We are so happy you got to be on this Fellowship journey with us. We want to hear all about it! Please submit a 1 page written summary of your experiences from the Fellowship Program and ARIN Meeting ... what you learned, how it compared to your expectations, and how you see yourself engaging with ARIN in the future.

Participating in the fellowship for ARIN 51 was great. An opportunity I nearly missed out on and thankfully did not. I was fortunate enough to be part of the ARIN 50 fellowship but the hybrid experience was far better . 

 I’ve had dealing with ARIN , assigned new ASNs, SWIP IP Blocks , but those interactions were transactional . The fellowship highlighted the NRPM which CLEARY and literally states the mission of ARIN in section 1.1 (Registration), 1.2(Conservation), 1.3(Routability), 1.4(Stewardship). 

 The prerequisite video of Jon Worley gave an excellent presentation on the Overview of Internet Number Resource which illustrated Whois , Routing Security , Global Uniqueness , and DNSSEC. Although not exactly new information, revisiting the basics was important to build up to why these ARIN meetings happen at all and the Policy Development Process. 

Gaining a new understanding of the mission, the hybrid sessions were absolutely essential to being prepared for the ARIN meeting. Understanding the Policy Development Process , The Recommended Draft Policies and other Working Groups helped understand the structure of the meeting and how it intended to meet its goals. 

The policy development process has real world impacts on how ARIN executes its mission which directly impacts the ecosystem of the internet. The goal of the PDP to be technically sound and to gain community support. This type of open source participation allows for the proposed policies to stand on their merits. This is why the email threads for the PDP can be intense. It matters what happens with these policies , impacting people like me who are responsible for handing these resources . Participating is an important part of the process , ARIN openly encourages this. 

Attending the event in Tampa far exceeded my expectations truthfully. My expectation was dry non technical policy discussions, but technical interest was engaged in most of the events and the policy was wrapped around in the four key goals of Registration , Conservation , Routability and Stewardship. 

Met a number of amazing people, the fellowship team of course but individuals from the community as well. 

The lunch table discussion and the ROA-thon was a great learning experience of the importance of using ROAs and the new service ARIN is rolling out. The presentation on IPV6 success stories is another technically sound and enjoyable item. Meeting Matthew , he was a great mentor and I enjoyed a number of discussions with him. 

I did walk up to the microphone a number of times during ARIN51 and all my questions were answered and felt part of the process in a meaningful way. 

Takeaways

• Sign your ROAs ! lol 
• There was one great point made by I believe Kevin Blumbeg which is that the email system for ARIN is old , I really hope this is addressed because in my humble opinion this harms the credibility of ARIN with the newer generation of tech. 
• Slack would be great too ! Imagine the discussions 
• The best way I can participate with ARIN in the future is to be engaged. I plan on discussing ARIN fellowship with the  NYNOG community to encourage others to participate 
• If there is other ways to participate with ARIN I would be interested blog post or some working group perhaps. 
• Stewardship and participation is imperative for the network operators. I viewed the interactions with ARIN as transaction prior but there is a real importance to keeping the internet system healthy with the underlying goals. This only helps to ensure there is a healthy public internet in the future. 
• ARIN is not just the local RIR for North America , there are working groups that participate at the Global level with other RIRs , ICANN , other Governments to ensure the goals of Registration , Conservation , Routability and Stewardship are met.**