[Community-Discuss] FUNDRAISING & DONATIONS - TO KEEP AFRINIC RUNNING

[Owen DeLong]

The key differences here being that prior to litigation and after the conclusion of litigation, ARIN has a history and track record of open and honest communication with its membership and community and trustworthy leadership. AFRINIC’s track record is not so strong here, with a board that continues to hide virtually all of its activities behind an NDA and fought hard against efforts to get it to publish its meeting minutes. Even now that they are published, they are absurdly terse and fail to disclose the voting record of board members. 

Further, ARIN has a track record of staff obeying the governing documents as they are written, whereas AFRINIC has more of a tendency to make up policies which aren’t actually contained in its governing documents and which were not approved by its community when AFRINIC staff sought such policies through the policy experience report, then attempting to use those fictitious policies to take adverse action selectively against members they don’t like. 

From my vantage point, AFRINIC’s actions pose a far greater risk to the RIR system than any litigation against AFRINIC. 

Owen



> On Aug 18, 2021, at 06:10, John Curran <jcurran at arin.net> wrote:

> 

>  On 18 Aug 2021, at 8:05 AM, Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com> wrote:

>> 

>> John,

>>  

>> I query where queries may actually get answered – and since previous emails to the members list have gone unanswered – here is as good a place as any. ...

> 

>> We are a community – this is a bottom up organization – and the community has the right to ask questions – however hard those questions may be to answer and however much answering those questions may be distasteful to the people who have to answer.

> 

> As a concerned community member, you could have simply asked – “Do we have to recognize a contingent liability given the litigation, and are there any Section 162 implications to be considered?”   You chose a rather different approach of posting legal speculation in the name of "seeking a legal position” and hence I replied.  If you want something more definitive, then seeking actual legal counsel would likely help clarify far more than speculation here. 

> 

> The community has every right to know that the organization is being properly operated, but it also true that the community vests the routine oversight in the elected governance body – as they are both accountable for such oversight and have access to legal counsel to inform their course of action.  This becomes even more important when in litigation, as organizations need to take great care with their communication – even to their members –  to balance the need for openness with the obligation to sustain a prudent legal defense.   You may not get answers to all your questions in the midst of litigation, but that’s an indication of a governing body being true to its job rather than any indication to the contrary. 

> 

> As someone who has had to manage such a difficult balance when defending ARIN in litigation, I know firsthand it can be quite challenging to maintain open communication with community at the same time. I’d encourage you to continue to raise questions that you might have as concerned community member (if indeed out of bona fide concern for AFRINIC), but you also should recognize that circumspect communications is quite normal when it comes to litigation matters, so you might not get the answers you seek – particularly to legal speculation. 

> 

> Best wishes,

> /John

> 

> John Curran

> President and CEO

> American Registry for Internet Numbers

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

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