Meeting of the ARIN Advisory Council - 30 January 2026
Teleconference
Draft Minutes
ARIN AC Attendees:
- Kat Hunter, Chair (KH)
- Lily Botsyoe (LB)
- E. Marie Brierley (EMB)
- Doug Camin, Vice Chair (DC)
- Gerry George (GG)
- Elizabeth Goodson (EG)
- William Herrin (WH)
- Brian Jones (BJ)
- Kaitlyn Pellak (KP)
- Gus Reese (GR)
- Leif Sawyer (LS)
- Alicia Trotman (via zoom) (AT)
- Matthew Wilder (MW)
- Alison Wood (AW)
- Chris Woodfield (CW)
ARIN Staff:
- Eddie Diego, Policy Analyst
- Jennifer Lee, Deputy General Counsel
- Lisa Liedel, Dir. RSD (via zoom)
- Melissa Montgomery, Volunteer Support Specialist / Scribe
- John Sweeting, CXO
ARIN Board Observers:
- Nancy Carter, Chair
- Rober Seastrom, Trustee
1. Welcome.
The Chair called the meeting to order at 3:46 p.m. PT. The presence of a quorum was noted. She welcomed the AC to their first meeting of the year and welcomed the ARIN staff and observing members of the ARIN Board.
2. Agenda Review.
The Chair reviewed the agenda and called for any comments. The Chair requested a change be made to the agenda and any agendas going forward. The Chair requested to move “Changes in Employment and Affiliation” listed under Any Other Business to new item #4 of this agenda and all future agendas.
3. Approval of the Minutes.
It was moved by LS, and seconded by AW, that:
“The ARIN Advisory Council approves the 18 December 2025 Minutes, as written.”
The motion carried with no objections.
4. Changes in Employment and Affiliation
The Chair asked if there were any changes in employment and affiliation. AW stated that she is currently serving on the Board of the Industry Network Technology Council. KP stated that she is no longer affiliated with Amazon Web Services.
5. Draft Policy ARIN-2024-5: Rewrite of NRPM Section 4.4 Micro-Allocation.
CW stated that there were no updates at this time. He continues to work on outreach to affected communities. The Chair asked if there were any comments or questions. There were none.
6. Draft Policy ARIN-2025-1: Clarify ISP and LIR Definitions and References to Address Ambiguity in NRPM Text.
LS stated that he had finished re-factoring this policy and will be sending the text to the co-shepherd for peer review and then adding it to the AC wiki. He will post it to the community next week. The Chair asked if there were any questions or comments. There were none.
7. Draft Policy ARIN-2025-3: Change Section 9, Out of Region Use Minimum Criteria.
GG stated that he will be submitting the draft to staff and legal for review. The Chair asked if there were any questions or comments. There were none.
8. Draft Policy ARIN-2025-6: Fix Formula in 6.5.2.1c.
WH provided an overview of the draft policy and what it addressed. Based on the feedback, he believed it had received the consensus of the community. WH stated that several sections need some much larger and extensive changes, but those changes are not what this policy is meant for, and he would recommend against holding up this policy. He noted that it came in as a proposal from an author in the community. It is substantially the same policy as proposed, and the author has approved all additions to this draft.
It was moved by WH, and seconded by GR, that:
“The ARIN Advisory Council moves ‘Draft Policy ARIN-2025-6: Fix Formula in 6.5.2.1c’ to Recommended Draft Policy status.”
The Chair called for discussion. DC stated that he did not agree that the text has achieved appropriate consensus. He believed there still needs to be considerable discussion about whether fixing the formula is the right approach. To this point, DC highlighted the staff and legal review of this policy. He stated that once accepted by the AC, the policy becomes part of the community and the whole community’s feedback. He stated that he wants to be respectful of the author and their feedback but emphasized that the author is still a part of the community. He stated that whether the author thinks the policy is appropriate is only one of the guiding factors with the author as a member of the community. He did not support the policy in its current form and suggested going back to the community more directly and asking them if removing the formula is an alternative path as well.
