[members-discuss] Questions to RIPE NCC in light of last GM

Dear all,

I would like to thank the members for their input over the previous 
weeks, and especially during the General Meeting last week. We have 
received a lot of input from the members and community that we have 
taken on board, and now begins the work of addressing that feedback.

We see the requests for more details on a wide range of topics including 
on IT infrastructure costs and set-up. Our CTO has written a RIPE Labs 
article that gives more detail and he also presented at the RIPE Meeting 
on this topic. Links to both are below:
https://labs.ripe.net/author/felipe_victolla_silveira/reducing-the-ripe-nccs-data-centre-footprint/
https://ripe88.ripe.net/archives/video/1336/

More information on depreciation and bad debts (and much more besides) 
is available in the Financial Report 2023 (see pages 17, 18, 32 and 33):
https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-821/

We also answered many questions that arose during the recent discussions 
in the Q&A we provided as part of the charging scheme discussion:
https://www.ripe.net/membership/mail/member-and-community-consultations/charging-scheme-2025-consultation/charging-scheme-2025-q-and-a/

We will work to make this Q&A more comprehensive, adding topics outside 
the charging scheme discussion and adapting it as we see interest in 
other areas. We are always looking for ways to improve our reporting and 
we can see how we can publish more information on an ongoing basis 
through our regular reporting. We are a very transparent organisation, 
and some of the questions asked on this list are already answered in our 
documentation or presentations. We will look at ways to make the 
considerable amount of information we provide easier to find.

The goal here should not be transparency for transparency’s sake - we 
aim to strike the right balance so we can increase trust and 
understanding of our governance and operations. Providing details on 
every line item or euro spent costs us a lot of time and effort, and 
this translates into costs for the members. The people who would work on 
providing those details also run the organisation or are essential to 
maintaining services. So we need to prioritise accordingly and work to 
ensure our regular reporting contains the information you need while 
carrying out our work to maintain our services.

This is perhaps where you can help us. Are there organisations of 
similar size or type to us who are providing more details than we are? 
And are they providing it in a more coherent way that makes it easy for 
you to understand? Let us know. We are always happy to get suggestions 
or inspiration on how we might do our reporting in a better way.

The Executive Board also committed at the General Meeting to discussing 
ways of involving members in charging scheme proposals, and this will be 
added to the agenda for the upcoming Board meeting in June.

I am now starting the Activity Plan and Budget cycle with my management 
team, and we will make it a point to include more details there that 
address the points raised by members. This document will be published at 
the beginning of October to give members four weeks to comment before 
the General Meeting on 28 October. We see this process as a good 
opportunity to provide more details that will help give you an insight 
into the workings at the RIPE NCC.

Best regards,

Hans Petter Holen
Managing Director
RIPE NCC