Hi Niall, all,

During the last (and first) process for appointing people to the roles of RIPE Chair and Vice-Chair, I remember a slightly different concern being voiced than those that are addressed in this document. I thought I would mention it. 

The pool of highly-qualified candidates for these roles includes people in a variety of personal and financial situations. There are some who are retired, some who are independently wealthy, some with employers who are amenable to providing support for hours not spent on these community activities and others for whom a day with no billable work is a day with no income.

This document addresses the question of how someone successfully appointed to one of these roles might go about negotiating some funding from the RIPE NCC but it is silent on how people can feel confident in accepting a nomination in the first place with no guarantee of funding or prior knowledge of what amount of funding might be available.

This seems like a source of bias in the candidate pool that ideally would not exist. We should be as open to qualified candidates whose normal income is precarious as we are to those whose income is more predictable. People should succeed on their merits in the role, not as a function of the depth of their pockets. 

I think it's possible to address this concern in this document without adding a lot of complexity, e.g. by requesting a commitment from the RIPE NCC up front that a certain level of funding is definitely available to the selected candidates if they want it, no negotiation required. Perhaps it can be pegged to a particular salary range that already exists in the NCC, to avoid too much extra work. Negotiation once selected could still be welcome, but at least the baseline would be known. 

Making the amount of funding clear and known before people are asked to throw their hats in the ring makes it more likely that people will feel comfortable accepting nominations. 


Joe

On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 11:47, Niall O'Reilly <niall.oreilly@ucd.ie> wrote:

Dear friends,

Thanks to all of you who took time to read the draft which I sent last week,
and especially to everyone who reacted or suggested changes, either privately
or via the RIPE Discussion List.

Please see below, and attached as PDF, a revised draft, in which we have

  • identified the document's authors, to wit, Daniel Karrenberg and myself;

  • tried to resolve the ambiguity arising from the overlapping meanings
    of "RIPE Chair" by referring explicitly to either or each of the Chair
    and Vice-Chair roles except in citations from other documents;

  • considered simplifying the language around "remuneration", but without
    finding a satisfactory solution;

  • considered specifying how to deal with the contingency that one of the
    selected individuals and the RIPE NCC could not agree on an arrangement,
    and preferred not to specify that in this document (see message from
    Daniel Karrenberg    ).

  • made a number of minor editorial changes.

An additional PDF attachment shows all but the "minor editorial" changes,
with red and green backgrounds used for dropped and added text respectively.

Please let us know if you think this draft requires material changes.
If not, I expect to declare a last call on this document after taking advice
from the RIPE NCC's Director of HR and Administration.

Best regards,
Niall

Principles for Remuneration of the RIPE Chair and Vice-Chair

Document ID: RIPE-nnn (to be assigned)
Authors: Daniel Karrenberg, Niall O'Reilly

Notes for editorial attention

This section is to be removed prior to publication.

  • Assign RIPE document number
  • Identify authors and acknowledge other contributors after
    obtaining corresponding consent from each.
  • Ensure that references are current.

Introduction

The RIPE Chair and Vice-Chair (together, the RIPE Chairs) have roles
described in The RIPE Chair (ripe-714). They are selected
according to the process set out in The RIPE Chair Selection
Process (ripe-787).

Over the years, taking on the role of RIPE Chair has become a
significant commitment, as recognized in discussions on the RIPE
Discussion List in 2017 and 2018. The role of RIPE Vice-Chair has subsequently
been revived, and involves a comparable level of commitment. The
sensitivity to conflicts of interest has increased too.

In 2020 the RIPE Nominating Committee selected Mirjam Kühne as RIPE
Chair. Mirjam needed to resign from her job with the RIPE NCC before
taking on the role. On recommendation by the Nominations Committee the
RIPE NCC offered to provide reasonable remuneration while making
arrangements so that Mirjam can act without undue influence from the
RIPE NCC.

During this process questions were raised from the community about
providing remuneration for either or both of the RIPE Chair and
Vice-Chair, and specifically whether it is appropriate that the RIPE
NCC provide such funding.

The RIPE Nominating committee made this recommendation (among others)
in its report ( ripe-762), “Document community consensus about
remuneration of the RIPE Chairs”.

At the time of writing the community has had some experience with
the arrangements mentioned above.

Scope

This document describes the principles of the RIPE community for
remuneration of the RIPE Chair and Vice-Chair, and makes requests to
the RIPE NCC in this regard.

Principles

The community wishes to be sure that the RIPE Chair and Vice-Chair are
able to put in the necessary effort for their roles and to stay clear
of undue influence, whether actual or perceived.

The RIPE Chair and Vice-Chair will disclose to the community all
potential conflicts of interest relating to their respective RIPE
leadership role as they arise including how they address them. In
particular they will disclose their significant means of subsistence.
Nominees for either of these roles will make this disclosure to the
RIPE Nominating Committee.

The community requests that the RIPE NCC continue to reimburse the
expenses incurred by the RIPE Chair and Vice-Chair in these roles.

The community requests that, upon request by either or both of the
RIPE Chair and Vice-Chair, the RIPE NCC provide appropriate
remuneration for the time each individual spends performing their
respective role.

The community requests that the concrete arrangements for this shall
ensure that the RIPE Chair and Vice-Chair can perform their duties
without undue influence from the RIPE NCC and that the RIPE NCC inform
the community how this is arranged.

The community requests that the RIPE NCC Executive Board take
responsibility for implementing these concrete arrangements.

The community requests that the RIPE NCC continue to disclose the
total cost of support for the RIPE Chair and Vice-Chair including
expenses and any remuneration.

Provenance

The RIPE Chairs started working on this document in mid-2022, taking
advice from the RIPE NCC. Daniel Karrenberg subsequently made a more
concise draft on request of the RIPE Chairs.

The RIPE NCC has indicated that it will consider the requests made in
this document once the community reaches consensus on the final text.

Historical and prospective timeline

  • 2017-11-25: initial discussion on RIPE Discussion List started by Erik Bais
  • 2018-02-19: call for further discussion by Nigel Titley
  • late 2022: preparation of draft proposal
  • 2023-03-07: initial draft released for community discussion
  • 202y-mm-dd: call for consensus issued
  • 202y-mm-dd: consensus declared
  • 202y-mm-dd: published as RIPE-nnnn

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the encouragement, practical
assistance, and valuable suggestions which we received from many
members of the RIPE Community, including Joe Abley, Erik Bais, Randy
Bush, Rob Evans, Nick Hilliard, Mirjam Kühne, Kurtis Lindqvist, Sander
Steffann, Nigel Titley, Leo Vegoda, and Carolien Vos.

We hope that we have not omitted to mention anyone to whom thanks are due,
and ask their pardon in case we have.

References

  • The RIPE Chair (ripe-714)
  • The RIPE Chair Selection Process (ripe-787)
  • 2020 RIPE Nominating Committee Report (ripe-762)