Network Working Group S. Dawkins, Ed.
Request for Comments: 5633 Huawei (USA)
BCP: 10 August 2009
Updates: 3777
Category: Best Current Practice
Nominating Committee Process: Earlier Announcement of Open Positions and
Solicitation of Volunteers
Status of This Memo
This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
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document authors. All rights reserved.
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Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
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Abstract
This document updates RFC 3777, Section 4, Bullet 13 to allow
announcement of open positions and solicitation of volunteers to be
issued before a Nominating and Recall Committee Chair has been named
by the Internet Society President.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Updated Text from RFC 3777 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5. Possible Topics for Later Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
8.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
8.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1. Introduction
The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), the Internet
Architecture Board (IAB), and the at-large IETF representatives to
the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) are selected by a
"Nominating and Recall Committee" (universally abbreviated as
"NomCom"). [RFC3777] defines how the NomCom is selected and the
processes it follows as it selects candidates for these positions.
This document describes an issue with [RFC3777] that causes an
avoidable delay in the NomCom process and specifies a normative
update to resolve the issue.
2. Background
[RFC3777] is the latest in a series of revisions to the NomCom
process. [RFC3777] has been updated once since 2004, but the update
([RFC5078]) did not change normative text (it replaced a sample
timeline).
[RFC5078] identifies a serial delay in the process described in
[RFC3777], in Section 4 ("Nominating Committee Selection"), Bullet
13, which states:
The Chair obtains the list of IESG and IAB positions to be
reviewed and announces it along with a solicitation for names of
volunteers from the IETF community willing to serve on the
nominating committee.
The solicitation must permit the community at least 30 days during
which they may choose to volunteer to be selected for the
nominating committee.
The list of open positions is published with the solicitation to
facilitate community members choosing between volunteering for an
open position and volunteering for the nominating committee.
The result is that the Incoming NomCom Chair is the only person who
can announce the list of open positions and solicitation for names of
volunteers, a process that requires 30 days for public solicitation.
Since this is the first step in organizing the NomCom committee, NomCom, delays in
selecting the Incoming NomCom Chair translate directly into delays in
issuing the solicitation and organizing the NomCom.
This proved problematic in practice in 2008-2009, when Joel Halpern
was named NomCom Chair less than 30 days prior to the second IETF
meeting of the year. If the 30-day solicitation had already taken
place, the NomCom could have conducted face-to-face interviews at the
second IETF meeting, but since the required 30-day solicitation
didn't start until Joel was named, Joel was unable to assemble his
NomCom before the second IETF meeting, and the NomCom had to carry
out these interviews using email and conference calls.
It is desirable to allow the solicitation and announcement to take
place in a timely manner so that when an Incoming NomCom Chair is
named, the NomCom Chair can immediately begin executing the NomCom
process.
3. Discussion
This document proposes that four weeks after the first IETF meeting
each year, the Internet Society President will either announce an
Incoming NomCom Chair, or will direct the IETF Executive Director to
issue the announcement of open positions and the solicitation for
names of volunteers on behalf of the Incoming NomCom Chair. This
allows the search for the Incoming NomCom Chair and volunteers to
proceed in parallel.
This process change covers only the announcement of open positions
and solicitation for names of volunteers. This process change does
not allow the NomCom process to move to completion without an
Incoming NomCom Chair; it is only to ensure that the Incoming NomCom
Chair can begin executing the NomCom process without an avoidable
delay and can use face-to-face time at the second IETF meeting
effectively for this purpose.
During discussions in the IETF 74 timeframe, it was suggested that we
also allow the Secretariat to perform other clerical tasks that
aren't called out specifically in the NomCom process but that clearly
do not require NomCom Chair judgment. This document does not provide
guidance about specific clerical tasks that would be appropriate for
the Secretariat to carry out. Instead, either the Incoming NomCom
Chair (if one has been selected) or the Outgoing NomCom Chair (if the
search for an Incoming NomCom Chair is still underway) may request
the Secretariat to perform these tasks, with appropriate notification
to the community.
4. Updated Text from RFC 3777
[RFC3777], Section 4 ("Nominating Committee Selection"), Bullet 13,
states:
The Chair obtains the list of IESG and IAB positions to be
reviewed and announces it along with a solicitation for names of
volunteers from the IETF community willing to serve on the
nominating committee.
This text is replaced with the following text:
The Chair (or the IETF Executive Director, if no Chair has been
named four weeks after the first IETF meeting of the year) obtains
the list of positions to be reviewed and announces it along with a
solicitation for names of volunteers from the IETF community
willing to serve on the nominating committee.
If the IETF Executive Director issues the solicitation for
volunteers, the IETF Executive Director must also collect
responses to the solicitation and provide the names of volunteers
to the Incoming NomCom Chair when the Incoming NomCom Chair is
named.
At the Chair's request, the IETF Secretariat may perform other
clerical support tasks, as long as the task being performed does
not require NomCom Chair judgment, in the NomCom Chair's opinion,
and as long as the community is appropriately notified that this
request is being made. This request may come from the Incoming
NomCom Chair (if one has been selected for this NomCom cycle) or
the Outgoing NomCom Chair (if the search for an Incoming NomCom
Chair is still underway).
Note: This text no longer specifies the list of bodies that NomCom
reviews, rather than adding IAOC to the list of bodies in the text,
so that this text need not change further when NomCom
responsibilities change.
5. Possible Topics for Later Discussion
This section includes contains topics that came up during discussion of this
document that but were not included in the normative changes contained in
this document ruled out of scope, because the goal for this
document was incremental improvement, and these topics were more than
incremental changes. They may be discussed further, or not, but
we're less likely to forget them completely if we write them down.
[RFC3777] tightly couples the announcement of open positions and call
for volunteers, and this document didn't try to unravel these two
separate actions. We had a request during discussion to separate
them, so that a NomCom could consider the management structure of the
IETF and the position descriptions that the leadership bodies
provide, before announcing the positions being reviewed.
6. Security Considerations
This specification describes issues with the current IETF Nominating
Committee process [RFC3777] and proposes an update to avoid a serial
delay. No security considerations apply.
7. Acknowledgements
The editor thanks the following folks who have provided useful
observations and guidance on previous versions of this document:
Scott Bradner (who suggested that the IETF Secretariat have this
responsibility), Brian Carpenter, Ralph Droms, Jim Galvin, Joel
Halpern, Danny McPherson, and Pekka Savola.
The editor also thanks the Wednesday evening plenary session
participants during IETF 74 who provided useful feedback on previous
versions of this document [w74plen].
8. References
8.1. Normative References
[RFC3777] Galvin, J., "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and
Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall
Committees", BCP 10, RFC 3777, June 2004.
8.2. Informative References
[RFC5078] Dawkins, S., "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and
Recall Process: Revision of the Nominating and Recall
Committees Timeline", RFC 5078, October 2007.
[w74plen] "IETF 74 Wednesday Evening Plenary Minutes", March 2009.
Author's Address
Spencer Dawkins (editor)
Huawei Technologies (USA)
Phone: +1 214 755 3870
EMail: spencer@wonderhamster.org