WH responded that he had developed a set of questions to poll the community at the October Public Policy and Members Meeting (PPMM) that would have obtained that information, but the poll was not conducted. He believes it would have given everyone an answer regarding consensus on the policy.
AW asked WH what was the biggest complaint from the dissenters as to why they did not want to move this policy forward as written. WH stated that it is difficult to assess if there are any dissenters. The last time he heard feedback from the community on this policy was at the October PPMM. He stated that there was no dissent posted on the Public Policy Mailing List (PPML). AW clarified her question by asking what was the general complaint about this policy?
The Chair stated that she was one of the people that had dissented. She did not believe it has enough community consensus yet and ARIN is not using the formula. She stated that the fix for this could be done in the text. She pointed out that if the formula was not being used anyway, then why should it be included? The Chair stated that she believed it would be better to explain it in plain language, rather than use a formula so that people who weren’t engineers could understand.
GG asked if fixing the formula will address the problem. He suggested that it may be useful to find out if people actually use the formula versus a textual explanation of what needs to be done. He suggested this could be tested to find out if it is the formula or if it is the text that is causing uncertainty.
The Chair pointed out that ARIN staff said they are not looking at the formula and does not believe anyone else is looking at the formula either. WH stated that he has found no evidence that the formula is being used. He stated it is a simple question of correcting technical errors. The Chair stated that she would be more comfortable with fixing the text and eliminating the formula. WH stated he did not believe people are just using the text either. He believes they are calling ARIN and asking for assistance and following that response.
CW asked if WH believed the original author would be in support of eliminating the formula. WH replied that he presented several options to the author. One of those options was to rewrite the whole section. The author believed that rewriting the whole section would significantly derail the whole process because it opens up so many issues. CW stated that it sounded like the idea was to make a surgical correction. WH agreed that this policy was written to make a surgical change and not open up more issues.
The Chair asked for any further comments or questions. There were none.
The Chair asked for a roll call vote to move the policy to recommended draft status.
The motion failed with 3 in favor (WH, GR, CW), 11 against (LB, DC, GG, EG, BJ, KP, LS, AT, MW, AW, KH), and one abstention (EMB).
The Chair stated that the AC will continue to work on this policy.
9. Draft Policy ARIN-2025-7: Make Policy in 6.5.8.2 Match the Examples.
LB stated that the draft policy will be posted to the community and then she will request a staff and legal review. The Chair asked if there were any comments or questions. There were no other comments.
10. Draft Policy ARIN-2025-8: Reserve 4.10 space for In-Region Use.
KP stated that there has been some feedback on the PPML that pointed out potential issues. One concern she had is that this policy in its current state allows someone with an IPv6 allocation from a different RIR to come in and qualify for 4.10 space. She asked if she understood that correctly. The CXO confirmed that we cannot deny 4.10 space to someone who has an IPv6 allocation that is routing in the ARIN space, even if it is from another RIR.
KP stated that given some of the feedback she had received at the last RIR meeting, she would like to craft a response to send out to the PPML. The Chair asked if there were any comments or questions. There were none.
11. ARIN AC Working Groups.
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Policy Experience Report Working Group (PER WG) Update. AW stated that meetings are scheduled for the first Friday of the month at 12 p.m. ET.
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Number Resource Policy Manual Working Group (NRPM WG) Update. The Policy Analyst stated that meetings are scheduled for every second Monday of the month at 3 p.m. ET.
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Policy Engagement Working Group. (PE WG) Update. The Policy Analyst stated that meetings are scheduled for every fourth Friday of the month at 11 a.m. ET.
12. Any Other Business.
The Chair called for any other business.
- ARIN 57 Mentors. The Chair stated that mentors for ARIN Fellows will be needed for ARIN 57, Louisville, KY, 19-22 April. If anyone is interested, please reach out to the Chair and Amanda Gauldin. The Policy Analyst mentioned that he had added a ‘Call for Mentors’ handout in the AC’s Slack.
13. Adjournment.
The Chair entertained a motion to adjourn at 4:16 p.m. PT. AW moved to adjourn, seconded by LS. The meeting adjourned with no objections.