> I do find it interesting that the Directors do not *need* to be associated 
> with any Member organizations; there is no restriction on who can be voted in 
> as a Director, allowing for the possibility that in the future, the Board of 
> Directors could be entirely populated by people with no member affiliation to 
> PeeringDB at all.  


Just to give you an idea of what other organizations in the community do:
Not to copy Martin, but ARIN solves this by making you a member if you are 
elected to the board (he says from first-hand knowledge).
NANOG solves this by requiring you to be a member to be on the board. But the 
requirement to be a member is “pay $75”, so membership does not in any way 
guarantee a connection to the community.
IXes typically require a port to be a member.

Etc., etc.

Personally I think it is fine to have a non-member on the board. Lots of people 
have deep knowledge but (e.g.) retired or changed jobs where they are no longer 
technically a member. For instance, I am certain you would garner a great many 
votes if you ran, Matt. The community can vote for members if they think not 
being a member is a problem.

-- 
TTFN.
patrick


> On Apr 14, 2026, at 17:01, Matthew Petach via Pdb-gov 
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Chris
> 
> Absolutely agree with you; someone earlier had suggested that since Directors 
> can also be members, that section 2.3.2 *might* be argued to apply to votes 
> being taken by the Board as well.  It's a weak claim, but one that could be 
> made in the absence of clearer language.
> 
> I do find it interesting that the Directors do not *need* to be associated 
> with any Member organizations; there is no restriction on who can be voted in 
> as a Director, allowing for the possibility that in the future, the Board of 
> Directors could be entirely populated by people with no member affiliation to 
> PeeringDB at all.  
> I'm still mentally wrestling with whether or not that could be a strength, or 
> a weakness in the Bylaws, though.   ^_^;;
> 
> Thank you for the clarification!
> 
> Matt
> 
> 
> On Tue, Apr 14, 2026 at 1:19 PM Chris Caputo <[email protected] 
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> Just a quick point of clarification that the Voting Rights mentioned in 
>> section 2.3 apply to the Membership, not the Board.
>> 
>> Chris
>> 
>> On Tue, 14 Apr 2026, Matthew Petach wrote:
>> > Welcome to the iterative process of updating Bylaws.  I've been going 
>> > through this with two other organizations I've been on the boards of, 
>> > and it's always a challenge.
>> [...]

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