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APNIC By-law Reforms: Feedback from second community consultation
session at APNIC 60
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Dear APNIC community members,
Following careful consideration of the feedback received from the
previous consultation on amendments to the APNIC By-laws, the APNIC
Executive Council (EC) has decided to pursue the extension of EC terms
from two years to three years.
The EC believes, however, that further consultation is required on the
proposal to introduce term limits of three terms for EC members and has
sought further community input.
On Thursday, 11 September 2025, APNIC Members and the community met in
person and online at APNIC 60 to discuss the term limits in response to the
following key questions:
1. Structure of term limits:
Should EC members be limited to three terms with no possibility of
re-election, or should they be eligible to seek re-election after a
cooling-off period of one or two years?
2. Application to current and former EC members:
Should term limits apply immediately (allowing current terms to be
completed), or should there be a grace period (for example, one
additional term), or should the limits apply only to terms served after
the adoption of the new rules?
Feedback on the by-law reform questions
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Below is a sample of the feedback received from the community
consultation session held at APNIC 60 on Thursday, 11 September 2025 at
9:30 (UTC +7). The full recording and transcript are available on the
APNIC 60 website.
https://conference.apnic.net/60/program/program/index.html#/day/8/93/
Structure of term limits
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There was general support from those who provided feedback during the
session for giving EC members the opportunity to seek re-election at the
end of their three terms after a cooling off period of one year.
One community member considered that if terms are to be extended from
two to three years, that a hard limit would be appropriate and was not in
support of a cooling-off period. They noted that there are enough capable
people in the APNIC community to perform the role of EC member and that
APNIC should take a different approach to ARIN (American Registry for
Internet Numbers) as, unlike ARIN, APNIC has National Internet Registries
(NIRs), and some EC members are employed by NIRs.
There was also general support from those who provided feedback during
the session for staggered exits of EC members from the EC.
Application to current and former EC members
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There was support from some community members for a phased approach
involving a grace period of one additional term for existing EC members,
or for existing EC members at or nearing the end of their term limit.
Some delegates from an organization in the community, as well as a
community member commenting on APNIC-talk, supported the application of
term limits only to terms served after the adoption of the new rules.
Two community members considered that waiting another nine years before
the term limit applied to the existing EC members would push renewal too
far into the future. There was also concern it would result in the loss
of too much knowledge at the same time if all members stayed their
entire term.
There is still time to share your feedback
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The EC is keen to hear more from APNIC Members and the community and
encourages you to share your feedback here on APNIC-talk. The deadline
to provide your feedback is Friday, 26 September 2025.
After all the feedback is considered, and final wording is completed,
the EC intends to put the proposed by-law reforms to a Member vote.
________________________________________________________________________
APNIC Secretariat
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
Tel: +61 7 3858 3100<tel:+61738583100>
https://www.apnic.net
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APNIC-talk - https://mailman.apnic.net/[email protected]/
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