Dear Colleagues, For member activities and budgeting purposes, the RIPE NCC relies on annual membership growth estimates. This is particularly important when setting membership fees. The RIPE NCC is dedicated to making sure we answer to the expectations and needs of our membership. With this in mind, we are currently looking at predictions for growth over the coming two years. Starting Tuesday 18 February, we will carry out a survey to estimate how many members we will have in your country over the next two years. We already look at past trends and our industry knowledge, but these figures can be significantly improved by using your knowledge of the market and local conditions. You know the local IT business and conditions far better than we do. The survey, which you can access through the LIR Portal, will be short and simple to complete and should take no more than a few minutes of your time. It will be available for six weeks. We are not asking you for exact predictions, but we would like you to give us your best estimate. Individual estimates provided will be held in strict confidence by the RIPE NCC and used only in connection with this survey. After the survey has ended, we will provide a report on how your estimates compare with the average in your country. To encourage members to give their input, the RIPE NCC will send each survey participant a small gift. To make sure that you receive this gift and it is not sent to the wrong address, we will ask you to ensure that the contact details we currently hold for you are correct. To take part, you will need to log into the LIR Portal. Once there you will find a link to the survey from Tuesday 18 February 2004 for six weeks: <https://lirportal.ripe.net/>https://lirportal.ripe.net Regards Axel Pawlik Managing Director RIPE NCC