Consultation on ARIN’s Membership Structure

Posted: Thursday, 28 October 2021

The purpose of this consultation is to provide our customers ARIN’s plan for membership going forward and to seek feedback on planned changes to ARIN’s membership structure for 2022.

With the change to a single fee schedule in 2022 (fee harmonization) for end user and ISP organizations, ARIN wishes to open up participation in ARIN governance to end user organizations that were previously unable to vote in ARIN elections. When the end user organizations are transitioned to the Registration Services Plan, they will be made Service Members of ARIN. This category is an addition to the existing membership categories. The addition of a new membership category requires a modification to the Bylaws, linked below.

The distinguishing characteristic between Service and General Member categories is related to the commitment to vote in ARIN’s elections. Any Service Member organization may apply to become a General Member by submitting a request and meeting the General Member criteria.

General members (whether existing or new ones who were previously end user organizations and opted to become General Members) must participate in ARIN Elections to maintain their status. Following the 2023 ARIN annual election and each election thereafter, General Members that did not cast a ballot in any of the previous three ARIN elections will become Service Members and will not be eligible to apply for General Member status until after the coming year.

Please view the proposed related Bylaws changes at: https://arin.net/participate/oversight/membership/bylaws_redline_102821.pdf

You may also review a more detailed description of the proposed 2022 Membership categories and related FAQ at: https://arin.net/participate/oversight/membership/index2022/

This consultation will remain open for 15 days, after which a summary will be provided to the Board of Trustees for their consideration. This proposed change to ARIN’s bylaws may be implemented independently or in addition to any other bylaw changes approved by the Board (including consultation if necessary) in accordance with the bylaws.

Please provide comments to arin-consult@arin.net. You can subscribe to this mailing list at: http://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-consult.

Discussion on arin-consult@arin.net will close on 12 November 2021.

Regards,

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)