[ARIN-consult] [arin-announce] ACSP Consultation 2021.5: Consultation on ARIN’s Membership Structure

[John Curran]

On 29 Oct 2021, at 12:11 AM, Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> wrote:
> 
> Right, so if you get down to less than 2,000 general members, a petition requires 100 of them to sign.
> 
> If you get down to 99 general members and everyone else has become a service member, petitions become impossible.

Given that we presently have more than 500 organizations voting each year (and are about to double the number of organizations that can vote in ARIN elections), the general membership is highly unlikely to ever be less than 100...

> Am I missing something?

See above.

> Shouldn’t at least the petition signature process be open to all members and not just general members?

As we’ve discovered in the past, there’s many organizations that simply wish to receive ARIN services and not be bothered with the various aspects of ARIN governance such as nominations, elections and petitions. 

Any service member that wishes to participate in ARIN governance can readily do but does pick up a rather light obligation to vote at least once every three years to maintain that right – and an organization that fails to do so only loses that right to be a general member for the coming year.

If an organization wishes to participate an upcoming election, it simply needs to opt into general membership (including assigning a voting contact) before the list of eligible voters for the election is set – this happens approximately 45 days before the election (and is an existing requirement today or those who wish to support a petition; one must be an eligible voter for the election in order to participate in the petition process.) 

Thanks,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers