RIPE NCC Board Vote 761-172; Finance Vote 583-432

RIPE NCC’s Board Rewrite Won 761 Yes Votes. The Money Vote Barely Cleared.

Why it matters

Members approved two resolutions at the same meeting, but the tallies tell different stories. The board change drew a commanding majority. The decision on who absorbs the 2026 financial result passed with a much thinner margin.

Daniel Kade2 November 2026 at 09:16 UTCReading Time 2 minLast update: 2 November 2026

RIPE NCC members approved two October resolutions by markedly different margins.

Summary

RIPE NCC members approved the board-structure amendment by 761 Yes votes to 172 No, with 169 blank votes, at the October General Meeting.
The 2026 surplus-or-deficit resolution passed 583 to 432, with 87 blank votes. Its Yes share among Yes/No ballots was 57.44%, against 81.56% for the board amendment.

One meeting, two mandates, and a 24-point gap. The signed voting report records 761 Yes and 172 No on the Articles of Association amendment. It records 583 Yes and 432 No on the treatment of RIPE NCC’s 2026 surplus or deficit. The percentages printed beside those counts exclude blank votes: 81.56% for board reform and 57.44% for the financial rule. Calling both simply “approved” loses the difference members wrote into the ballot box.

The board vote authorises a specific institutional transfer. The amendment document would turn the current Executive Board into a Board with seven member-elected non-executive members and the Managing Director as an executive member. The adopted resolution also instructs and authorises the Board to execute the changes before a Dutch civil law notary. Members have granted the mandate; the notarial act is the next record that shows it was carried into the association’s legal structure.

The other ballot allocates the financial consequence of a year that has yet to close. Under the approved resolution, an excess contribution from 2026 goes into RIPE NCC reserves. A deficit is covered by the membership in 2027. The 432 No votes amount to a substantial opposing bloc against that conditional bargain, although the report gives no reasons for individual choices. Final 2026 accounts will show which side of the condition actually applies.

The report separates people from voting weight. It lists 660 voters by individual count out of 806 eligible, and 1,102 votes cast by weight out of 1,275 eligible weighted votes. Those 1,102 are weighted votes, not 1,102 separate people. The two resolution totals each equal 1,102 once blank ballots are included. The result announcement also names six elected arbiters, but the clearest political signal is the distance between the board mandate and the much closer financial one.