Dear colleagues, Sander Steffann has stepped down from the ASO AC / NRO NC [1], as recently shared on the RIPE Discussion list. I would like to thank Sander for his work over the last two years on the ASO AC. Each region has three members on the ASO AC / NRO NC, which has a total of 15 members. For RIPE, two members are elected by the community and the third is appointed by the RIPE NCC Executive Board. Currently, the elected members are Sander Steffann and Constanze Bürger, while Hervé Clément has been appointed. With Sander's resignation, we have one vacant seat. From a procedural standpoint, there isn't adequate notice to hold an election at RIPE 88 to allow for a sufficient nomination period and to announce confirmed candidates (at least three weeks prior to the election). We will, therefore, hold an election to fill the vacant seat as scheduled at RIPE 89 (28 October - 1 November 2024), for a complete three year term starting in January 2026 until December 2028. The RIPE NCC will send out the call for nominations and follow the regular procedure ahead of RIPE 89. If you're interested in reading more about the election process, please take a look at The NRO NC Election Process (ripe-813). [2] We had considered filling the position temporarily. However, given that the summer break follows not long after RIPE 88, and a subsequent election is scheduled to be held at RIPE 89 in any case, we would be asking a lot of the temporary candidate for only a few weeks. We are considering updating ripe-813 to allow for short-term appointments more easily, if and when required in the future. This is an interesting moment for the ASO AC / NRO NC, which is discussing the criteria to establish new RIRs. Athina Fragkouli, the RIPE NCC's Chief Legal Officer, recently wrote a very insightful article about the process and the role communities like ours need to play in this. You can read the article on RIPE Labs [3]. If you are interested in the discussions, the ASO AC calls are open to observers, so please join in. The call schedule is available at: https://aso.icann.org/aso-ac/meetings/aso-ac-meeting-schedule/ Kind regards, Mirjam Kühne RIPE Chair ---------- [1] ASO AC / NRO NC website https://www.nro.net/about/address-supporting-organization/the-nro-number-cou... [2] The NRO NC Election Process https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-813/ [3] Criteria for the Accreditation of Regional Internet Registries https://labs.ripe.net/author/athina/criteria-for-the-accreditation-of-region...