IETF Administration LLC 2025 Draft Budget

The IETF Administration LLC 2025 Draft Budget is made up of the following:

1. Budget
2. Meetings budget
3. Chart of accounts

Key assumptions

• Internet Society contribution as per our agreement
• IETF 123 & IETF 124 meetings will have a slightly increased fee structure
• RPC cost structure has changed from prior years
• Increase cost of airfare costs
• No additional employees
• Investments rate of return is 2.2% over the year, as confirmed with our investment advisors
• Up to 4% inflation reflected in staff and some contract costs

Summary

Key changes from 2024

Budget changes

• Investments
  • The budget for Investment income is lower due to using 2.2% vs. 4% as advised by Goldman Sachs. This is a decrease of ($300,833).
• Key Contracts
  • The Secretariat contract decreased with the IT changes, but increased for inflation and the loss of a multi-service discount, leaving a net increase of $122,515.  
  • The RPC contract changed to a cost plus contract and absorbed the RPC Tools Refresh PM contract, creating a positive variance to 2024’s budget of $204,002.
• Meetings:
  • Sponsorship revenue budgeted decreased slightly due to Global Sponsor changing to Global Host and therefore being recognized differently. 
  • Meeting Rebates & Comps budgeted decreased due to less Subvention Grants and VAT recovery.
  • Meeting venue costs are significantly lower, but travel costs have increased due to increased airfare costs.
• Administration:
  • Inflationary increase in all wages at a maximum of 4%.
  • Adjustment for actual payroll process fees was less than expected.
  • Conference Services in-kind contributions of $58,050 was not budgeted for in 2024.
  • Professional Development and Staff Meeting costs together increased $62,000 from the 2024 budget due to increased staff in 2024 and managing the RPC staff.
• Tools:
  • No additional staff budgeted for 2025 (one position remains vacant).
  • There is a reduction of Tools expenses by $699,515 due to using internal staff vs contractors for projects.
• Depreciation budgeted in 2024 was below the need to cover all of the CapEx in the last few years, so the 2025 budget reflects an additional $500,000 of depreciation.

Presentation changes

• No changes

Increase in IETF Meeting registration fees

We last increased the IETF Meeting registration fees in July 2023, following a report to the community and consultation.  The increase was based on US inflation in the eight years since the previous increase, to January 2023, resulting in a rise of  ~25% across the board

At that time, the board set a policy that the fees should be increased annually, during the annual budget process, using US inflation since the last increase.  Unfortunately, this was not followed for the 2024 financial year, meaning that the rise this year will be slightly higher to compensate.

The fees have been reviewed using the official US inflation calculator, which gives the inflation rate from January 2023 to October 2024 as 5.51%.  Using that for the increase, and with some rounding, we get the following table of proposed fees, to be effective from July 2025.

The onsite student fee has been $150 since at least 2006, which is why the increase is slightly higher than inflation.

Community feedback

Community feedback on the budget is welcome and should be made either directly to the IETF Executive Director at exec-director@ietf.org, who can also answer any questions, or to the administration discussion list admin-discuss@ietf.org.  Please provide any feedback before December 31st 2024.