Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes - 30 June 1998 [Archived]

Boston, MA

The meeting was called to order by John Curran, Board Chairman at 9:10 A.M. Those in attendance included Scott Bradner, John Curran, Ken Fockler, Doug Humphrey, Don Telage, ARIN board members, Kim Hubbard, ARIN President, Art McKee, and Dennis Molloy, ARIN legal counsel and Mary K Lee, notetaker.

The agenda was reviewed and adopted with the addition of several topics. The Advisory Council recommendations from the AC meeting of the day before will be added to the new business portion of the agenda.

As the minutes from the previous meeting have been posted on the website, no formal motion to accept or amend them was made. One correction had been submitted electronically by Ken Fockler, but was not included. Ken agreed it was a minor item and no correction is necessary. Scott suggested that in the future, approval of the minutes be done electronically as this will expedite timely and accurate posting on the website.

Treasurer’s Report: Ken made a trip to ARIN on June 15, 1998 to review ARIN’s financial status with Kim Hubbard and Bob Stratton, ARIN’s Business Manager. June 30, 1998, marks the end of ARIN’s fiscal year. Kim indicated that the annual reports will be finished by August and that ARIN will be setting up a new budget. Deferred revenue is being shown through a waterfall schedule; it was noted that this is a standard accounting practice.

Budgeted and Actual Expenses are listed under separate departmental headings to reflect projected versus actual costs associated with each area of activity including Administration, IP Group, Engineering and Member Services. ARIN’s books will undergo a year-end audit. Kim will look into having an independent outside company perform this audit.

Scott moved to receive the financial reports, Doug seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.

Operational Status, ARIN Staffing: Kim reported that the additional software engineer position approved at the March 19 meeting has been filled. The new database administrator started last week. ARIN’s current staffing stands at seventeen, with one position, that of IP Analyst, as yet unfilled.

Database Migration: The engineering staff will be changing the database from Ingres to Oracle by the end of the year. They will also be redoing the look of the database. The staff is also researching the feasibility and design of individual websites for members to enable them to update some of their own information.

Consultants: ARIN has looked into using a consultant for special projects. The board supported the president’s proposal to make use of consultants where reasonable for special projects.

Deleting ARIN Handles: Kim would like to delete obsolete handles (those handles not associated with any network, ASN or host record in the database) and feels that this would help to clean up the database. Scott suggested that we inform the membership about this plan. Scott moved that we let the members know that ARIN intends to remove dangling handles with 30 days advance notice. Ken seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.

Unfinished Business: IPv6: ARIN has been asked to begin issuing IPv6 addresses. Scott mentioned that the new IANA will probably want to harmonize this effort with the other registries, RIPE and APNIC. The new IANA will have ways to define policies of this type, so while ARIN expects to be able to begin allocating IPv6 addresses starting in early 1999, when the database development is complete, the specific policies which will be used are likely to be determined after the start of the new IANA.

Year 2K: A full analysis of ARIN’s year 2K status was presented. ARIN has a plan in place to check all systems, software, hardware, and other miscellaneous systems. The status of ARIN with respect to Y2K issues is excellent and the few remaining dangling ends are currently under study. Scott made a motion to have a Y2K committee check on the progress of testing for Y2K compliance. Doug seconded the motion and all were in favor. Scott will be the Y2K committee.

GAR: (Global Address Registry): Daniel Karrenberg (RIPE) sent a paper xA to each registry with ideas for a proposed structure. He proposed three representatives from each regional registry and a CTO from IANA (Jon Postel). Discussions have just recently resumed about GAR.

RIPE has created a mailing list for all board members from RIPE, APNIC and ARIN. Kim will discuss with Daniel the need to announce the list and begin discussions on GAR.

Confidentiality Policy: This policy was submitted to the Trustees in advance so that it could be thoroughly reviewed. They reviewed it and support its distribution to ARIN employees. Scott moved that the policy be instated, Doug seconded the motion and it passed with all in favor.

Routing Registry: The proposal for establishing a routing registry was presented to the Advisory Council and received the support of the AC. Scott moved and Doug seconded that the Board accept the recommendation of the AC to proceed with plans for the routing registry. This motion carried unanimously.

D&O Insurance: Ken raised some questions and issues regarding Directors and Officers Liability Insurance. The initial policy was obtained by NSI. ARIN will be looking at the renewal policy for D&O insurance. Doug has offered to allow ARIN to review his company’s policy as a model.

Meeting with RIPE: Kim and IP Manager Dawn Martin attended the RIPE meeting in Stockholm. They traveled to the RIPE offices in Amsterdam and were joined there by Michael O’Neill, Sr. IP Analyst. Dawn and Michael spent a working day with the RIPE staff, currently numbering about 42 persons. ARIN engineers will be working with the RIPE engineers in a cooperative fashion on issues such as database coordination.

