<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jul 14, 2016, at 10:08 , Marcus K. G. Adomey <<a href="mailto:madomey@hotmail.com" class="">madomey@hotmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">Dear Owen,<br class=""><br class="">I am happy to know that you are the PR or/and the lawyer of the board. Based on your sentence <"I will provide you the answers that I have seen on this list and in the AFS which I think are quite adequate:">, the following points are in order for your meditation.<br class=""><br class="">A series of questions has been asked in a coherent manner. You are claiming that the questions have been answered in this mailing list. What you have attempted to do is to put together the piecemeal statements made by the chair in his various emails, extracting sense out of them to answer the questions I asked. A very good exercise of the "new PR/lawyer" of the chair of the board (LOL). Do you want to tell me that it is coherent, professional, pedagogically and andragogically, and responsible (name them) from our chair to answer specific set questions in piecemeal?<br class=""></div></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div>The questions were originally asked piecemeal and originally answered as and when they were asked.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>I am not the lawyer or the PR person for the board.</div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><br class="">I have read and analyze thoroughly your email. In fact, the best I can say about it is<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b class="">it is a very good piece to show empty verbiage case</b>. The questions I asked were straight forward questions which answers should be factual and in case there is not fact, with humility acknowledge it. Again you are turned yourself into the "new PR/lawyer" of the chair of the board shielding him to be accountable. Your empty verbiage has not answered the questions. We want to hear from the horse's mouth.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br class=""></div></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div>Then I suggest you go back and review the list yourself and pull from it the chair’s previous answers to the questions when they were originally asked.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>Calling the information I provided empty verbiage simply because I am not the chair is silly at best and disingenuous.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>I did, in fact, provide factual answers to each of your questions as did the CEO of the organization.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>I’m done adding noise to the list and feeding the trolls. I have tried my best to work for a peaceful resolution, but it seems clear to me now that you do not seek information, but rather seek to foment discontent and I have no desire to participate in that exercise.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>Owen</div><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><br class="">Cheers!!!<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">Marcus<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><div class=""><hr id="stopSpelling" class="">From: <a href="mailto:owen@delong.com" class="">owen@delong.com</a><br class="">Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2016 08:18:32 -0700<br class="">To: <a href="mailto:community-discuss@afrinic.net" class="">community-discuss@afrinic.net</a><br class="">CC: <a href="mailto:members-discuss@afrinic.net" class="">members-discuss@afrinic.net</a><br class="">Subject: Re: [Community-Discuss] Resolution 201604.274 about Set-Up fees<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><div class=""><blockquote class=""><div class="">On Jul 14, 2016, at 00:29 , Noah <<a href="mailto:noah@neo.co.tz" class="">noah@neo.co.tz</a>> wrote:</div><br class="ecxApple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><br class="">On 28 Jun 2016 19:08, "Marcus K. G. Adomey" <<a href="mailto:madomey@hotmail.com" class="">madomey@hotmail.com</a>> wrote:<br class="">><br class="">> Dear Chairman<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br class="">><br class="">> Thank you Mr. Chairman for your response which unfortunately has not addressed the two main issues I raised in my email.<br class="">><br class="">></div></div></blockquote>I will provide you the answers that I have seen on this list and in the AFS which I think are quite adequate:</div><div class=""><br class=""><blockquote class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><br class="">><br class="">> Allow me to restate the questions here once again:<br class="">><br class="">> What problem are solving?<br class=""></div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div>AfriNIC’s annual revenue is dangerously close to its operating budget and AfriNIC has a woefully inadequate operating reserve of roughly one quarter of continued operations. This should be roughly 2 years by standard good business practices.<br class=""><blockquote class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">> What options have been evaluated?<br class=""></div></div></blockquote><div class="">All of AfriNICs revenues come from two sources… Fees (the vast majority of the revenue) and investment income from the reserves (especially low at the moment due to the frighteningly small reserve).</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The only way to increase the investment income would be to increase the reserves.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The only way to increase the reserves is to increase revenue.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If you can’t increase the investment income first, then that leaves only some form of increase in total revenue from fees.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Since the fee structure was, in part, falling short due to an error in implementation, clarifying that fact and correcting that implementation seems like low hanging fruit IMHO.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Other options that have been mentioned were increases in fee amounts, removal or reduction of some fee exemptions, and cost cutting measures, some of which have been implemented.</div><blockquote class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">> What is the meaning of the membership fees, which increase with my category If i have to pay allocations fees anytime i request additional resources?<br class=""></div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div>These are two different things. Your membership fee based on category is an annual maintenance fee which you pay to sustain the organization and keep your records in the database, etc.