Minutes of the 11th RIPE NCC Executive Board Meeting

Date: 13th of April 1999

Time: 12:00 hrs

Location: RIPE NCC Offices, Amsterdam

Version: 1.2

Present:
Keith Mitchell, (KM)
Frode Greisen, (FG)
Kees Neggers, (KN)
Wim Vink, (WV)
Mike Norris (MN)
Daniel Karrenberg, (DK)
Rob Blokzijl (RB)(invited guest)

KM chaired the meeting.
The agenda was agreed as follows:

Agenda

1.1 Minutes of previous meetings
1.2 Outstanding Actions & Matters Arising
2. Financial Reports
3. Operational Report
4. ICANN & Address Supporting Organisation
5. New Managing Director Recruitment
6. New RIPE NCC Structure
7. AOB
8. Next Meeting

1.1 Minutes of previous meetings

The minutes of the 9th and 10th Board Meetings were approved with minor corrections.

1.2 Outstanding Actions & Matters Arising

Outstanding actions were reviewed and all were marked done.

The Board passed a resolution by electronic mail on March 14 1999, regarding 1998 Surplus to Clearing House by electronic mail:

     "The Executive Board designate the 1998 operating
      surplus in its entirity to the clearinghouse account."

2. Financial Reports

At this point Kees van Draanen (Kvd) joined the Board and distributed the 1998 audited accounts to the Board at the meeting, since the auditors completed their work on the Friday before. KvD lead a question and answer session. The Board decided to take approximately two weeks to read the audited statements and to address any further questions directly to KvD. After Board approval by electronic mail the accounts will be published on the web site as per AGM resolution of 15th October 1998. The audited Statements will be formally approved in the Annual General Meeting in October 1999. The operating surplus for 1998 comes out at 732,369 XEU.

The First results of the quarter of 1999 were presented to the Board, all questions were answered and the Board decided to see this Report quarterly.

DK and KvD reported that the Salary administration will be taken over internally within the next few weeks. This will be done more accurately and more timely than the present salary administrators. This will take approximately 3 days per month. WV noted while he had agreed to this in discussing with the Management that he still has reservations and wanted to have an evaluation of this by end of the year and stressed that proper checks and control should be done to prevent irregularities. KN supported WV.

3. Operational Report

Registries Growth Rate: The Growth in the Registry numbers has increased noticeably from the one per calender day of the experience of last year. In the First 3 months we had 174 new members which represent a doubling of the growth rate. In the discussion that followed it was concluded to regard this as structural rather than spurious. DK informed the Board that in response to this growth he is increasing the hiring rate in Registration Services. The Board asked him to go ahead with the operational measures that are necessary to cope with growth and to keep them informed. DK suggested to the Board to contribute to a strategic review within 1999 of registration services for 3 years ahead considering the current growth and the possible increase of growth.

Work Council: RIPE NCC is in the process of formation of an Ondernemingsraad or works council (OR). DK added that this was done in accordance with the Dutch Law and upon the request of the employees. He explained what the OR role will be according to the law.

Salary Scale Structure: DK informed the Board that the review of NCC

salary scales was now being implemented by an external consultants group "Vitae" which will deliver results by the end of the second quarter. In the third quarter these results will need to be reviewed and translated into a new salary scale system. He requested that the Board consider involving his replacement in this process as soon as possible and possibly before he/she starts work. The board should also consider their own involvement in this matter.

Activity and Expenditure Plan: DK informed the Board that the Activity and Expenditure Plan for the Year 2000 will start to be written in June and that he expects it to be ready before the September Board meeting. DK asked of the early involvement of his replacement as soon as possible. The Board decided to have the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday October the 19th at 10.30 am at Schiphol to approve the Activity and Expenditure Plan and the Charging Scheme of the Year 2000. The Board will also set further Board meeting dates on its meeting of 6 September, 1999.

4. ICANN & Address Supporting Organisation

DK informed the Board that ARIN is moving positively in the direction of opening the processes in a way comparable to RIPE's relation to the RIPE NCC. At their membership meeting of 12 of April, ARIN created working groups and decided to change its structure so that its customers will become the formal members. The Board welcomed this development as it strengthens the legitimacy of the self governance processes with the regional registries.

Regarding the ASO of ICANN the Board reviewed developments since the last Board meeting. After discussions the Board concluded that a steady progress in the definition of the ASO is absolutely needed and that a careful open process, defining the ASO structure is needed to be executed involving all interested parties. The Board realized that neither the Board members nor DK will have sufficient time to progress this steadily. It was therefore agreed to attract an external Manager for that process on behalf of the RIPE NCC. The person in question, needs to dedicate more than 20 hours a week to this issue and ideally have some independent standing of their own. The Board allocated appropriate funds for this purpose. DK was asked to produce a profile and a task description for the ASO Manager. KM was asked to approach the other RIR's and ask them whether this person could be jointly retained.

Regarding the Proposal to meet with EuroISPA Council on 29/4: EuroISPA together with CIX have submitted a proposal of ASO to ICANN without consultation with RIPE NCC. The Board concluded that our current communications channels are not sufficient. Therefore KM and RB will try to meet with Euro ISPA in Brussels in order to establish better communication. At this point RB left the meeting.

5. New Managing Director Recruitment

The Board received a proposal from the Executive Management Search Consultants "Added Value". The selection process will be as follows:

a- The position will be advertised on the web and a limited number of the press media.

b- applications will be received and and reviewed by "Added Value". Any applications wrongly addressed to the RIPE NCC will be forwarded to "Added Value".

c- "Added Value" will do pre-screening and with the advice of KN, KM and WV will limit the number of applicants to around 10. Also a list of all the applications received will be provided to the Board for information.

d- "Added Value" will conduct interviews with 10* applicants and will limit them to around 3. The ones with promise will be introduced to the RIPE NCC Management.

e- The Board will hold formal interviews and decide on the appointment.

(Note that the numbers of people selected at each stage can vary depending on the Number and quality of applicants)

6. New RIPE NCC Structure

The Board discussed to change the RIPE NCC internal structure, to strengthen the development of new activities and services. After thorough discussions the Board expressed the view that these changes should be implemented as soon as possible and before a Managing Director is appointed. It was felt that a good and stable structure should be defined and as independent as possible from the personalities involved. A number of options were discussed and the Board recommended that a new position for development of new services and activities be created. The responsibilities attached to this position will be to identify the needs for new services and develop them from proposals to operational services, making use of personnel and resources from all appropriate departments of the RIPE NCC. The Board further recommended that the new position should have a number of resources dedicated to it. The Board did not make a specific recommendation where exactly this function should be placed within the RIPE NCC internal structure. DK will develop a proposal for the new function based on the Board's guidance.

7. AOB No other Business

8. Next Meeting

Because of timely developments the Board decided to have an extra meeting on July 13th at 10 a.m in Oslo during the IETF meeting.

Actions this meeting

No.     Date     Who    What                                            Status

TC 13   13/04/99 all   Raise any remaining issue on the 1998 Audited   OPEN
                       Accounts with KvD

TC 14   13/04/99  DK   To write a Job Description of the ASO process    OPEN
                       manager and e-mail it to the boards.

TC 15   13/04/99  DK   To develop a proposal for the function of        OPEN
                       "New Activities and Services Development" 
                        
TC 16   13/04/99  KM   To approach the RIR's to jointly retain the ASO  OPEN
                       Manager

TC 17    13/04/99 RB   RB and KM to join the  EuroISPA  IN Brussels     OPEN   
                  
KM