Dear all, At the upcoming General Meeting (GM) on 24-26 May, members will vote on six resolutions and in the Executive Board election. The full agenda with these votes is available at: https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/gm/meetings/may-2023/agenda-ripe-n... While five of these votes are Yes/No votes, two of these votes will use the instant run-off voting method that we use when there are more than two options to vote on. We have not used instant run-off voting for the charging scheme vote previously - we have used it for Executive Board elections since the introduction of electronic voting. Due to the charging scheme vote that will impact the fees paid by members in 2024, we expect that many members will be voting for the first time and will not have used instant run-off voting before. So I want to explain how it works so members can vote with confidence on the options they’ll have at the GM. How Instant Run-Off Voting Works There is a short video explainer on our GM webpages that explains very clearly how the process works: https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/gm/meetings/may-2023/how-to-vote With instant run-off voting, you are asked to rank the options in order of preference (charging scheme models or Executive Board candidates). You can rank as many options as you like - you are not required to add a preference for more than one option. However, your second, third and further preferences can determine the outcome of the vote. All first choices are counted and if an option receives more than half of the first choices, that option wins, just like in any other vote. If there is no majority winner after counting first choices, the outcome is decided by an “instant run-off.” The option with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who picked that option as their top choice will have their next choice counted. This process continues until one option has more than half of the vote. Instant run-off voting is designed to arrive at a result that has broad support among the electorate while keeping the majority-wins principle. It also allows more choices to be given to voters, and it means that even if your first choice does not win, your second choice can help to select the winning option. If you want to see if you can calculate the outcome of a fictional instant run-off election, you can use a test slate of votes we posted as a challenge on the RIPE NCC Forum: https://forum.ripe.net/t/instant-run-off-voting-challenge/455 Instant Run-Off Voting and the Charging Scheme The vote on the charging scheme that will determine members' fees for 2024 has seen a lot of discussion on the members-discuss mailing list. The four options that members will vote on are: - Model A: Category-based model, (projected income: EUR 42M) - Model B: Continuation of the “one LIR, one fee” model with a 10% LIR fee price increase (projected income: EUR 42M) - Model C: Continuation of the “one LIR, one fee” model with a 5% LIR fee price increase (projected income: EUR 40M) - Model D: Continuation of the “one LIR, one fee” model that is exactly the same as the 2023 model (projected income: EUR 38M) By using the instant run-off model, the Executive Board was able to propose four models to give the members a choice between a new category based model and the current “one LIR, one fee” model. It also allowed the Board to include the option to retain the current charging scheme without any changes. There were comments that by having one category-based model and three “one LIR, one fee” models that this would split the vote against the category-based model and ensure Model A wins. However, if a majority of members decide to vote for the other options as their top three preferences, or decide to not put down a preference for Model A, then the votes will be allocated to another “one LIR, one fee” model as is each one is eliminated, resulting in a majority for the most popular “one LIR, one fee” model. For more details on the charging scheme options, please see the mail sent by the Executive Board Treasurer announcing the proposed models: https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/ncc-announce/2023-April/001645.html Registering to Vote We have already seen 1,000 members register to vote at the GM, which is considerably more than we usually see at this stage of the GM process. We are very encouraged to see such a high level of participation and we ask that all members exercise their right to vote. You can register very quickly and easily via the LIR Portal at: https://my.ripe.net/#/meetings/active And if you have any questions about the GM voting processes, please feel free to ask me on the members-discuss mailing list or contact me directly. Kind regards, Fergal Cunningham Head of Membership Engagement RIPE NCC