[rpd] New draft policy proposal PPM Dates AFPUB-2026-GEN-003-DRAFT01

Wed Sep 16 08:04:45 UTC 2026

Hi all,

Responding to several emails on this with a single response.

1) There is no such policy in other RIRs, becuase it was not needed, as didn’t happened such clash. Policy proposals must be both proactive and reactive, which means that sometimes we can see a problem “before” it happens and try to avoid it with a policy proposal. Other times, we react to what already happened, like this one. This doesn’t mean at all, that any RIR is 1st or 2nd or 3rd class. Otherwise, as the policies in the RIRs have differences, we could always state that. No sense, same as the no sense that if the board decides to repeat the clash in the coming years the community have nothing to do against that? For sure that no other RIR will do that, and if they do, the community will reach with similar policy proposals.

2) If you read carefully the proposal, I’ve, on purpose, used “should” and not “must” and also for other events “whenever possible”. So this perfectly allows “emergency” situations.

3) Repeating again, if “other events” are co-located, this is in the proposal “whenever possible”, so it doesn’t disallow it. My view is that the result usually is that the PPM will get less attention that those collocated event if they clash (previous experience in another RIR show it). This is not the same as AIS, as it is a “joint” event, with shared agenda, I don’t see it as a clash - we have this in other RIRs and again, is not a problem, because it is a shared agenda.

4) Of course, if you create clash with other events where few people from Africa take part in, will actually avoid those people to even consider taking part in those!

5) Despite what I’ve said in 2 above, my understanding is that the current PDP and bylaws doesn’t allow “emergency” PPMs. The bylaws call for “the board” will do what they wish, and enforce their actions even if the community doesn’t reach consensus on that. Which, again, in my opinion (I said that many times already) is a terrible mistake, against bottom-up process, and should be corrected, as otherwise, Afrinic will be against the new ICP-2, but this is a topic for another discussion.

Regards,
Jordi

@jordipalet

> El 16 sept 2026, a las 8:30, Ben Roberts - AfriNIC via RPD <rpd at afrinic.net> escribió:
> 
> +1 Andrew. The nature of these PPM events is that it is necessary to hold them alongside other African events in order to make it worth the trip for what is actually a short meeting. This year we held one PPM alongside the AIS (as has been traditional) and now experimenting with co-locating it alongside AfricaCom which is the biggest African industry event of the year. I would rather we see how the experiment works before introducing policies to tie us in knots by settling to not clash with global meetings that very few people from Africa take part in. 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On 16 Sep 2026, at 08:58, Andrew Alston <aa at alstonnetworks.net> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Hi RPD / RPD Chairs,
>> 
>> I oppose this policy.   While I believe that AfriNIC should endeavor to ensure that meetings do not clash, the reality is that this is sometimes unavoidable.  Furthermore, I stand to be corrected, but I am unsure if other organisations have such a policy.  Embedding this in our policy manual effectively relegates AfriNIC to second-class status compared to other global organisations that do not have similar policies prohibiting scheduling conflicts with AfriNIC.
>> 
>> Furthermore, there may be times when an emergency policy meeting needs to be called to address an urgent issue, and this clause could pose a serious problem in that scenario.
>> 
>> To repeat my stance above, I do not doubt the policy's intent, and while clashes should obviously be avoided, but I do not believe that this should be made a rule that restricts the PDP to the scheduling whims of other organisations.
>> 
>> Thanks
>> 
>> Andrew
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Mon, Sep 14, 2026 at 6:49 PM Hytham El-Nakhal <hytham at tra.gov.eg <mailto:hytham at tra.gov.eg>> wrote:
>>> Dear PDWG,
>>> 
>>> 
>>> We have received a new draft policy proposal named PPM Dates with ID AFPUB-2026-GEN-003-DRAFT01 from author Jordi Palet.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The proposal contents are published at: <https://afrinic.net/policy/proposals/afpub-2026-gen-001-draft01>
>>> 
>>> https://www.afrinic.net/afpub-2026-gen-003-draft01
>>> 
>>> 
>>> We encourage you to take some time to go through the proposal contents and provide feedback as follows: -
>>> 
>>> ?
>>> 
>>> a) Do you support or oppose the proposal?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> b) If you oppose the proposal, state your reasons.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> c) Is there anything in the proposal that is not clear?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> d) What changes could be made to this proposal to make it more effective?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Kindly, as a way for better following up and archiving, keep the name and proposal ID in the subject line of your posts.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> 
>>> Haitham el Nakhal & Darwin Da Costa
>>> 
>>> AFRINIC PDWG Co-Chairs
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> RPD mailing list
>>> RPD at afrinic.net <mailto:RPD at afrinic.net>
>>> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/rpd
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