[arin-ppml] Draft Policy ARIN-2013-4: RIR Principles - revised

[Steven Ryerse]

Correct, the Missions Statement isn't policy but policies all need to flow from and be in alignment with the Mission Statement.  It exists to help guide ARIN and this community in day to day matters.  I don't know who wrote the original Mission Statement - maybe IANA and NSF and others were involved - I don't know for sure.

I do know for sure that the number one function that ARIN was created for is to allocate Internet resources and of course at that time it was worldwide.  It says so at the beginning of the old Missions Statement ("allocates Internet Protocol resources" - see below).  The new Mission Statement just says ARIN is to manage resources ("supports the operation of the Internet through the management of Internet number resources" - see below).  

In my opinion these are very different.  The first says ARIN is to allocate, and the second says ARIN only has to manage - and thus doesn't necessarily have to allocate.  

I have no way of knowing but I wonder if IANA is OK with a change like this.  Would they need to approve of a significant Mission Statement change for an RIR?  I don't know how that all works.  

I have many times pointed out in this community that a particular policy or policy proposal does/did not match the Missions Statement.  I guess instead of working with this community to align policies with the Mission Statement, ARIN decided to make the Missions Statement fit the policies.  

As I said ARIN does have the right to change it without this community's input but it sure leaves a bad taste in my mouth for ARIN not to have sought this community's input on something as significant as a Mission Statement rewrite.  In my humble opinion it feels like they went behind my (our?) back and deprived this community of the much needed opportunity to truly debate and have input to what we want the overall mission of ARIN to be.  Just my two cents. :-(  

-----Original Message-----
From: Owen DeLong [mailto:owen at delong.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 1:03 PM
To: Steven Ryerse
Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] Draft Policy ARIN-2013-4: RIR Principles - revised

The mission statement is not policy.

Policy is what is in the NRPM. In addition to policy (driven by the community process), ARIN also has operational guidelines and directives (set by management and the board), bylaws (set by the board), a corporate charter (I believe this is set by the board, but may also require a vote of the membership), a mission statement (set by the board, though to the best of my recollection, this is the first time it has changed), and probably some other documents that I am unaware of involved in its administration and/or operations.

I agree it would have been better if the board had solicited community input prior to instantiating a new mission statement. However, since the mission statement has no impact on policy, per se, I also don't feel that doing so has any impact on whether or not the community controls the policy process.

Owen


Sent from my iPad

On Jul 16, 2013, at 3:01 PM, Steven Ryerse <SRyerse at eclipse-networks.com> wrote:

> I certainly think that ARIN has the right to change the Mission Statement when it wants to.  I would comment though that ARIN deciding to make a significant rewrite to the Mission Statement  without this community's input first - sure does puncture the illusion that ARIN only changes policies with this community's consensus.  
> 
> Steven L Ryerse
> President
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> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Curran [mailto:jcurran at arin.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 2:51 PM
> To: Steven Ryerse
> Cc: David Farmer; arin-ppml at arin.net
> Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] Draft Policy ARIN-2013-4: RIR Principles - 
> revised
> 
> 
> On Jul 16, 2013, at 2:40 PM, Steven Ryerse <SRyerse at eclipse-networks.com> wrote:
> 
>> Well that's interesting.  Last August I included a copy of the ARIN Mission Statement that I cut and pasted  from ARINs web site into one of my comments to this community.  This was the statement:
>> 
>> “Applying the principles of stewardship, ARIN, a nonprofit corporation, allocates Internet Protocol resources; develops consensus-based policies; and facilitates the advancement of the Internet through information and educational outreach.”
>> 
>> I looked at ARINs web site today  since the Mission Statement below didn't look like what I remembered and lo and behold - the Mission Statement has changed.  David is correct that it says:  
>> 
>> "ARIN, a nonprofit member-based organization, supports the operation of the Internet through the management of Internet number resources throughout its service region; coordinates the development of policies by the community for the management of Internet Protocol number resources; and advances the Internet through informational outreach."
>> 
>> It would have been nice if ARIN had let this community know of the change.
> 
> <https://www.arin.net/announcements/2012/20121012_mission.html>
> 
>> I wonder why it changed?
> 
> 
> It was changed to make it clear that ARIN does not develop the policies, but instead "coordinates the development of policies by the community"
> (This is accomplished by mechanisms such as the ARIN Policy 
> Development Process, maintenance of this Public Policy Mailing List, 
> support of the the ARIN Advisory Council, etc.)
> 
> Thanks,
> /John
> 
> John Curran
> President and CEO
> ARIN
> 
> 
> 
> 
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