[ppml] Metric for rejecting policy proposals: AC candidate question

[Sam Weiler]

On Tue, 3 Oct 2006, Edward Lewis wrote:

> There is no choice to be made.  Changes to the NRPM undergo the
> IRPEP, which may involve the AC.  ("May" refers to the exceptions for
> emergency changes.)  Changes to the way ARIN (and it's staff) carry
> out the duties of ARIN now go through the ACSP.

Ed, I admire your ability to see things in such black and white
terms.  I don't.

When the NRPM already deals with a particular matter, yes, the IRPEP 
is needed to change it.  When it doesn't, the path is less clear. 
Here are some particular examples of changes that I think could 
(arguably, at least) be handled through either the IRPEP or outside 
it:

-- 2006-6.  This has already been addressed outside of the IRPEP.

-- 2006-3.  It appears that staff can modify the templates to do this
    even without specific direction from the IRPEP.

-- 2006-1.  Had there been broad agreement with my interpretation of
    2003-3, staff could have made that clarification without needing
    the proposal -- arguably, we don't even need to change the NRPM.

-- The RSA Modification procedure and Requirement for Reasonable
    Contract Terms proposals: the proponents thought these were
    appropriate for the IRPEP, but they were addressed (in some
    fashion), by the staff/board.  I continue to believe that
    significant hurdles to getting resources are within scope for the
    IRPEP, and the RSA certainly counts as such a hurdle.

-- 2003-7.  The policy proposal was abandoned, but ARIN seems to be
    doing this now.

So, again, while I agree that the IRPEP is needed to change the NRPM, 
remember that the NRPM "... is only a reformatting of existing policy 
statements,"[1] and it is often ambiguous as to whether a change in a 
process that isn't already mandated in the NRPM needs to be adopted 
through such a policy or could be adopted by the board/staff on its 
own initiative.

-- Sam

[1] http://www.arin.net/meetings/minutes/bot/bot2004_0929.html