AOP Notification

[Dave McClure]

Kim:

Just for the record, I for one am delighted at the prospect that you would bring your experience and expertise to ARIN.  And in spite of my feelings about some of the specifics, I do deeply appreciate the work you have done in drafting a proposal for us to hash out.

May I make a couple of suggestions?  

Much of our concern about the ARIN proposal revolves around two factors:  The selection of the board of trustees, and the fact that many critical elements of the organization (mission, goals and accountability) have gotten short shrift.

Some possible solutions:

!)  Have the initial Board of Trustees serve for one year only, and then re-elect a Board to continue the organization.  This will get the organization up and running, and clearly show that the Trustees have no hidden agendas and that they are appropriate to their positions.  Members of the initial Board could be elected then to longer terms if they have served well and if they wish to continue.

2)  Invite other interested parties (IETF, Internet Society, AOP, etc.) to nominate other candidates to the Board.  This will eliminate any stigma of InterNIC appointments and allow the organizations to take a stronger role in supporting ARIN.

3)  Consider holding an "ARIN Congress" meeting of interested parties that could approve the final proposal.  This also would help to build consensus, and remove objections that a group of 300 or so people in a single listserv are behind ARIN.

4)  Immediately begin work on preliminary mission statement, goals, structure, bylaws and budget for ARIN, so that these critical issues may be open to discussion.

5)  Reconsider the $1,000 dues for annual membership in ARIN.  If the intent is to have broad-based participation by the industry, then this level is far too steep.  And if the intent is not to open membership to that broad a base, consider setting up rules to have membership based on representation of constituencies within the Internet community (e.g., representatives from the Internet Society, IETF and organizations involved in the industry).  The funding model would work for either scenario with only minor modifications.

The less time we spend on he said/you said discussions of personalities, conspiracy theories, niggling details of IP address technicalities (isn't that what IETF is for?), the stronger the ARIN proposal will be.

The second draft is considerably better than the first in its explanation of some of the details, but this is still not a document that can be adopted at face value.

Dave McClure


----------
From: 	Kim Hubbard[SMTP:kimh at internic.net]
Sent: 	Saturday, February 01, 1997 8:29 PM
To: 	karl at CAVEBEAR.COM
Cc: 	NAIPR at LISTS.INTERNIC.NET; aop at cris.com; the_innkeeper at SOLS.NET
Subject: 	Re: AOP Notification

>
Karl,

If it makes you feel any less concerned....the intention is that
once ARIN is operational, there will be only one NSI employee on
the board, as I will be an employee of ARIN.  Of course, you are
free to infer something out of that fact also, since there is
probably nothing I could say to stop those of you who feel
that NSI has some hidden agenda regarding ARIN.  However, I will,
for the record, one more time, state that ARIN will be an independently
run organization with no connection to NSI.

Kim

> 
> > Also, your assertion that while the members of the initial
> > Board of Trustees do not directly represent the ISP community,
> > I would assert that they are wholly competent & knowledgeable
> > to represent the interests of the Internet community at-large.
> 
> I personally know two of the proposed BoT members.
> 
> It is my opinion that they are honest, capable, and competent. I would
> trust their judgement.
> 
> (As an aside, I am somewhat concerned that two of the proposed BoT members
> are employees of NSI -- this has nothing to do with them personally --
> rather, one might infer that this is more than a random coincidence and
> become concerned about what other non-random coincidences that this might
> foreshadow.)
> 
> 		--karl--
> 
> 
>