Meet the ARIN 40 Fellows [Archived]

By Erin Pratt

We’re so excited to welcome the 15 new and returning fellows that will be joining us in San Jose, California for ARIN 40 this October! Since 2009, we have welcomed 83 fellows to our Public Policy and Members Meetings to expand our educational outreach and add new voices to our public policy discussions. We’re proud to see that number grow to 98 with our most recent additions. We had the chance to get to know our fellows a bit better in preparation for ARIN 40, and thought our community would like to learn more about them too!

We asked our fellows to share with us why they decided to apply, or reapply, for a fellowship.

Barb Carra explained she applied not only due to suggestions from her colleagues, but also because she is “extremely interested in learning more about the ARIN mandate and grassroots approach to developing policy.” Bartlett Morgan said he had been encouraged to apply in the past, but decided to apply now because he has “started representing clients who make use of ARIN’s number resources, so it was of practical value to better understand how ARIN’s processes operated.” Christopher Regan was encouraged by a friend to apply and said, “I believe that I could learn from and make valuable connections with the other attendees, and contribute based on my prosecutorial background.” We are happy to hear that many of our new fellows were encouraged by friends and co-workers to apply.

Returning fellow, Austin Murkland, is glad he decided to reapply after his “incredible experience” attending ARIN 39. Nancy Carter says she reapplied for an ARIN fellowship because “when ARIN 39 was over I knew that I wanted/needed to go to the next meeting. ARIN is a community that I want to be part of and contribute to.” Gerard Best, based out of Trinidad and Tobago, explains “I was able to attend an ARIN on the Road event in Dominica and have been looking forward to the removal of ARIN’s domicile requirements ever since. When the announcement was made, I immediately applied.” And we’re so glad you did, Gerard!

We were curious to learn what our fellows hoped to gain by attending ARIN 40. Frank Bulk looks forward to “networking with other folks in the industry,” and Loris Taylor wants to “learn more about what makes up the Internet technical community” as well as “the technologies, resources, and services used to run the Internet.” Jose de la Cruz said “learning from the experts about IPv6 and DNS is always a rich experience,” and Glenn McKnight hopes to gain “a more in-depth knowledge of the inner workings of ARIN.” The great news is we plan to provide all of this and more for our fellows and attendees at ARIN 40!

An important part of being an ARIN fellow is learning how you can contribute to the ARIN community after your fellowship is over, so we asked our fellows what their future plans are. Barb Carra hopes to broaden her depth of knowledge related to policy that governs our use of the Internet because she believes “it’s important to share this information with our Canadian community to improve awareness and adoption of good practice.” Kerrie-Ann Richards explains “the Internet is the future and I need to be on the ground floor of policy. There is little awareness of ARIN in the Caribbean and I will be more able to lead discussions that have an effect on the needs of persons/entities from developing nations.”

Jeremy Austin has already started following policy development much closer than before and says “If I have experience or knowledge that can expand the pool, I look forward to contributing, particularly concerning community networks.” Rudi Daniel plans to “continue to participate on the PPML, and as the Caribbean region matures, I am able to contribute more.” And Adrian Schmidt believes by attending ARIN 40 it will “help me grow and be more valuable for my main place of work (a small university located in the middle of Alberta) as well as be a resource for others.” We look forward to seeing how all our fellows will remain involved and active in the ARIN community after San Jose!

We asked our fellows to summarize their feelings about being selected in one word, and the responses we received include:

• Thankful (Loris Taylor)

• Elated (Glenn McKnight, Kerrie-Ann Richards)

• Ecstatic! (Frank Bulk, Jose de la Cruz)

• Encouraged (Jeremy Austin)

• Excited (Rudi Daniel, Barb Carra, Christopher Regan)

• Spectacular! (Austin Murkland)

• Phenomenal (Cesar Oscar Cordero Casilla)

• HOORAY! (Nancy Carter)

• Delighted (Adrian Schmidt)

We can already tell this is going to be a great group of fellows who are eager and ready to get involved in policy discussions and networking at ARIN 40.

Congratulations once again to our ARIN 40 fellows. We can’t wait to see you all there!

P.S. The ARIN Fellowship Program for ARIN 41 in Miami, Florida 15-18 April 2018 is now open for applications!