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

[John Curran]

On Jul 17, 2013, at 5:00 PM, Steven Ryerse <SRyerse at eclipse-networks.com> wrote:

> 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.

ARIN Board of Trustees.  You can find it noted in the 2001 ARIN Annual 
Report <https://www.arin.net/about_us/corp_docs/annual/report2001.pdf>
in my Chairman's message on page 3.

> 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.  

The omission of "allocate" was not intentional; it is one aspect of management.  
The fact that this could be read as omission does raise appropriate concerns 
about the process by which the Mission statement is changed - see more below. 

> 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.  

A very interesting question... I believe that there is an (implied) agreement 
that the RIR's will operate in accordance with ICANN ICP-2 
<http://www.icann.org/en/resources/policy/global-addressing/new-rirs-criteria>
but that is a very broad set of principles which is implemented in each region 
as they see fit. 

> 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.  

It would be best if the policies (including any principles) were all included 
in the Number Resource Policy Manual.

> 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. :-(  

While the change was intended to improve clarity, the fact that it could
be read otherwise is definitely an indication that the process of changing
the Mission statement needs more care.  I believe that (in the future) the 
ARIN consultation process should be used to apprise the community of any 
intended change and receive feedback thereon, and will proceed this way in
the future if at all possible.

FYI,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
ARIN