ARIN Advisory Council recommendations I have made

[Karl Denninger <karl () mcs net>]

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?

--
-- 
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