Summary

  • RIPE NCC’s Board offered three 2025 charging models in April 2024. Each projected €41.1 million in income; their fee mix differed. Raymond Jetten presented the choice as Treasurer, and members selected Model C.
  • The Board approves the Activity Plan and Budget and proposes the charging menu. Jetten’s exchange with members at the General Meeting exposed where a request to cut spending has to land: in the activities and budget discussion.

Three buttons, one total

Raymond Jetten admitted a little stage fright when he rose at the May 2024 General Meeting. It was his first time presenting there as RIPE NCC Treasurer. He then had to explain a voting menu that invites the obvious question: why do three different prices add up to the same number?

The Board’s April notice supplied the arithmetic. Model A raised the annual LIR fee 22.58%. Model B raised it 20.97% and lifted the independent-number-resource fee 50%. Model C raised the LIR fee 16.13%, lifted the independent fee 50% and added an ASN fee. Every model projected €41.1 million of 2025 income. The ballot was about the distribution of the bill, not three alternative revenue targets.

That distribution was real. A network holding several ASNs could face a different bill under C than under A. An LIR paying only the annual account charge would see the difference in the other direction. The official consultation record says members chose Model C: €1,800 per LIR account, €75 per independent-number-resource assignment and a new €50 per ASN assignment for 2025. The projected total was an estimate, not a receipt.

The signed meeting minutes name Jetten as presenter. The stenographic record gives him a less ceremonial role. He argued that a proposal producing a €5.1 million loss would be poor governance. When a member pressed for voting on individual activities, Jetten asked what exactly members wanted the institution to cut. His complaint was concrete: broad demands for savings had arrived, but specific feedback on the Activity Plan and Budget had been scarce.

The separation matters. RIPE NCC says its Executive Board approves the Activity Plan and Budget and proposes a Charging Scheme for members to vote on. Members can comment on the draft plan; they chose a charging model at this GM. The Board held the pen over the proposed funding requirement and the list of options. The membership chose how that requirement would be spread among accounts and resources. Calling those two acts the same vote would give the ballot powers it did not have.

Jetten’s RIPE NCC biography identifies him as Treasurer since September 2022 and as an operator who works on IP number management and peering. The named headshot grounds the editorial portrait here; the three blank cards behind him are imagined. His 2024 presentation is a useful portrait of financial governance in practice: three buttons on the ballot, one common projection, and a budget argument waiting outside the voting booth.