ARIN 57 Day 3 Recap
We’ve concluded the third and final day of the ARIN 57 Public Policy and Members Meeting! A big thank you to all who participated in person and virtually and helped make this another productive and engaging event. To reference anything you’ve seen at the meeting, visit our meeting materials page. Over the coming days, links to the full transcript and webcasts will be added to this page as well. In the meantime, here’s an overview of what happened on day three — a focused half-day of department reports, outreach highlights, a look at registry integrity, a legal update, and an elections preview.
Department Reports
After Hollis Kara, Director of Communications, provided a warm welcome, a thank you to our elected volunteers, opening announcements, and a reminder about our ombudsperson — along with another shout out to our meeting sponsors, Spectrum, Amazon Web Services, IPXO, and Verisign — we got right into the final presentations of ARIN 57. We began with a series of departmental updates from across the ARIN organization, providing a window into the operational work that keeps the registry running and achieving its mission day to day.
Human Resources and Administration — Erin Alligood
Chief Human Resources Officer Erin Alligood kicked things off with her Human Resources and Administration Report, introducing the HR and Admin team and summarizing how it supports ARIN through talent acquisition and retention, compensation and benefits management, performance management, legal compliance, and facilities management.
Among the 2025–2026 highlights Erin shared: ARIN completed a favorable 401(k) audit for plan year 2024 and fulfilled 2026 training requirements for all employees and volunteers — including Eliminating Harassment in the Workplace and Inclusion and Diversity modules. On the operations side, the team navigated workforce planning and lease renewal, continued management continuity planning, and implemented new employee handbook policies. On the community side, ARIN’s staff participated in local school supply and holiday toy drives in 2025, and a diaper drive in 2026, and they hosted several interdepartmental events. (Read more about our community initiatives on the ARIN Blog.) Erin also recognized two recent ARIN retirees: Reggie Forster, Director of Operations in Engineering with six years of service, and Tammy Rowe, Accounts Receivable Manager in Financial Services with an impressive 26 years of service.
Communications Department — Ashley Perks
Communications Manager Ashley Perks then presented the Communications Report, opening with an introduction to the team led by Hollis Kara. Already in 2026, Communications milestones include the rollout of a new ARIN logo, this meeting, publication of the 2025 Annual Report, ongoing strategic communications support, and planning for ARIN 58.
Ashley shared highlights of ARIN’s social media and blog activity from the past year, noting that the most engaging topics were the Fellowship Program, IPv6, RPKI, Caribbean outreach, and industry events.
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New for 2026, ARIN Online now supports dismissible banners and pop-ups to deliver important in-platform updates — covering surveys and consultations, ARIN meetings, maintenance outages, and elections. Ashley also reviewed ARIN’s mailing lists, the Consultation and Suggestion Process (9 suggestions received in 2025; 2 completed, 5 still under consideration; no consultations currently scheduled for 2026), and ARIN Academy, which offers self-paced learning modules on Getting Started with ARIN, Using ARIN’s Hosted RPKI, and IPv6 Address Planning Basics. And for those who missed it: ARIN has a full library of online help videos on its website and YouTube channel covering topics from creating user accounts to the Policy Development Process.
Ashley closed with a save-the-date for ARIN 58: 22–23 October 2026 in Miami, Florida.
Registration Services Department — John Sweeting
Chief Experience Officer John Sweeting presented the Registration Services Department (RSD) Report on behalf of Director of Registration Services Lisa Liedel, who was unable to join us at ARIN 57. He introduced her team and RSD’s key support areas, which span the full breadth of what ARIN customers need: requesting resources (ASNs and IPv4 and IPv6 addresses); transferring resources (mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, specific recipient transfers, and inter-RIR transfers); maintaining data accuracy; and supporting routing security via the IRR and RPKI. The 2025 customer engagement numbers reflect a busy and highly responsive team. RSD fielded more than 6,500 phone calls with no wait time, more than 1,400 live chats, and nearly 1,000 of both ticketed requests related to the IPv4 Waiting List and Zoom sessions for MFA resets or locked account support.
John also highlighted two key process improvements:
- A redesigned Point of Contact (POC) Linking process, which eliminated email-based authentication in favor of in-platform approvals.
- An enhanced Ask ARIN ticketing system that now requires topic selection for improved routing, allows users to associate an Org ID with their ticket (enabling team sharing), and has yielded richer data on customer needs — with Account and Contact Management, Resource and Reporting Inquiries, and Payments and Billing as the top three categories.
The report included the 2025 Registration Services Audit, conducted by independent firm Baker Tilly. The audit confirmed full compliance of RSD personnel, processes, and technology with the Number Resource Policy Manual, validated consistent execution of internal procedures supported by comprehensive documentation, and recognized the department’s strengthened fraud prevention controls.
Customer Experience and Strategy Department — Joe Westover
Senior Director of Customer Experience and Strategy Joe Westover presented the Customer Experience and Strategy (CXS) Department Report, providing a look at the four focus areas of his department: technical services, registry integrity, process excellence, and community engagement. The CXS team’s overarching goal is to deliver a superior customer experience — processing Internet resource requests, implementing RPKI and IRR services, conducting fraud identification and mitigation, managing the Fellowship Program and Community Grant Program, and supporting industry events and ARIN Elections.
