[ARIN-consult] [arin-announce] Consultation on ARIN Fees

[Owen DeLong]

> On Apr 15, 2021, at 04:04 , John Curran <jcurran at arin.net> wrote:
> 
> On 15 Apr 2021, at 4:40 AM, Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com <mailto:owen at delong.com>> wrote:
>> We can agree to disagree…
> 
> Indeed - I suspect that will be the case in this circumstance. 
> 
>> I don’t see why it is impossible to send organizations that are facing an increase of more than $10,000 if the current plan is adopted a notice that says “We are considering doing this to you… If you wish to discuss the matter before it is fait accompli, here is how you can participate in the discussion.”
> 
> It is not impossible – clearly since we already sent these organizations (and many others) a notice which says "We are consulting with the community regarding changes to the ARIN Fee Schedule that are intended for implementation in January of 2022 …  Please view the proposed 2022 Fee Schedule at: https://www.arin.net/resources/fees/fee_schedule/2022_fee_schedule/ <https://www.arin.net/resources/fees/fee_schedule/2022_fee_schedule/>"
> 
> We could send these organizations a more specific notification calling for them to get involved – or equally we could send just the 3200 organizations whose fees will be going down a notice that "now is the time for them to get involved!"...    Alas, neither is appropriate behavior if we’re to have an open and transparent community consultation about the fee change. 

I think that the 3200 organizations whose fees will decrease are unlikely to have a “sticker shock” reaction if this is implemented without their noticing.

OTOH, the organizations who face fee increases of more than $10,000 per year are a different class of likely reaction if this comes as a surprise because they ignored a relatively mundane “we’re thinking about changing fees” notice.

Most notices that start off with that are assumed to be somewhere in the range of cost-of-living adjustment (e.g. ~3-5% per year), not a major restructuring of fees in the direction of such a major annual change.

If you feel that for the sake of fairness, it’s necessary to send a more alert-worthy notification to every organization saying “Under the current proposal, your annual fees will change by $±X” (e.g. +$5,000 or -$320), then by all means, send such a notice to each and every member of the community. I’m not opposed to telling everyone what the impact of the change will be, but I am opposed to making such a radical change without at least being very blatant about the impact to the organizations that are hardest hit in the process.

> The ability of the Internet community to govern its own registry organization (via a member-elected board and open community consultations) is a huge benefit over many other potential structures, but it comes with a cost – the portion of the community that makes the effort to read the notices and get involved do have an outsized role in shaping ARIN’s future compared to those who choose otherwise. 

The notice as it was worded does not convey “Your fees may go up $10,000 per year or more.”. This is what I am objecting to.

Owen

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