Summary

  • A Yes vote would send any 2026 excess to RIPE NCC reserves and leave members to cover a deficit in 2027. A No vote would distribute an excess through the contribution-based Clearing House procedure and use reserves for a deficit.
  • The Board estimates an excess of about €1 million and recommends Yes for planned IT infrastructure investment. Last year, Yes returned the excess to members.

RIPE NCC held €33.663 million in reserves at the end of 2025, about 82% of its €41.125 million operating-expense budget for 2026. The Board estimates this year’s excess at about €1 million—roughly nine days of that budget. Members will decide whether to return it through Clearing House or keep it in reserve for planned IT work. A Yes vote also puts any 2027 deficit on members’ bills. (RIPE-860, Goals of the RIPE NCC Clearing House Reserve; Executive Board recommendation)

Members approved the previous allocation at the October 2025 General Meeting: excess contributions went back through the Clearing House procedure, while reserves covered a deficit. Resolution 1 reverses both flows. Members vote on it under agenda point 8 at the 28–30 October General Meeting. (2026 agenda and Resolution 1; RIPE NCC Billing Procedure 2026)

The Board recommends Yes to build a buffer for significant IT infrastructure investment. It also says it changed the resolution because it did not want to recommend No on a resolution it proposed. The result is a clear allocation of power and risk: RIPE NCC keeps any excess in its reserve, while members cover a deficit under Yes. (Executive Board recommendation)

The Clearing House procedure calculates refunds in proportion to the annual contribution paid by each eligible LIR account. For the 2025 redistribution, sign-up and reactivation fees were excluded, and an account had to be active on 31 December 2025. The No branch would use that contribution-based formula. (Billing Procedure 2026; RIPE-322, Clearing House Procedure)

RIPE NCC’s reserve goals name continuity, financial flexibility and response to worst-case scenarios. The Board says its planned IT investment gives the surplus a specific use. Members are weighing that larger institutional buffer against a current distribution, with the Yes branch assigning them the cost of any future deficit. (RIPE-860, Goals of the RIPE NCC Clearing House Reserve)

The Board can make the investment case concrete by naming projects, commitments and milestones. Audited accounts will show the year’s final surplus or deficit; the reserve balance and 2027 bills will show how the vote divided the money and the risk.

Sources