[address-policy-wg] 2023-04 Who do I speak for?

Hi Denis,

Thank you for explaining how you see your role.

I would like to clarify a few things you mentioned in your mail. I hope 
this will be useful especially for RIPE community members who might not 
have the long history in the community that some of us have.

1. Regarding the role of the RIPE Community:

The fact that the RIPE community is not a legal entity and that it is 
open to anyone who wants to participate, does not mean it is "undefined".

 From the beginning, the RIPE community has agreed to document its 
decisions and processes as RIPE documents that are publicly accessible. 
In the RIPE Terms of Reference (ripe-001) [1] the mission and scope of 
RIPE is defined. We have a clearly defined policy development process 
and clearly defined governance processes that the community agrees to 
follow.

Decisions are made by consensus and RIPE documents go through a defined 
community review.

2. Regarding the relation between RIPE and the RIPE NCC:

The RIPE NCC clearly states its role as the secretariat of RIPE in its 
mission, activity plan and budget. These are formal documents the RIPE 
NCC members vote on.

Also, there is a long track record of the RIPE NCC following guidance 
from the RIPE community.

3. Regarding the role of a chair:

It is the responsibility of a chair to listen and to guide discussions, 
to summarise and to actively build consensus.

Those of us who serve in a special function or have a leadership role 
are aware of the fact that people tend to see us as being in that role. 
Therefore we need to take extra care if and when we decide to 
participate in a discussion as an individual.

Kind regards,
Mirjam
(RIPE Chair)


[1] RIPE Terms of Reference
https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-001