ARIN Members Meeting - Denver, CO - 20 October 1999 [Archived]

Call to Order

Kim Hubbard, ARIN President, called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. CST. Other Board members present included John Curran, Chairman, Scot Bradner, Don Telage, and Ken Fockler, Treasurer. Advisory Council members in attendance included Alec Peterson, Chairman, Bill Darte, Hilarie Orman, Jeremy Porter, Cathy Wittbrodt, Steve Corbato, David Whipple, and Justin Newton. Kim announced the availability of copies of the FY 1999 annual report for meeting attendees. There were 49 members in attendance.

Adoption of the Agenda

A review of the agenda yielded no expressed desire for changes and Kim moved ahead by introducing John Curran, Chairman of the Board.

Board of Trustees Summary

John talked about ARIN’s beginnings, that the needs of the community had dictated the necessity for ARIN and its openness. Now ARIN is a self-sustaining company that is supported by the community. John briefly spoke about the changes in our operations over the recent months. Subscription holders now automatically become members, which has increased our membership dramatically, and we reduced the membership fee for those not receiving IP address space from ARIN (non-subscribers). We’ve changed our election process to include a nominating committee, and to allow the general membership to elect the Board. Our staff has been busy internally on such projects as Y2K readiness and development of a new web site. Plus, our processes are now more open than ever.

Treasurer’s Report

Next, Ken Fockler was introduced to present an overview of ARIN’s financial position, providing figures for revenues, expenses, net assets, and current budget. For our first full fiscal year of operation, which ended June 30, our auditors gave us a clean bill of health. We are growing ARIN’s reserves in a fairly conservative manner with a 2-year projection of having a full year of operating expenses in reserve. Ken explained that IPv6 allocations may have an impact on our funding and we are targeting for a balanced budget within approximately 2 years based on our accrual method of accounting.

Ken continued with the statement of activities, including a breakdown of registration revenues by category, and the statement of financial position, explaining that the net assets from both of these statements balance out. Ken also described the statement of cash flows.

John provided comment about ARIN’s lease commitment schedule, offering that leasing equipment makes sense because it provides greater flexibility and better financial position. A question was posed regarding how ARIN’s investments are determined. Kim explained that investments are made conservatively and John added that they are used for services on a monthly basis. Ken concluded by saying that ARIN is in a healthy position financially.

Description of Online Election Process

Shane Kerr, ARIN senior software engineer, gave a brief description of ARIN’s newly developed online system for holding Board and AC elections. Highlighted features include a template with search capability for finding a voter’s organization name, and on-screen messages that prompt the voting member through the process.

Speeches by ARIN Board and AC Nominees

Presentations were given by three of the four candidates for the Board: David (Randy) Conrad, Scott Marcus, and Ron Muir. Rick McGee was not present.

Kim and John explained the election process and time frame for voting, as well as describing the responsibilities of the Board relating to fiduciary matters and all aspects of ARIN, that the position of Board member is becoming more of a political role, but that an understanding of technology is also important. The two open seats are currently held by Don Telage and Doug Humphrey.

William J. Darte, Steve Larson, Ron Roberts, Mark Kosters, Alec H. Peterson, John Sweeting, and Jason Redisch are AC nominees who gave speeches. One nominee, Deirdre Kostick, was not present. The five seats becoming open are currently held by Alec Peterson, Bill Darte, Avi Freedman, Ed Kern, and Hank Kilmer.

ARIN Operational Summary

Roger Halls, ARIN Director of Operations, described the engineering staff, the projects they have completed, and future projects. Minutes of this presentation can be found in the Public Policy Meeting Minutes. These presentations will be posted on ARIN’s web site.

Richard Jimmerson, Supervisor of RSG, gave an overview of the staffing for the group and a description of each of the positions, as well as their day-to-day activities. Richard described the group’s completed and future projects. (See Public Policy Meeting Minutes.) He went on to provide statistics which indicated that the number of IP requests and approved requests are increasing. Various statistics included IPv4 registrations, ASNs, SWIP templates processed, transfers, and network modifications. Staff processing time has been decreased dramatically due to training and ISPs providing more thorough information due to becoming more accustomed to ARIN’s guidelines. Richard indicated that ARIN’s routing registry, which was begun in February, has grown substantially. Kim indicated that due to the increasing number of ASNs assigned, ARIN will monitor their growth and will provide quantitative data online.

Discussion on ICANN Funding

First, Kim spoke of an ICANN funding task force comprised of representatives from RIRs, gTLDs, ccTLDs, and gTLD registrars that has been formed to consider the issues surrounding the funding of ICANN. ICANN has proposed that the RIRs be responsible for 10% ($428,000) of their projected overall $4.2M budget which is to be divided by the RIRs as they so decide. It was suggested that the amount be based on the size of each RIR’s budget compared to the other RIRs.

Kim felt that ARIN is currently in a position to manage its portion of the 10%. However, if ICANN’s budget were to increase in out years, increasingly more money would be required. Comments indicated that in this case, the fee should be presented to ARIN’s members for consideration, as well as an expense accounting from ICANN. A suggested approach was to place a cap on how much of ARIN’s budget can be applied. Any contract with them should stipulate how quickly ICANN can change the amount of funds they request. ARIN’s credit rating should be considered if an open-ended contract were signed. Kim assured the members that the Board would not sign an open-ended contract.

Funding should provide for all players to contribute, not just the RIRs and domain name registrars, and should be based on the amount of support received from ICANN. Are fees to members appropriate? Should we have ICANN bill us each year? Should we request from ICANN specifically what services we expect and what we propose to pay? Funding plans should consider the impact it would have on small ISPs’ ability to compete. Concluding this discussion, John stated that we will have an approach going into discussions with ICANN which will be presented to our members for their input. The meeting then recessed for lunch.

Advisory Council Summary

Next on the agenda, Alec Peterson provided a status of AC activities, including consideration of whether to change the minimum allocation for multi-homed organizations from /20 to /24, which would allow all multi-homed entities to receive IP space. One block would be reserved for these allocations so that ISPs would not filter out those addresses. Cathy Wittbrodt came forward to announce that a draft ASO ad hoc charter has been developed which will be reviewed in ICANN’s meeting in Los Angeles and posted to ICANN’s web site.

Returning to the podium, Kim provided a wrap up of membership changes that occurred this past year. She asked for input on how to get members involved in ARIN activities, and Bill Darte asked why there hasn’t been more activity on the mailing lists. Members are invited to become more involved and provide ideas in the near future.

Schedule for Next Meeting

The next ARIN members’ meeting is planned to be held in April 2000 with the location yet to be decided. Possible locations include Calgary or Banff, Canada (Shaw Cable), and La Pas, California (NIC Mexico).

Adjourn

With no further comments or questions voiced, the meeting was adjourned.

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