On Aug 15, 2010, at 11:31 PM, Jeffrey Lyon wrote:
Would the policy process be an appropriate venue for a proposition to change the ARIN mission, restricting it's activities exclusively to registration services while requiring a reduction in fees and budget?
Jeffrey - Some historical perspective: ARIN not raised fees to my knowledge, but has actually lowered them 4 or 5 times over its 12 year history. ARIN's mission is set by the Board of Trustees, and lies within the purposes of the articles of incorporation of ARIN. I'll note that the articles encompass remarkable breadth, so the setting the mission turns out to be fairly important to keep ARIN focused appropriately. We have added initiatives in the past (e.g. this years extensive education and outreach regarding IPv4/IPv6) based on input received (predominantly at the Public Policy and Members meeting) and can remove them just as easily, but setting mission does not lie per se within the Policy process; it is a Board function to review and update the mission periodically. (Two minor notes: if you want an *ongoing* restraint on mission scope, it would really need be placed by the Board into the Bylaws with an significant hurdle precluding future revision, and should have some specificity, e.g. "exclusively registration services" could easily be read as either including or excluding abuse/fraud investigation, depending on the particular reader's inclination) /John John Curran President and CEO ARIN