Minutes of the fourth RIPE NCC Executive Board Meeting

Date: May  25th 1998 in Amsterdam.

Version: 0.2

Present:
Keith Mitchell, Chairman (KM)
Wilfried Woeber (WW)
Wim Vink (WV)
Frode Greisen (FG)
Kees Neggers (KN)
Daniel Karrenberg (DK)
Rob Blokzijl (RB) only present during discussing item 4
Frederike Ritzema (FR)

1. Agenda
The agenda was agreed as follows:

    1. Agenda
    2. Approval of minutes of last meeting held 3/3/98  
    3. Outstanding actions
    4. Internet Governance Issues
    5. Internal Restructuring
    6. Finances
    7. Operational reports
    8. Presentation of Board on Web page
    9. Remuneration of General Manager
    10. Any Other Business 

2. Approval of minutes of last meeting held 3/3/98  
The minutes and were approved.

3.  Outstanding actions
A-EB01: Ongoing. DK mentioned that he will first have to make a 
a formal year 2000/millennium plan, before the board liability insurance 
can be effected. The insurance costs have been estimated to be
about 5000 ECU a year. 
New action A-EB12/DK: to make a millennium plan.
A-EB02: Done
A-EB03: Done
A-EB04: Done
A-EB05: Ongoing
A-EB06: Done, see the new action A-EB15
A-EB07: Done, DK: to remind Board to choose a few dates for 
meeting with ARIN Board.
A-EB08: Open
A-EB09: Ongoing, KM will forward a copy when it is ready.
A-EB10: Done
A-EB11: Done


3.1. Date of next meeting
Next meeting: to be held in Amsterdam, 7 September 1998, 13:00 
start.

3.2. Annual General Meeting (AGM)
AGM: to be held in Amsterdam 15 October 1998.

Continuing the practise of the RIPE NCC contributors meetings, 
the Board decided to call AGM's ones a year in October such that 
the activity plans and fees for the coming year can be properly 
discussed.
The financial results will be published to the memberships early 
in the year and formally discussed at the AGM.

A-EB13/DK: to prepare the agenda, including a motion to formally 
postpone the 1999 AGM until after October 1999. To call the AGM 
on behalf of the Board.


4. Internet Governance Issues

4.1. Cooperation with other RIR

ARIN
DK reported that the delegation of ARIN, including ARIN president, 
attended the RIPE meeting and visited RIPE NCC afterwards. All 
issues of cooperation between ARIN and RIPE NCC were discussed. 
ARIN staff were able to observe RIPE NCC operations and 
procedures. ARIN expressed concern about RIPE NCC policies 
concerning initial allocation of address space to new LIR's. DK 
has noted the concern and explained the policy setting process in 
the RIPE LIR working group to the ARIN delegation. He explained 
the reason for the rational of the particular policies, especially 
the need for the RIPE NCC to avoid restricting access to 
Registration Services.

A-EB14/Board: The Board is asked to establish working relationship 
and take up policy issues with the ARIN Board. The Board is asked 
to explore possibilities of the RIPE NCC getting access to the 
proceedings of the ARIN advisory council for informational 
purposes.

APNIC
DK reports on developments within APNIC and noted that relations 
on the working level are excellent. The Board is asked to 
establish regular contact with the APNIC Board.

GAR
KM and DK report on discussions about formalisation of regional 
registries cooperation and coordination with ARIN Board during Los 
Angela's IETF conference. This is generally referred to as GAR 
(Global Address Registries). De board wishes to concentrate on 
whois database and conflict resolution procedures initially. The 
Board recognises that the coordination activities are such that 
they need to be intensified and may need to be formalised. Care 
should be taken that such formalisation is not regarded as 
antagonistic to other Internet governance activities, especially 
establishment for a formal structure of IANA. The Board wishes to 
hold a teleconference about governance issues once the US 
government publishes their white paper on Internet governance.

A-EB15/DK: to organise the telephone conference on the governance 
issues after receiving the white paper on Internet governance.

The Board wishes to meet with Board members of other RIR's during 
the INET conference in Geneva.

A-EB16/KM: to organise a meeting with Board members of other RIR's 
during the INET conference in Geneva on the 22th of July.


4.2. IANA Developments
DK reports that no significant process has occurred since the last 
meeting and that further process is expected after the publication of 
the US government white paper.
DK reminds the Board that an initial IANA Board member representing 
our RIR will need to be designated.


4.3. Russian Regional Registry 
RB and DK report that since last Board meeting, there were no 
positive developments on the proposed Russian Regional Registry as 
expected. RB informed the RIPE meeting that these plans would not 
be pursued further. Publishing a RIPE document about this 
development was deemed unnecessary. RB, RIPE NCC and ROSNIIROS 
representatives have met during the RIPE meeting and agreed on 
further steps to deal with those LIR's served by ROSNIIROS. The 
first step will be to document current practices thoroughly. RB 
and DK will pursue this further.


