meetings, both in
        numbers and in content. The technical discussions in the meeting
        and the corridors, to exchange ideas and solve problems.
        
      The RIPE NCC also does outreach to governments in
        our region. I participated at the High-level meeting in Brussels
        the RIPE NCC arranged in close cooperation with CENTR, as well
        as a Law enforcement meeting earlier this year in London.
        
      During the summer I went to Toronto Canada for IETF
        90, my primary interest was the discussions on the IANA
        transition. In addition I attended most of the Operational
        track.
        
      The NRO Number Council appointed me to the ICANN
        NomCom for 2014 and we completed our work and appointed ICANN
        board members as well as ALAC, GNSO and ccNSO council members.
        
      The report from the 2014 NomCom can be found at https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/final-16oct14-en.pdf
      the was also an urgent appointment of a board
        member to replace xxx who stepped down unexpectedly during the
        ICANN week. I was not able to participate in this appointment
        due to less than 24 hours notice for the meeting.
        
      The NomCom also conducted a peer review of our
        contributions to the committee. The report from this has been
        published
      https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/360-review-members-15oct14-en.pdf 
        
        
      The Number Council was kind enough to reappoint me
        to the 2014 Non-com, which started its work with a two day
        meeting following the ICANN meeting in Los Angeles. The call for
        nominations will be out shortly. This year the NomCom will be
        appointing 3 board members. Looking at the board composition
        there is particular need for board members from the African
        region and the Latin American region, but good candidates from
        Europe are also welcome.
        
      The NRO NC will in addition to the NomCom
        appointments, appoint one board member, see the announcement at https://www.nro.net/news/aso-ac-call-for-nominations-for-seat-9-on-the-icannboard 
       
        
      In order to better understand the Internet
        Governance issues in a broader sense I have participated in 
My
        interest in Eurodig and IGF was the NTIA transition of the IANA
        function. ICANN had a strong presence at IGF and there were
        several good discussions on how ICANN accountability can be
        improved. 
The
        Norwegian Ministry of Transportation and Communication invited
        me to participate on the Norwegian delegation at the ITU
        Plenipotentiary 2014 conference in Busan, with the trip funded
        by the RIPE NCC. The RIPE NCC is a sector member of the ITU-D
        and participating with its own delegation with Chris, Maxim and
        Chadic.
        
      There are excellent reports from the meeting by
        Samantha Dickinson at http://linguasynaptica.com/ as well as
        live twitter updates, see  #Plenipot14
        
      With this short report I hope I have given you some
        insight into what the RIPE Chair has been doing since the last
        meeting.
        
      Sincerely,
      Hans Petter Holen
      RIPE Chair