[arin-ppml] Staff proposing policy.

[Kevin Kargel]

To my mind the staff already has a vehicle to initiate policy - we the members.  

I would see no problem with staff openly explaining a problem on PPML and also suggesting a policy (change) to resolve the problem.  If it was a reasonable idea at all I am sure one of the community members would pick up that ball and run with it.  
 
Kevin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net [mailto:arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net] On
> Behalf Of Leo Bicknell
> Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 10:22 AM
> To: ppml at arin.net
> Subject: [arin-ppml] Staff proposing policy.
> 
> 
> Since ARIN's inception Staff has been prevented from making any
> policy proposals.  The problem with this is that Staff often sees
> aspects of the policy that the community will never see.  Recent
> threads about the Microsoft-Nortel deal recognize that much information
> is provided under NDA.
> 
> It would be nice to fix the NDA issue, but I don't think that will
> ever happen competely even if the rules are eased.  As a result
> staff can't come forward and say "here's an example of how things
> are broken", lay it all out, and let the community fix it.
> 
> Today what happens is staff generally holds in any advice they could
> give as a result, but from time to time will produce some public
> information in a "Experience Report", or may find Members of the
> AC during private meetings and strongly suggest the AC look into a
> policy area (wink wink, nod nod, it would really help a lot).
> Neither of these are optimal.
> 
> To me the answer is simple.  ARIN Staff should be able to propose
> policy.  Note that doesn't mean there couldn't still be restrictions,
> I'm not advocating any staff be able to do it at any time.  I just
> think that if ARIN staff has found an area for improvement and they
> get internal agreement they should be able to drop a policy propsoal
> in the process like any other community member advocating a change.
> 
> I think there would be very little chance of abuse, since the policy
> would go through the PDP, and still need community support and be
> evaluated by the AC.  However, it would allow the staff to stand
> up and say things like "we find regulation abcd is vague, and so
> we actually use standards 1, 2, or 3 and would like to replace abcd
> in policy with 1 2 and 3 so the policy is more clear."
> 
> To me it is a way to increase transparency by allowing staff to
> bring problems and direct suggestions to the table while not having
> to mess with NDA's and the potential publication of customer
> confidential data.
> 
> Now, as far as I know there is nothing in the PDP that prevents staff
> from submitting proposals.  We don't need a policy proposal to make
> this happen.  All that needs to happen if the community wants this
> sort of action is for us to make it clear, so ARIN can change it's
> internal rules on how employees interact with the community.
> 
> --
>        Leo Bicknell - bicknell at ufp.org - CCIE 3440
>         PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/