[ARIN-consult] Consultation on Proposed 2018 Fee Schedule Changes

Owen DeLong owen at delong.com
Mon Apr 9 13:38:24 EDT 2018


John,

With all due respect, speaking as an end user who would face not a $100->$150 increase, but a $300->$450 increase mostly predicated on resources which are legacy and which weren’t costing me anything until ARIN restructured the way it charges
end-users to convert me from paying one fee as an end-user to paying 3 fees (a change which, had I known was even possible,
I would NOT have done the community-minded thing and signed the LRSA, keeping 2 of my 3 resources in the FREE category in
perpetuity).

This so-called “modest” $150/year increase in my fees is neither desired, nor appreciated and frankly, no, I’m not seeing
a significant expansion in recent years of the ARIN services I use or of the number of interactions I carry out with ARIN
annually in relation to my resources (which, if you don’t count paying my invoices) is approximately zero.

I realize that since end-users don’t have voting rights unless they subscribe to an additional $500/year poll tax, we are easy targets here, but I do not support the proposed increase being borne entirely by the end-user with no impact on ISPs.

Owen


> On Apr 9, 2018, at 08:59 , John Curran <jcurran at arin.net> wrote:
> 
> On 9 Apr 2018, at 10:07 AM, Bill Woodcock <woody at pch.net <mailto:woody at pch.net>> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Apr 9, 2018, at 6:43 AM, ARIN <info at arin.net <mailto:info at arin.net>> wrote:
>>> ARIN has increased operating costs in recent years to meet
>>> customer demand for improved and broader services
>> 
>> The membership seem to be relatively clear that they’re not in favor of scope-creep.  And there are already 88 staff, the majority of whom are in Engineering.  The theory was that they were supposed to be temporary contractors, doing one-time projects to automate ARIN registry functions.  Yet the “temporary” part never seems to come to a conclusion.
>> 
>> Can you present the budget, and explain what specific new services you’re proposing to perform with this additional money, and give us a status-update on the progress being made toward specific goals by the existing 45 engineers?
> 
> Bill (and David) - 
> 
>     Both the specific deliverables accomplished, as well as the upcoming deliverables can be found online here
>     <https://www.arin.net/features/ <https://www.arin.net/features/>>, and here <https://www.arin.net/features/planned.html <https://www.arin.net/features/planned.html>> respectively.
>     
>     The budget is always available online here <https://www.arin.net/about_us/corp_docs/strategic_plan.html <https://www.arin.net/about_us/corp_docs/strategic_plan.html>>
>     along with the Strategic Plan and two-year operating plans which includes our annual objectives.   For 2018,
>     we anticipate revenues of $20.9 USD million and expenses of $23.8 USD million, thus we are impacting our 
>     reserves in the short term.  Our base model does (as you note) include additional engineering “surge" staffing 
>     and this continues through 2018, although this does not continue in 2019.  Even with that adjustment, ARIN 
>     will be operating at approximately at $1.3 million USD net-to-reserves position each year on a going-forward
>     basis. 
> 
>     So while ARIN’s present medium-term (5 year) financial outlook is solid, it not as robust as the Board has 
>     traditionally sought – specifically, with present plan and fee schedule we’ll be taking our reserves from $25.9 
>     million to approximately $21.6 million though 2022.  This downward trajectory is likely to continue over the 
>     long-term, and could even accelerate, since our annual revenue includes about $1.4M of investment income 
>     that will drop in a corresponding manner with a declining reserve balance; hence why addressing the gap 
>     is a simpler matter if done sooner rather than later. 
>     
>     The proposed fee change would provide the following net increase in annual revenues:
> 
> 	• Facilitator fee - net revenue increase 					+      $34,000 
> 	• End-user Maintenance fee: net revenue increase 		+ $1,400,000
> 	• LRSA holders Maintenance fees: net revenue increase	+      $33,500
> 
>     The total annual revenue increase with the proposed fee schedule change is 1.47M USD, which would have ARIN 
>     be net neutral to the reserves for the foreseeable future.  The increase to facilitator fees was deemed appropriate 
>     because we are seeing significant increased costs related to maintenance of that program (specifically in addressing
>     parties who are not actual participants but still call themselves “ARIN Facilitators”. ) 
> 
>     Regarding the maintenance fee increases, our end-user community engages in significant ongoing interactions with
>     ARIN and yet is approximately one fifth of ARIN's total revenue.  Our investment in systems (such as ARIN Online) 
>     benefit the entire ARIN community, and that community is disproportionately end-users.  In fact, much of our most
>     improvements have been “easy-of-use” related for the benefit of those smaller organizations that are new to ARIN 
>     and doing requests for the first time. 
> 
>     For the vast majority end-users, the fee change results in a modest $100 to $150 annual increase –depending on 
>     whether the organization has only one of IPv4 or IPv6 and an ASN, or both IPv4 block, IPv6 block, and an ASN. 
>     While the total impact is still quite small in terms of individual end-user invoice, it is true that it could be deemed 
>     a very significant increase when viewed on a percentage basis.  This increase is not without corresponding value, 
>     as the  services provided have been quite enhanced over time (including improvements to ARIN Online allowing 
>     easier administration, addition two-factor authentication, streamlined request and ticket sections, etc.) so those 
>     using ARIN services have indeed benefitted from ARIN’s investments in staff and systems in recent years. 
> 
>     I will cover this material in more detail at ARIN 41, but felt that the communities consideration of this matter 
>     would be more productive with some fo the budget, development progress, and fee distribution information
>     that was being sought in the interim.   Please do not hesitate ask any additional questions that would help 
>     in consideration of this consultation. 
> 
> Thanks!
> /John
> 
> John Curran
> President and CEO
> American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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