Outreach and Fellowship - Amanda Gauldin
Amanda Gauldin, Senior Project Manager, presented the Outreach and Fellowship update, covering the many ways ARIN engages with the community — through conference booths and Customer Service Desks, virtual events, presentations, RIR meetings, sponsorships, and ARIN-hosted events. ARIN’s speaking topics continue to focus on practical, actionable content: planning your IPv6 network, protecting your routes with RPKI, and achieving network autonomy.
Amanda also shared an update on the ARIN Fellowship Program, which launched in 2009 and has now welcomed 289 individuals across its 17-year history. The program offers six weeks of virtual educational sessions, meeting attendance, mentorship, and networking opportunities. Amanda introduced the ARIN 57 Fellows and recognized the program’s mentors for this cohort: AC members Doug Camin, Gerry George, Kaitlyn Pellak, and Matthew Wilder.
Looking ahead, applications for the ARIN 58 Fellowship Program will open in July 2026 and will include participation at NANOG 98. Learn more at arin.net.
Registry Integrity and Oversight - Reese Radcliffe
Following one last break, Registry Integrity and Oversight (RIO) Manager Reese Radcliffe presented the (RIO) Report, explaining ARIN’s integrity mission, the RIO team’s core responsibilities (strengthening the integrity of registration data and ensuring policy compliance), and the three main threat categories it monitors (identity and entity fraud, unauthorized resource management, and routing hijacks and misinformation). In reviewing oversight activities, Reese shared that ARIN receives approximately 240 Org Create requests per month, with about 35 per month escalated to RIO for closer review. Of those escalated requests, 29 percent close as abandoned and 42 percent come from out-of-region organizations claiming to be expanding into the ARIN region. In 2025, RIO received 223 policy noncompliance reports, of which 28 were deemed legitimate and 195 were out of scope.
Reese also detailed RIO’s fraud deterrence process — spanning fraud prevention, identification, investigation, policy violation review, and law enforcement collaboration — and outlined how the team leverages Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM) Section 12 audits to identify violations, conduct video verification, provide compliance requirements, and address open cases. He closed by inviting the ARIN community to be partners in protecting the registry by reporting suspicious activity, staying informed on verification procedures, keeping contact and Org ID records current, and engaging through policy discussions and community consultations.
Legal Update
For the penultimate presentation of ARIN 57, ARIN General Counsel Michael Abejuela delivered the Legal Update. He introduced ARIN’s legal team and provided an overview of each of its areas of responsibility: administrative/operational activities, support to ARIN volunteers, fraud investigations, and legislative/governance actions.
2026 ARIN Election Preview
Last but not least, Joe Westover and Board Election Officer Ron da Silva co-presented the 2026 ARIN Election Preview, a timely reminder that every fall, ARIN General Members in Good Standing elect candidates to the ARIN Board of Trustees and Advisory Council, and, two out of every three years, to the Number Resource Organization Number Council.
ARIN currently has just over 25,000 Service Members and just under 1,500 General Members. All customers with an active ARIN Agreement are Service Members and are eligible to request General Membership, which enables participation in ARIN Elections.
Key dates and reminders for the 2026 election cycle:
- Nominations open: 8 June 2026
- Nominations close: 22 June 2026
- Voting Contact deadline: 7 September 2026 (organizations must have a Voting Contact identified in ARIN Online by this date)
- Initial candidate slate announced: 8 September 2026
- Voting period: 22–30 October 2026
- Results announced: by 6 November 2026
Joe encouraged all General Member organizations to verify their Voting Contact in ARIN Online today: Navigate to Your Records > Organization Identifiers, select an Org Handle, and check the Voting Contact section. For more information about ARIN Elections and the seats up for election this year, visit arin.net/elections.
Ron added an overview of the Election Officer’s role, the evaluation criteria applied to candidates, and the processes for reviewing eligible voters and election certification. Joe, Ron, and numerous other staff and volunteers emphasized the importance of serving on the Nomination Committee to perform a vital role in ARIN Elections.
Applications for the Nomination Committee — which requires three volunteers from General Member organizations — are open until 28 April 2026. Learn more and complete a short questionnaire if you’re interested in joining.
Open Microphone and Farewell to Louisville
To wrap things up, President and CEO John Curran and Board Chair Nancy Carter hosted the final open microphone session of ARIN 57, giving community members one last opportunity to raise questions or share comments before the close of the meeting.
Hollis Kara closed ARIN 57 with final announcements and adjournment — recognizing our meeting sponsors one more time and thanking everyone who joined us in Louisville and online for three days of policy discussions, organizational updates, community reports, and conversation.
Until Next Time
That’s a wrap on ARIN 57! Thank you to everyone who participated — in person at The Galt House Hotel in Louisville and virtually via Zoom and our YouTube livestream. A special thank you to our sponsors for helping make this meeting possible: network sponsor Spectrum, platinum sponsor Amazon Web Services, silver sponsor IPXO, and espresso bar sponsor Verisign.
All slides from ARIN 57 are available on our ARIN 57 Meeting Materials page. Webcasts and transcripts will be posted in the coming days.
Want to keep the conversation going? Join the Public Policy Mailing List (PPML), subscribe to the ARIN Blog, and follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and X for ongoing updates. And if you attended ARIN 57, please complete the meeting survey — your feedback helps us make every meeting better.
We hope to see you at ARIN 58!
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