5. Internal Restructuring
DK reported on the progress of the implementation of internal 
restructuring, (see http://www.ripe.net/info/ncc/people.html). The 
implementation is going smoothly. Current key vacancies are 
Controller, PR Group Leader and Quality Manager. DK expects to hire 
the Controller this month.
The restructuring has progressed well and has met with good expectance 
from the staff.
KM expressed the concern that the top management structure would not 
free DK enough of day to day management in order to concentrate on 
strategy and new activities.  
DK replies that he wants to review this once the Controller is in 
function and expects enough relief.
DK will inform the board as soon as it becomes clear to him
that the business side of his load is not sufficiently reduced
by the new controller.
DK also notes that the Controller's job is not a one to one 
replacement of the formal Business Manager position,
a number of the former business manager's tasks are taken 
up by other people now.


6. Finances
EB(98)15
Due to the large payroll it is expected that some
salary related payments will exceed the payment authorisation limit 
of DK (100 kECU). It was agreed to raise the payment authorisation
for payroll related  expenses to 200kECU. Separate procedures 
for capital expenditure need to be developed.
WV also asks that the payment procedures require authorisation
of two managers for each payment.


A-EB17/DK: To define new payment authorisations and inform the board.


6.1. 1997 Results
RIPE NCC has provided the income and expenditures 1997 figures for 
Terena's 1997 report and the auditors have checked these. 
The auditors expect no unforeseen fiscal issues.
As far as company tax about previous years goes we have to wait
for the audit of the tax authorities.

6.2. Financial Reports
DK reported on the current financial state of the NCC.
Personnel expenditures are lower than budgeted  because of the unforeseen
restructuring and the slowing down of hiring that resulted.
DK currently estimates to spend 1.4 MECU on staff
while 1.9 MECU is bdugeted. The annual payroll cost of all
staff employed in December 1998 is estimated at approximately 2MECU.
Responding to the question why the is a big difference in the 
actual and budgeted staff training, DK explained that much
staff training was postponed during the restructuring and that
the uptake of training was lower than expected in general.

WV noted that there are no provisions made for the bad debts 
in the current P&L account.
DK responded that he currently cannot make a reasonably accurate
estimate of bad debts. He is working to implement sufficient procedures
for accounts payable such that outstanding debts are collected
in a more timely fashin and a reasonably accurate
 appraisal of the collectibility of debts can be made. 
DK realises that this is a problem area and will give it his special
attention. The NCC  has already stopped providing service to some
members with multiple long-overdue invoices with encouraging results.

Suggestions from the Board were: 

- to send first polite reminders
- second stop providing services 
- next step is to stop in-addr delegation 
- and fourth to take legal actions;

A-EB18/DK: to define and implement accounts receiveable procedures


7. Operational reports

7.1. Test Traffic Measurements / Status report
A BOF was held at the RIPE meeting in Stockholm with the main subject
being the data disclosure policy.
14 test boxes have been sent out. 6 are operating and the others
are coming on line. By the next meeting 20 will be operating.
First publishable results are expected by the time of the next 
RIPE first results.  General response is very positive.
Before the end of this year the number of staff 
working on this project will also be increased.

7.2. RIPE CENTR / Status report
During the last RIPE meeting it was discussed that there should be 
a collection for the RIPE CENTR funds and who should be doing the 
work. It turned out that they want funds collected by a third 
party. The first decision was to let Switch maintain it. The second 
decision was that if there were tax complications, RIPE should do 
it. The final decision was that Switch should maintain the 
financial part.
DK is discussing a service contract with Switch and the CENTR
policy group headed by Boudewijn Nederkoorn.

RIPE CENTR should get a separate legal status as soon as possible. 
The planning is to make CENTR independent in 1999. At the moment a 
committee is investigating this issue. There 
is more than enough fund for RIPE CENTR at the moment.


8. Publicity/ presentation of Board on Web page
Decided is to place a short biography of each Board member on the 
Web site. This information will not be linked to other Web sites.

A-EB19/Board: to provide FR a short biography that can be placed 
on the RIPE Web site.


9.  Remuneration of General Manager
A-EB05/Board: The remuneration committee has decided to 
offer a new contract to DK. It is expected to conclude 
negotiations  within two weeks.


10. Any Other Business 
* Chamber of Commerce
Carol Orange and Paul Ridley have been taken off the list of 
peoiple with power of attorney. Mirjam Kuehne and 
John Crain will be given power of attorney to represent 
the association when acting together.


* Statutorial Director
WV suggests to investigate whether DK should become a statutorial director.

A-EB20/DK: to list the advantages and disadvantages of having a 
Statuorial Director.

* Meeting documents by regular and e-mail
Board members are requested to indicate to FR whether they require
a paper copy of meeting materials sent to them. 


* AGM meeting
A-EB21/DK: to give a status report to the AGM at the meeting.