[Apnic-announce] APNIC fee schedule changes
As you are aware the APNIC fee structure has been under discussion for
some time, and a vote was recently held on a specific proposal to alter
the APNIC fee schedule. This proposal contained two specific
modifications to the current fee structure: firstly, that the APNIC
fees should be set in Australian dollars using a conversion rate of
0.7889; and secondly that an increase of 7% be applied to the fees.
As announced at APNIC 24, that vote was not passed, by a narrow margin.
Since APNIC 24, the APNIC EC has reviewed the result of the vote and
the associated discussions during the recent meeting and by the APNIC
Fees Working Group, along with the current financial environment in
which we are operating, and the advice received from our consultants,
KPMG. Specifically, the APNIC EC has been considering the possible
adoption of one element of the recent proposal, namely that the APNIC
fees should be set in Australian dollars. This possibility has been
raised numerous times during previous discussions at the APNIC meeting
and Fees Working Group, and received widespread support with no
objections.
At its meeting of 11 October 2007, the APNIC EC completed its
consideration of these matters, and has determined that APNIC will
adopt a change of the fee schedule to use Australian dollars, but
without the 7% fee increase.
Therefore the APNIC Fee Schedule will be set in Australian dollars,
converting the US dollar fees into Australian dollars using the
conversion rate specified in recent proposal, namely the rate used in
setting the 2007 APNIC budget of 1 AUD = 0.7889 USD. You can find
below a link to the new schedule of APNIC fees using Australian
Dollars, effective as of 1 January 2008.
It is noted that under the APNIC Bylaws (Section 4), the APNIC EC has
responsibility to establish the membership fees for APNIC. While in
the past a number of changes in the fee schedule were undertaken by
the EC following a vote by the APNIC Membership, such a membership
vote has not been strictly necessary under our Bylaws. The respective
roles and responsibilities of the EC and the Membership are set forth
in the APNIC Bylaws:
http://www.apnic.net/docs/corpdocs/Bylaws.htm
In this case, the EC is proceeding with the change of the currency
used for APNIC fees, after consideration of the recent vote, and based
upon its analysis that further variation in the exchange rate between
USD and AUD would bring APNIC more uncertainty for its financial
stability. The essential solution for this instability is to change
the fee currency to AUD in which the dominant portion of APNIC's
operation expense is paid.
The new APNIC fee structure is now available online, at:
http://www.apnic.net/docs/corpdocs/member-fee-schedule-2008.html
After extensive consideration, the APNIC EC is confident that the
change will have the support of the large majority of APNIC members,
and will be in the very best interests of the organisation.
We thank you for your support of APNIC.
MAEMURA Akinori
Chair