[ncc-announce] [news] The RIPE NCC Welcomes 10,000th Member

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted to announce that today, 18 February 2014, the RIPE NCC
welcomed its 10,000th member into the association. This is an exciting
milestone that the entire RIPE NCC membership should be proud of. The
RIPE NCC fully embraces the addition of so many new members from all 76
countries in its service region and from an expanding range of
industries. The RIPE NCC is committed to providing support and guidance
to all its members and fostering a spirit of cooperation among them.

We believe that the open processes of the RIPE NCC are fundamental to
the expansion of the membership. These processes are developed in line
with feedback received from our members and the policies decided by the
RIPE community, so the current growth rate is testament to the
successful collaboration among the RIPE NCC, its members and the wider
community.

While this is a landmark to be proud of, we are also conscious that such
growth brings its own challenges in terms of integrating new members.
New members are joining from all corners of the service region, and we
must be diligent in reaching out to these organisations and ensuring
that they feel fully part of the membership, while maintaining excellent
support and service for our longer-term members.

Personally, I find it extremely rewarding to see members from very
different countries and industries coming together in person and online
to discuss common issues and concerns, and deciding among themselves the
best way forward for the association. The RIPE NCC management and the
Executive Board are prepared to meet any challenges that the
organisation may face going forward. An increased membership, reflecting
the full diversity of the Internet community, allows us to work together
with a greater pool of knowledge and it gives us a much stronger voice
than if we were to proceed separately.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all members for their
support and help in bringing us to our current position. We look forward
to working together to increase the strength of the membership in the
coming years.

A dynamically updated graph showing the current membership statistics is
available at:
https://labs.ripe.net/statistics/number-of-lirs

Kind regards,

Axel Pawlik
Managing Director
RIPE NCC