[ripe-list] Proposal for a full-time position for the RIPE Chair

	Hi Erik!

> On 25 Nov 2017, at 00:15, Erik Bais <ebais at a2b-internet.com> wrote:
> 
> As one might expect, being a RIPE chair, requires a huge amount of spare/private and vacation time and an employer (if not self-employed) that would see the value or benefit of employing the RIPE Chair.. and there is the ‘stress’ especially if it is busy at the office (day-job) and seeing issues that would demand your attention, with a community with its huge size …
> 
> Currently it is my expectation that the RIPE chair position is consuming more than 14 weeks of work in its current way how Hans-Petter is running the position. And that is currently unpaid …
> Obviously not everything is covered in this by his vacation days .. and it is not that he is sitting idle on his hands at his day job.
> 
> If the RIPE Chair position would be a full time position, it would allow the RIPE chair to attend more regional NOG meetings, member lunches, other RIR meetings or ICANN meetings or help with more Governance discussions with the various Governments that require our communities perspective.  Or talks about GDPR or alike …
> It would be good for the community if the RIPE Chair would and could position/voice the community view, which may or may not be similar or be voiced differently in meetings with governments or ICANN meetings, apart from the view of the RIPE NCC itself.

The role as RIPE chair is in many ways very similar to the AD / IESG membership positions in the IETF except they are virtually full time. I am not convinced about your idea for a number of reasons. First, I am not sure we need a separate body that work on GDPR etc as we have the NCC staff working on that. Duplicating this doesn’t seem like a good use of funds and resources. Secondly, if we employ a chair it would have to be more static as few people would leave an existing job for a five year contact and I worry that will limit the selection pool. Last, creating a legal entity that represents the RIPE community requires a lot more formalisation of how that legal entity registers members, policy etc. and I am not convinced we want that.

I think it is great you raise this issue as we should explore it but for me the negatives currently outweighs the positives.

Best Regards,

- kurtis -
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