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The fee per resource is (at least theoretically) to cover the staff time required to review your application and the other expenses associated with that process.</div><div class=""><blockquote class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">> Shouldn’t the membership fees be turned to a lower maintenance fees at a lower price?<br class=""></div></div></blockquote><div class="">It would be utterly and completely irresponsible to reduce membership fees when revenues are so perilously close to the operating expenses and the reserves are so dangerously low.</div><blockquote class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">> Have we done impact analysis?<br class=""></div></div></blockquote>Admittedly, I haven’t seen an answer to this question, but I confess I didn’t see the question in the earlier seas of accusations and fomenting dissent, so perhaps I missed the answer as well or perhaps it got lost in the other comments.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In any case, it seems to me that the answer is irrelevant and the question you really want is “What was the outcome of the impact analysis?”</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">After all, if the board were to day “Yes, we did the analysis.”, then you really don’t know anything useful that you didn’t know before. If the board says “No, no analysis was done.”, then similarly, there’s no useful information gained.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I will say that the most obvious impact is that a few organizations requesting resources will pay slightly more for those resources and that AfriNIC will be able to restore its needed reserves over the next 10 years or so. This seems like a reasonable balance between the need to restore the reserves and make the organization financially sustainable and an effort to minimize the impact on members and subscribers.<br class=""><blockquote class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">> What is the foreseen negative impact on membership and how do we mitigate? (Some may not come for additional allocation as they have to pay allocation fees plus increase in membership fees.. )<br class=""></div></div></blockquote>As with the previous question, I admit I haven’t noticed the question or the answer in previous discussion.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">However, since the premise of this question is false, perhaps a simple clarification of the premise will suffice.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">When one gets a new allocation in a given year, your annual fee for that year does not increase. You pay the allocation fee only. The following year, when your annual renewal comes up, you will pay the increased annual fee for your new tier. So, if you are so completely sensitive to this issue, you can mitigate it 100% by timing your resource request for just after your annual renewal.</div><div class=""><br class=""><blockquote class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">> What is expected impact on revenue and how we plan to use it?<br class="">></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">We never recieved any feedback to this important questions.</div></div></blockquote>This can be computed from public statistics and at least one person has already done so on the list and determined based on the 2015 run rate that it would be roughly $200k.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I haven’t done the analysis myself, but assuming his numbers are roughly correct, then I would argue the most responsible way to use it is to bolster the reserves for at least the next 9+ years, barring unforeseen events.<br class=""><blockquote class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">The most recent submission by the chair on the same was not clear either.<br class=""></div></div></blockquote><div class="">Perhaps he didn’t feel the need to rehash data already publicly available in the AFS and other previous statements from the board.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In any case, if you feel the above answers are inadequate, please ask specific additional clarifying questions. Note, the above are based on public statements from the board and information from the AFS, not my conjecture or opinion except to the following extent:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">1.<span class="ecxApple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Common good business practice is to have a 2 year operating reserve.</div><div class="">2.<span class="ecxApple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>My clarification of the purpose of the two distinct fees is conjecture on my part based on statements from</div><div class=""><span class="ecxApple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>staff of varoius RIRs in in-person discussions and my reading of the fee information from the AfriNIC</div><div class=""><span class="ecxApple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>web site. I do not know whether the board has publicly stated the same or not.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I would argue that item 1 is simply well known good business practice and that any reasonable person could intuit item 2 from the information on the web site. However, I want to be clear about the sources of my information in these posts, so I provide that detail in the interest of full disclosure.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Owen</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><br class="">_______________________________________________ Community-Discuss mailing list <a href="mailto:Community-Discuss@afrinic.net" class="">Community-Discuss@afrinic.net</a> <a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss" class="">https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss</a></div></div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">_______________________________________________</span><br style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">Community-Discuss mailing list</span><br style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><a href="mailto:Community-Discuss@afrinic.net" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">Community-Discuss@afrinic.net</a><br style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><a href="https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/community-discuss</a></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></body></html>