Chris, Well written, I honestly couldn’t be bothered putting that level of effort in myself, given how many times we’ve been over this.
But kudos to you, see you in Bangkok. --Karl Kloppenborg. From: Christopher Hawker <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, 17 January 2024 at 2:52 pm To: Will <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [apnic-talk] Re: EC elections - Urgent Call for Transparent Governance and Fiscal Responsibility at APNIC Dear Will, *Note: To be clear and to prevent people from taking and/or twisting my words for their own personal agenda, unless stated otherwise these are my own views, do not represent any other organisations or individuals, and are meant and intended as written, black and white. First of all, please allow me to express my concerns about your lack of knowledge regarding the operations of APNIC. Your words and ideology seem rather similar to that of another organisation. APNIC's service region covers 56 different economies, two of them being China and India (making up approximately 35% of the world's population). The region in which APNIC services is the largest region out of the 5 RIRs and the number of training sessions, technical workshops and other activities they undertake is significant. For the record, APNIC are as open and as transparent as they possibly can be. For years and years they have published their Budgets, Annual Reports, Independent External Auditor Reports and Financial Reports for the entire community to access on their website. All of this information can be accessed by visiting https://www.apnic.net/about-apnic/transparency/. Regarding your comments about the number of staff, there are 137 staff currently listed on the APNIC Team page that you have linked to. For an organisation that manages over 9200 members, this equates to approximately 67 members per staff member. Not all of the staff will be in member-facing roles so this number is likely to be much higher. If you believe that APNIC can manage so many members with much less staff, you're sadly mistaken. About your remarks regarding travel, APNIC staff attended over 250 events back in 2022 with the vast majority of them within the APNIC service region. There are flights, accommodation, etc. that must be provided for. Under Australian employment law (applicable to APNIC as it is an Australian entity that employs staff onshore), if an employee is required to work away from their normal place of residence they must be provided with accommodation and meal allowances. Some of these events require the attendance of more than one employee. These costs are not cheap. I noticed you seem to have quite an in-depth knowledge surrounding the structure of APNIC's departments. What "lengthy and fruitless meetings" do they hold? How do you know of any "interdepartmental conflicts" and "internal disputes" that take place? Or is this all baseless conjecture with no solid foundation? Looking into your remarks surrounding travel expenditure, I find it deplorable that whoever you may be or masquerading as behind a free email account with no prior engagement within the community, can present allegations that APNIC are misappropriating member funds for the purpose of personal travel not directly related to APNIC activities. I strongly recommend you put forward any legitimate (emphasis added) evidence you have, otherwise no one can take you seriously. During COVID-19, their expenditure for travel in 2020 was $331,259 (see page 20 of their 2020 P&L statement in their auditor report). In 2019, this amount was $2,390,238 That's approximately an 87% drop in travel-related expenses in 2020 compared to 2019 and for the large part, Australia's borders were closed unless it was critical travel and the Australian government granted a travel exemption. APNIC's computer expenses for the year ending 31 December 2022 was $1,883,390. One of the services they provide is the maintenance and management of F-Root DNS root servers. They also have to maintain the Whois system, IRR, RPKI, etc. These all require rather significant hardware and complex networking to operate, which come at a cost. There is also the member management system which wouldn't be easy to maintain, nor is it free. APNIC provides more than enough information and are highly transparent in their financial reporting, even going so far as to engage external independent auditors to audit their books. Can't get much more transparent than that. Time and time again, all of the concerns you've raised have been addressed by numerous people. I'd be interested in catching up with you at APRICOT, would be good to talk about any concerns you may have. I also actively encourage you to stand up at the AGM and present your concerns for the entire member base and EC to hear. Although I don't see this happening. And to cap it all off (in case you didn't understand any of that), running a regional internet registry costs money. Money does not grow on trees. Regards, Christopher Hawker Another concerned nobody who actively engages in and with the community
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