Minutes 81st Executive Board Meeting

Minutes of the 81st Executive Board Meeting by teleconference, 12 January 2012, 11:00
Author: Paul Rendek
Date: 2012/01/12
Status: Final
Maintainer: Sabine Mader

Draft Minutes of the 81st RIPE NCC Executive Board meeting by teleconference, 12 January 2012, 11:00, RIPE NCC Offices, Amsterdam


Attendees:
Dmitry Burkov, ICANN Liaison
Christian Kaufmann, Secretary
Nigel Titley, Chairman
Remco Van Mook, Treasurer
János Zsakó, Adviser

Sabine Mader, Assistant to the Managing Director, RIPE NCC
Axel Pawlik, Managing Director, RIPE NCC
Paul Rendek, Head of External Relations, RIPE NCC
Jochem de Ruig, Chief Financial Officer, RIPE NCC

Agenda

1. Welcome, apologies
2. Agenda
3. Updated Treasury Statute
4. RIPE NCC Rental Agreement
5. Charging Scheme Task Force
6. AoB

Nigel Titley, RIPE NCC Chairman, opened the meeting at 13:15

1. Welcome, apologies

Dmitry Burkov, János Zsakó and Paul Rendek joined the meeting via webex tele-conference.

Fahad AlShirawi was not present.


2. Agenda

Nigel asked the Board members if they had any additional agenda items to add. No new agenda items were brought forward.


3. Updated Treasury Statute

Nigel addressed the agenda point by stating that the current Treasury Statute was not suitable for the RIPE NCC reserves due to the financial crisis that is impacting the financial stability of
the Euro and the credit ratings of the Eurozone governments. He commented that the statute needs to be revised.

Jochem reported from a separate meeting he had together with Janos and Remco. He confirmed that they discussed proposals to change the scope of the statute.

Jochem confirmed that the proposed solution is to have a diversified portfolio of investments. The principle is to change from a strategy of risk avoidance to risk minimalisation. He also
stated that one of our major banks has advised us to lower our rating expectation for the banks used by the RIPE NCC.

Remco commented that at this time the RIPE NCC cannot avoid having some risk, due to the financial situation, but by diversifying the portfolio and closely monitoring the changes in the investment environment. Nigel believes that the RIPE NCC should put this into place as soon as possible.

The proposal is as follows:

- Keep funds to a maximum of 50% of the total reserve in non-euro currency
- Set up a minimum of two government bonds with AAA countries outside the Eurozone; countries under consideration are Norway, Sweden and Australia.
- Set up US Dollar bank account which holds 2-years of the RIPE NCC annual obligations in USD, approximately around USD 1 million.

Nigel asked the Board for their approval of the proposal. The Board unanimously agreed to approve the proposed changes to the treasury statutes.


4. RIPE NCC Rental Agreement

Jochem provided the Board with an update on the plans for RIPE NCC office space rental.

There were questions raised about the size of the office space area and the length of the contracts on the office space. After some discussion, the Board formally authorised Axel to sign the contracts for the additional RIPE NCC office space, according to the proposal made.


5. Charging Scheme Task Force

Nigel provided a review of the current progress made to establish a RIPE NCC Charging Scheme Task Force. He commented that although he was pleased with the turn out of volunteers there were too many people as a whole that volunteered to participate on the task force.

Nigel proposed to group the individuals by member size category and have one person from each group represent the Members of that size in the task force. He asked the Board for their comment on this proposal. After discussion the Board agreed on the proposal.

Remco stated that the task force is designed to study alternatives and propose these to the Board. Following any recommendations from the task force the RIPE NCC Board is responsible to make a final decision. He stressed that it is important that the Board make this very clear to the individuals.

After discussion the Board agreed that a chairman is needed to lead the group. The Board nominated Remco as the Board representative to lead the Charging Scheme Task Force.

The Board agreed that there are currently two tasks that need to be resolved, to create and agree a charter and to select the members of the task force.

ACTION: The Board asked Axel to review the draft charter for the RIPE NCC Charging Scheme Task Force. Nigel asked the Board to comment on the charter by 20 January 2012.


6. AoB

No other points of business were brought forward.

The Chairman closed the meeting at 15:00

New Action Items:

EB241 12/01/2012 AP
The Board asked Axel to draft a charter for the RIPE NCC Charging Scheme Task Force. Nigel asked the Board to comment on the charter by 20 January 2012.