New Business

ARIN Authority: Guidelines from the National Science Foundation (NSF) formed the basis for the establishment of ARIN. To further achieve official status, it is desirable for ARIN to obtain from Jon Postel, a Letter to Proceed. There are three possible methods for obtaining this letter. The first is to ask informally, the second to make a formal request, and the third is to wait for the new IANA. No specific decision was made. This discussion will continue at the next meeting.

Openness of ARIN: The issue of allowing more member participation within ARIN’s operations was discussed. It was agreed that since ARIN is a new organization with little history it is best to allow the board time to stabilize ARIN before making changes of this sort, however, the Board anticipates that, in the future, there will be an increasing level of participation by the members. Policy making procedures and general reporting were also discussed.

Board and AC relationships: There is a need for clarification in this matter. The lines of communication have not always been optimally effective. The board will to try to reduce the tension.

Transfer Policy: There are several options ARIN can pursue regarding transfer and reclamation of address space. ARIN can do the right thing from the stewardship perspective and try to reclaim the space. The other two options are to do the work but not act on it or just do nothing.

Of concern here is the issue of ARIN authority and turbulence in the marketplace. Dennis will be providing information on the authority issue. The board agreed to continue the status quo of asking organizations for IP utilization and suggesting the return of addresses when warranted.

Maintenance fee: Kim will gather data on how many network records would be effected if a database maintenance fee were imposed on grandfathered assignments.

Bylaw amendments. There were several recommendations from the AC to amend some sections of the bylaws that relate to the AC. In Article VIII, Section 7, the recommended change is to permit telephonic meetings.

“Telephonic Meetings Permitted. Meetings may be held by means of conference telephone calls or other telephonic or telecommunications means by which all voting Advisory Council members participating in the meeting can simultaneously hear each other.”

Scott moved to accept this amendment, Doug seconded and the motion carried with all in favor.

Article VIII, Section 10, Removal of AC member: “Any Advisory Council member may be removed from office with or without cause, by the affirmative vote of a majority of the voting members of the full Advisory Council, this vote may be taken at a meeting held in person or telephonically. Any such AC member proposed to be removed shall be entitled to at least ten (10) days notice and shall be entitled to participate in such a meeting.”

Don motioned that the recommendation be accepted, Scott seconded the motion. The motion carried with all in favor.

Section 8. Resignation: “Any Advisory Council member may resign at any time by giving written notice to the President of the Board of Trustees. Any such resignation shall take effect at the time specified therein, or if the time is not specified therein, upon its acceptance by the President.”

Scott moved and Don seconded appropriate changes to add this to the AC section of the bylaws. This also carried unanimously.

Section 11:. Actual removal of an AC member by the Trustees. It was determined that this section needed to be added to the BoT section of the bylaws in order for the board to have authority to remove AC members once their removal is recommended by the AC.

Removal By Trustees: “Any member of the Advisory Council may be removed from office by the affirmative vote of four-fifths of all the voting Trustees then in office at any time with or without cause at a regular meeting or special meeting called for that purpose.”

Don proposed that this amendment be adopted. Doug seconded the motion. Four Trustees were in favor with Ken abstaining.

The AC made other bylaw recommendations but since the exact wording was not available consideration of these recommendations has been deferred until Counsel can provide the exact words, at which time the board will consider the recommendations via a teleconference.

Ken Fockler requested the bylaws be amended to clarify the fact that there is no President of the Board as stated in the bylaws instead the President is an officer of ARIN, not of the Board of Trustees.

Other recommendations from the AC: The AC recommended the completion of a cost analysis for gathering data. Once the AC has approved the minutes, the BoT will look at this recommendation.

A second recommendation from the AC was for codifying the /19 policy. Doug stated that the BoT would need to see the final wording from the AC before taking action on this. This was amended by Scott to include review by legal counsel. The text for this policy change will come from the AC, to Kim, and then to the Board for review.

The recommendation to lower /19s to /20 and then look at the impact on routing policy is to be deferred until the work referenced above has been completed. The BoT will need to review the text of this policy change as well.

White Paper: Kim requested that the Board submit a formal objection if Jon Postel recommends that only two of the three regional registries send representatives to the new organization. Ken made a motion to the effect that ARIN should take the official position that there should be at least three seats on the new governing body set aside for regional registry representatives, and that we should object strenuously if this is not the case. The motion carried with all but one member in favor. Don chose to abstain.

GIAW/IFWP Meeting in Reston, VA: This was discussed during the teleconference on June 25th. Kim will be attending for ARIN.

Other Business: There was a brief discussion about the INET 98, and ISOC meetings in Geneva, Switzerland. John mentioned that he will be attending for GTE. Kim stated that she had not yet received an invitation.

CAIDA: Kim has received a request from CAIDA to mirror ARIN’s database for Internet-wide statistical reporting. After some general discussion, it was decided not to allow organizations to mirror ARIN’s database at this time.

Scheduling Next Meeting: It was determined that it would be advantageous to schedule the next BoT meeting in New Orleans along with the Member Meeting and AC Meeting.

Scott moved to adjourn, Don seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 3:15 P.M.