[arin-ppml] [arin-council] AC Role in Petitions

[John Curran]

On Apr 17, 2011, at 2:15 PM, Randy Carpenter wrote:

> There seems to be a lot of stink over what I take to be a very simple thing.
> 
> The way I understand it is that the rule is only that AC members may not be counted as part of the required 10 to make a petition to reconsider an abandoned proposal. I don't think there is anything with that rule that prevents an AC member from expressing their opinion. Please correct me if I am wrong.

That matches my understanding.

> The required 10 is also a completely arbitrary rule. Would everyone be more comfortable if there was no rule against counting the AC members, but the required petitioners was set to 15, or 20?


There was "some" rational basis in setting the number:

 <https://www.arin.net/policy/pdp_petitions.html>
"A petition is the process by which the community can advance a proposal
 which the Advisory Council (AC) did not choose to move forward. Petitions 
 are part of the Policy Development Process; they act as a check and balance 
 on the power of the AC."

As an important "safety valve" on decisions of the ARIN Advisory Council,
it was felt the lowest possible petition threshold would be best.  Setting
it at 10 members of the community was deemed the lowest value that was safe 
from the trivial abuse scenarios.

Raising to a higher value would be somewhat ironic (but certainly is possible)
although it is also true that the members of the AC already have a direct say
in preventing the misuse of AC power which is the reason for petition process.

FYI,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
ARIN