Network Working Group B. Leiba
Internet-Draft Huawei Technologies
Updates: 3777 (if approved) S. Moonesamy
Intended status: Best Current Practice August 16, 2012
Expires: February 15, 2013

Update to RFC 3777 to Clarify Nominating Committee Eligibility of IETF Leadership
draft-leiba-3777upd-eligibility-01

Abstract

RFC 3777 specifies that "sitting members" of the IAB and IESG "may not volunteer to serve on the nominating commitee". Since that document was written the IAOC was formed, and that body is not covered by RFC 3777. There is also uncertainty about whether ex-officio members and liaisons are included as "sitting members". This document clarifies those situations.

Status of This Memo

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

The "Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees" document [RFC3777] defines the nominating committee (NomCom) process. One of the key points in the process and in the selection of the NomCom is that the IETF wants to avoid having its top leadership be self-selecting: the leaders should not be the ones who choose the leaders. The selection of the NomCom, therefore, excludes those individuals who are in top leadership positions currently.

That said, it would be bad to eliminate people who have the experience necessary to understand of the IETF process: those individuals can bring a broader perspective to the NomCom and will help ensure that the people it selects for the leadership positions are better prepared to fulfill the roles.

RFC 3777 specifies that "sitting members" of the IAB and IESG "may not volunteer to serve on the nominating committee". Since that document was written the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) was formed, and that body is not covered by RFC 3777. There is also uncertainty about whether ex-officio members liaisons, and such are included as "sitting members". This document clarifies those situations, with the understanding that the intent of RFC 3777 was to exclude those currently in IETF leadership positions, or who would otherwise have a conflict of interest, from voting on the selection of the new leadership.

This document also excludes certain individuals who are directly paid for their work with the IETF, and who, therefore, have a direct personal financial incentive in the selection of the leadership boards. We limit this exclusion to a few people who are paid for long-term full-time work. In practice, they are unlikely to volunteer for the NomCom anyway, so this addition makes little practical change.

In order to allow the largest reasonable list of potential NomCom members, we do not want to exclude those at lower levels of IETF leadership. In particular, this document does *not* exclude participation from working group chairs, IRTF research group chairs, members of directorates and special review teams, and members of other advisory bodies.

2. Addition of the IAOC to the Text of RFC 3777

RFC 3777 specifies processes involving the IAB and the IESG in a number of places. For some of those situations, the "IAOC Member Selection Guidelines and Process" document [RFC4333] covers what's needed for the IAOC. This document makes the following updates to add the IAOC to certain of the processes that are not covered there.

Note that the change below to Section 4, bullet 15 also puts additional restrictions on who may volunteer as a voting member of the NomCom.

Section 2 ("Definitions") is updated as follows:

Section 3 ("General") is updated as follows:

Section 4 ("Nominating Committee Selection") is updated as follows:

Section 5 ("Nominating Committee Operation") is updated as follows:

3. Security Considerations

This is a procedural document, and is entirely unrelated to security.

4. IANA Considerations

No IANA actions are requested by this document, and the RFC Editor is asked to remove this section before publication.

5. References

5.1. 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.

5.2. Informative References

[RFC4333] Huston, G. and B. Wijnen, "The IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) Member Selection Guidelines and Process", BCP 113, RFC 4333, December 2005.

Authors' Addresses

Barry Leiba Huawei Technologies Phone: +1 646 827 0648 EMail: barryleiba@computer.org URI: http://internetmessagingtechnology.org/
S. Moonesamy 76, Ylang Ylang Avenue Quatres Bornes, Mauritius EMail: sm+ietf@elandsys.com