ARIN Advisory Council recommendations I have made

Fri May 29 00:19:32 UTC 1998

As promised, here is my list of agenda items I believe are important for
ARIN to "fix" within the immediate timeframe.  All of these have been
previously posted to the Advisory Council mailing list by myself.

This is on the general topic of governance and transparency.  My next
message will be my repost on the topics of operational policy (ie: who 
can get PI address space, what justification is required, etc).

I am expanding the discussion list to NANOG and the ARIN Members mailing
lists.  Please post comments PUBLICALLY, or if you feel you cannot do so
without "cloaking" yourself, through someone else (who you trust to strip
the attribution).

High Level TOPIC #1 - Governance of ARIN
========================================
1.	Modification of the bylaws to provide for removal of trustees and
	officers by vote of the membership (currently lacking).  I would
	like to recommend that the AC be required to carry a motion to be
	put to the membership for such an action, which then requires a vote
	by the membership within 30 days.  Majority consent of the
	membership constitutes removal.  (The "AC filter" is there to
	prevent someone from "buying" the membership - by getting 50
	memberships, for example, and then using that to "take over" the
	board).

2.	Modification of the bylaws to provide for the removal of AC members
	by direct membership vote.  Procedure to be a majority consensus
	of the membership, initiated by the members directly.  A simple
	majority of all members may remove an AC member by vote through this
	procedure.

3.	The motion currently on the table from the last BoT meeting to give 
	Kim Hubbard a vote as a Trustee should be, IMHO, defeated.

This repairs the complete lack of accountability currently present in the
bylaws.  It is currently impossible for the members or the AC to remove a
trustee or officer of the corporation; this is contrary to any other 
corporation I have ever worked for; the shareholders (who are, in this case,
the membership - since the members fund the operation) always have the right
to remove the board and, indirectly, the officers (by firing the board and
replacing it).

High Level Topic #2 - Accountability of Decisions made by ARIN
==============================================================
1.	Modification of the bylaws to provide that the following acts are
	reportable to the public via web dissemination:

	a.	All "executive decisions" made by ARIN's President and Board
		of Trustees outside of a regular meeting which affect one or
		more person(s) or organization(s).  Exempt are statuatory 
		privileged decisions (ie: employment related issues) ONLY.

	b.	All "ex officio" actions taken by the Board of Trustees,
		including Board approval of any action taken or contemplated
		by a corporate officer.

	c.	All ARIN Board and AC meeting minutes must be published 
		within 7 days of the meeting or other administrative action 
		which took place.

	d.	(a) through (c) are retroactive to the formation of ARIN,
		and all documentation related to same are to be produced
		within 7 days following passage.

2.	Modification of the bylaws to provide that the following items are
	considered to be publically reportable in the performance of ARIN's
	duties as a public trustee:

	a.	All incoming address allocation requests.

	b.	All document production requests made by ARIN persuant to
		(a), identifying the type of request, the time given for
		response, the scope and purpose of the request.

	c.	The outcome of the allocation request, whether granted or
		turned down.

	d.	An accounting of the amount of manpower used in processing
		the request (calculated in man/hours).

	(a) through (d) are to be reported within 7 days of closure of each
	request, and ARIN should produce a report weekly showing the number
	of requests currently in queue, new arrivals during that period,
	and dispositions.

	e.	All actions taken by ARIN, its officers, staff members, or
		any individual under color of authority of ARIN in an 
		attempt to reclaim, repossess, or interfere in any way 
		with the peaceful enjoyment of address space held by 
		entities which were granted prior to the adoption of 
		RFC2008 (October 1996).

These changes will fix the transparency problems which I believe exist today
within the structure of ARIN.

You have the other two (the address allocation policy changes and pricing
changes) as well.  Would you like me to write these up formally?

--
-- 
Karl Denninger (karl at MCS.Net)| MCSNet - Serving Chicagoland and Wisconsin
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