Nominating Committee Process: Earlier Announcement of Open Positions and Solicitation of Volunteers
draft-dawkins-nomcom-dont-wait-01

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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.  Background of this document
3.  Discussion
4.  Updated text from RFC 3777
5.  Security Considerations
6.  IANA Considerations
7.  Acknowledgements
8.  References
    8.1.  Normative References
    8.2.  Informative References
§  Author's Address

1.  Introduction

The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and at-large IETF representatives to the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) are selected by a "Nominating and Recall Committee" (universally abbreviated as "NomCom"). [RFC3777] (Galvin, J., “IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees,” June 2004.) 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] (Galvin, J., “IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees,” June 2004.) that has arisen in practice, and proposes a normative update to resolve the issue.

2.  Background of this document

[RFC3777] (Galvin, J., “IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees,” June 2004.) is the latest in a series of revisions to the NomCom process. [RFC3777] (Galvin, J., “IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees,” June 2004.) has been updated once since 2004, but this update ([RFC5078] (Dawkins, S., “IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Revision of the Nominating and Recall Committees Timeline,” October 2007.) did not change normative text (it replaced a sample timeline).

[RFC5078] (Dawkins, S., “IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Revision of the Nominating and Recall Committees Timeline,” October 2007.) identified a serial delay in the process described in [RFC3777] (Galvin, J., “IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees,” June 2004.), 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 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, delays in selecting a 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. If the 30-day solicitation had already taken place, Joel could have organized the NomCom at the Second IETF meeting, face to face, but since the required 30-day solicitation didn't start until Joel was named, Joel was forced to organize the NomCom by e-mail and conference call.

It is desirable to allow the solicitation and announcement to take place in a timely manner so that when a NomCom Chair IS named, the NomCom Chair can immediately announce the source of selection randomness and quickly select voting volunteer members of the NomCom.

3.  Discussion

This document proposes that the IETF Secretariat, not the current NomCom Chair, will issue the announcement of open positions and the solicitation for names of volunteers on behalf of the NomCom Chair who will be named by the ISOC President. This allows the search for NomCom Chair and volunteers to proceed in parallel.

This process change covers only the announcement of open positions and the solicitation for names of volunteers. The announcement of the pool of volunteers and the source of randomness used to select voting volunteers is still the responsibility of the current Chair. The goal of this process change is *not* to allow the NomCom process to move to completion without a current Chair, it is only to ensure that a current Chair can begin organizing the NomCom without an avoidable delay, and can use face-to-face time at the Second IETF meeting effectively for this purpose.

Note: Some of the comments on version 00 of this draft asked "why isn't the solution just to pick the NomCom Chair sooner?" That's a reasonable question, and this proposal isn't intended to make NomCom Chair selection any less urgent. On the other hand, the RFC 5078 timeline for 2008 recommended sending out the announcement and solicitation on 2008/05/25, and Joel sent out his announcement and solicitation on 2008/07/15 - nearly two months later. If that's a one-time occurrance, obviously this proposal isn't necessary. On the other hand, the RFC 5078 dates are almost exactly the same in 2009-2010, so we'll know if there's a problem by 2009-05-24... :-|

Note: Some of the comments on version 00 of this draft talked about a "slippery slope" - how far can the NomCom process go without a NomCom Chair? Although it may make sense to assign additional administrative responsibilities to the IETF Secretariat (for example, publish a timeline or publish a mechanism for random selection of voting NomCom members), I've resisted proposing these changes, simply to limit the scope of changes to the NomCom process.

4.  Updated text from RFC 3777

For [RFC3777] (Galvin, J., “IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees,” June 2004.), 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.

this text is replaced with the following text:

The IETF Secretariat 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.

Note: This text does not include modifications reflecting NomCom selection of IAOC members. These modifications are being submitted in a separate Internet-Draft.

5.  Security Considerations

This specification describes issues with the current IETF Nominating Committee process ([RFC3777] (Galvin, J., “IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees,” June 2004.)) and proposes an update to avoid a serial delay. No security considerations apply.

6.  IANA Considerations

No IANA actions are requested in this specification.

7.  Acknowledgements

The editor thanks the following folks who have provided useful observations and guidance on previous versions of this draft: Scott Bradner (who suggested that the IETF Secretariat have this responsibility), Brian Carpenter, Jim Galvin, Joel Halpern, Danny McPherson.

8.  References

8.1. Normative References

8.2. Informative References

Author's Address