[PDB Gov] [Peering-list] Risk of excessive DE-CIX influence on PeeringDB

[Bill Woodcock]

As someone who was on ARIN’s board of directors for fifteen years, yes, ARIN has a solid CoI policy, and exercised it rigorously.

> On Apr 15, 2026, at 01:47, Chris Rogers via Pdb-gov <pdb-gov at lists.peeringdb.com> wrote:
> 
> ARIN does have a clause about this in their bylaws, article IV section 1.e.
> 
> :)
> 
> On Tue, Apr 14, 2026, 15:02 Martin Hannigan via Pdb-gov <pdb-gov at lists.peeringdb.com> wrote:
> Conflicts declaration makes sense regardless.
> Healthy number of candidates running.
> If ARIN doesn’t do it, then it must be OK. 
> 
> Seems fine.
> 
> 
> From: Pdb-gov <pdb-gov-bounces at lists.peeringdb.com> on behalf of Shaun Coffey via Pdb-gov <pdb-gov at lists.peeringdb.com>
> Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2026 at 5:57 PM
> To:
> Cc: pdb-gov at lists.peeringdb.com <pdb-gov at lists.peeringdb.com>
> Subject: Re: [PDB Gov] Risk of excessive DE-CIX influence on PeeringDB
> 
> IMO declare the potential conflict at time of voting, and allow voters to make the choice.  I have no concerns about either candidate or the organization they are affiliated with. 
> 
> If it’s still of concern ahead of next election, then take the chance to propose modifying the bylaws to include allowing a run off as proposed by Yolandi, or a modification to the quorum requirements to ensure a quorum must consist of at least 3 members who are not affiliated with the same organization.
> 
> On Wed, 15 Apr 2026 at 7:01 am, Matthew Petach via Pdb-gov <pdb-gov at lists.peeringdb.com> 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 <ccaputo at alt.net> 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.
> [...]


                                -Bill


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