Summary

  • RIPE NCC members approved both October 2026 General Meeting resolutions. The vote report records 1,102 weighted votes cast and 86.43% participation by voting weight.
  • The possible-deficit allocation drew 57.44% of weighted Yes/No votes; the Articles amendments drew 81.56%. That is a 24.12-point gap. Blank votes were separate in both tallies.

The result puts two kinds of authority side by side: who carries a possible loss, and who changes the association’s constitutional text. Members approved both, but the first travelled through a much tighter gate.

RIPE NCC announced the result on 30 October, after its General Meeting ran from 28 to 30 October. Its headline number was 1,102 votes cast. The accompanying report makes clear that this is the weighted tally: 1,102 of 1,275 eligible votes by weight, or 86.43% participation. By individual voters, 660 of 806 eligible people cast a vote, or 81.89%. Those are different denominators; mixing them would turn a clean result into bad arithmetic.

Resolution 1 set the route for the 2026 financial-year balance. Any excess contribution goes to RIPE NCC reserves. Any deficit is covered by the membership in 2027. If the motion had failed, the report says an excess would have been redistributed to members under the Clearing House procedure and a deficit covered from reserves. The vote therefore chose between two explicit risk allocations. It did not disclose which outcome the books will show when 2026 is closed.

On the weighted ballot, Resolution 1 received 583 Yes votes, 432 No votes and 87 blanks. Its 57.44% Yes share is calculated over Yes and No, not over all 1,102 weighted votes. Blanks are recorded as abstentions. The rule passed, but 42.56% of counted Yes/No weight opposed it.

Resolution 2 adopted the Articles amendments proposed by the Executive Board on 30 September and authorised the Board to complete their execution before a Dutch civil-law notary. It received 761 Yes, 172 No and 169 blank weighted votes. Among Yes and No, support was 81.56%. The difference between the two Yes shares is 24.12 percentage points; the Articles motion also drew almost twice as many blank votes.

That comparison is the story. A constitutional change secured a broad weighted majority. The rule assigning a possible deficit to the 2027 membership passed with a majority, but a far less comfortable one. The official report does not identify how individual members voted, so the gap cannot be assigned to particular countries, company sizes or member blocs. The record does show that the allocation question drew a markedly less decisive Yes/No result.

The adopted rule now matters beyond the meeting room. If 2026 closes in surplus, the money strengthens reserves. If it closes in deficit, the membership carries it in 2027. The General Meeting has set the rule before the final amount exists. That is a real transfer of authority over who absorbs the financial result, even though the size and direction of that result remain unresolved.

Sources: RIPE NCC result announcement, official voting report, October General Meeting agenda and resolutions.