| Network Working Group | M. StJohns |
| Internet-Draft | |
| Obsoletes: 3777 5078 6859 (if approved) | September 15, 2014 |
| Intended status: Best Current Practice | |
| Expires: March 19, 2015 |
Selection and Tenure of IETF, IAB and IAOC Members
draft-stjohns-alt-3777bis-00.txt
This document describes the process by which the IETF selects the membership of the Internet Engineering Steering Group(IESG), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the Internet Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) as well as the Chair of the IETF. It also describes the manners in which such members may be removed from their positions.
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Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on March 19, 2015.
Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.
This document is a revision of and supercedes RFC 3777. It also includes the revisions to Nomcom rules and processes from RFC5078 and RFC6859. It is a complete specification of the process by which members of the IAB, IESG, and IAOC are selected and confirmed. In addition, it describes the circumstances under which vacancies in office may occur and the process for creating or resolving such circumstances.
The following two assumptions continue to apply:
The time frames specified here use IETF meetings as a frame of reference. The time frames assume the IETF meets three times per calendar year with approximately equal amounts of time between them. The meetings are referred to as the First IETF, Second IETF, and Third (or Last) IETF as needed.
The next section lists the words and phrases commonly used throughout this document with their intended meaning.
The majority of this document is divided into four major topics as follows.
A final section describes how this document differs from its predecessors: RFC2727 and RFC3777.
An appendix of useful facts and practices collected from previous Nomcoms is also included.
The following words and phrases are commonly used throughout this document. They are listed here with their intended meaning for the convenience of the reader.
The following set of rules apply to the process as a whole.
The completion of the annual process is due one month prior to the Friday of the week before the First IETF. It is expected to begin at least 8 months prior to the Friday of the week before the First IETF.
The process officially begins with the announcement of the Chair of the committee. The process officially ends when all confirmed candidates have been announced.
The annual process is comprised of four major components as follows.
There is an additional month set aside between when the annual process is expected to end and the term of the new candidates is to begin. This time may be used during unusual circumstances to extend the time allocated for any of the components listed above.
The principal functions of the Nomcom are to review each open IESG, IAB and IAOC position and to nominate the best candidate for confirmation. That candidate may be the incumbent or or any other superior nominee.
Although there is no term limit for serving in any IESG or IAB position, the Nomcom may use length of service as one of its criteria for evaluating an incumbent.
The Nomcom does not select the open positions to be reviewed. The list of positions to review is provided by the IETF Executive Director.
The Nomcom will be given the title of the positions to be reviewed and a brief summary of the desired expertise of the candidate that is nominated to fill each position.
Incumbents must notify the Nomcom if they wish to be nominated.
The Nomcom is not responsible for confirmation of the candidates. The Nomcom presents its candidates to the appropriate confirming body as indicated in Section 3.8.3 below.
A superior candidate is one who the Nomcom believes would contribute in such a way as to improve or enhance the body to which he or she is nominated and who is fully qualified for the position.
As a general rule, one-half of each of the sitting IESG, IAB and IAOC member's terms will expire each year during the First IETF.
The intent of this rule to ensure the review of approximately one-half of each of the IESG, IAOC and IAB sitting members each year. It is recognized that circumstances may exist that will require the Nomcom to review more or less than one-half of the current positions, e.g., if the IESG, IAOC or IAB have re-organized prior to this process and created new positions, if there are an odd number of current positions, or if a member unexpectedly resigns.
Confirmed candidates are expected to serve a full 2 year term.
The intent of this rule is to ensure that members of the IESG, IAOC and IAB serve the number of years that best facilitates the review of one-half of the members each year.
The term of a confirmed candidate selected according to the mid- term vacancy rules may be less than 2 years, as stated elsewhere in this document.
It is consistent with this rule for the Nomcom to choose one or more of the currently open positions to which it may assign a term of not more than 3 years in order to ensure the ideal application of this rule in the future.
It is consistent with this rule for the Nomcom to choose one or more of the currently open positions that share responsibilities with other positions (both those being reviewed and those sitting) to which it may assign a term of not more than 3 years to ensure that all such members will not be reviewed at the same time.
All sitting member terms end during the First IETF meeting corresponding to the end of the term for which they were confirmed. All confirmed candidate terms begin during the First IETF meeting corresponding to the beginning of the term for which they were confirmed.
For confirmed candidates of the IESG, the terms begin no later than when the currently sitting members' terms end on the last day of the meeting. A term may begin or end no sooner than the first day of the meeting and no later than the last day of the meeting as determined by the mutual agreement of the currently sitting member and the confirmed candidate. A confirmed candidate's term may overlap the sitting member's term during the meeting as determined by their mutual agreement.
For confirmed candidates of the IAB, the terms overlap with the terms of the sitting members for the entire week of the meeting.
For confirmed candidates of the IAOC, the terms begin at the conclusion of the First IETF. There is no overlap with terms of sitting members.
For candidates confirmed under the mid-term vacancy rules, their term begins upon their confirmation.
Mid-term vacancies are filled by the same rules as documented here with four qualifications.
First, at the time of the vacancy, if there is only one active Nomcom, that Nomcom is responsible for filling the vacancy. Otherwise, if the mid-term vacancy occurs during the period of time where there are two active Nomcom's, the Nomcom convened first is responsible for filling the vacancy.
Second, if it is the case that the Nomcom is reconvening to fill the mid-term vacancy, then the completion of the candidate selection and confirmation process is due within 6 weeks, with all other time periods otherwise unspecified prorated accordingly.
Third, the confirming body has two weeks from the day it is notified of a candidate to confirm or reject the candidate, otherwise the candidate is assumed to have been confirmed.
Fourth, the term of the confirmed candidate will be either:
The term remainder is calculated from the date of the vacancy, not from the date of the confirmation.
In both cases a year is the period of time from the beginning of a First IETF meeting to the beginning of the next First IETF meeting.
The following rules apply to candidates who are currently sitting members of the IESG,IAOC or IAB, and who are not sitting in an open position being filled by the Nomcom.
All deliberations and supporting information that relate to specific nominees, candidates, and confirmed candidates are confidential.
With the exception of nominees' comments related to a specific person or persons (e.g. nominee comments on current sitting members, other nominees), and third-party comments on the nominees received by the Nomcom, the material held by the Nomcom relevant to a proposed candidate shall not be considered confidential from the relevant confirming body. However, the deliberations and internal discussions by the Nomcom ARE confidential from all other bodies.
The Nomcom and confirming body members will be exposed to confidential information as a result of their deliberations, their interactions with those they consult, and from those who provide requested supporting information. All members and all other participants are expected to handle this information in a manner consistent with its sensitivity.
It is consistent with this rule for current Nomcom members who have served on prior Nomcoms to advise the current committee on deliberations and results of the prior committee, as necessary and appropriate.
Unless otherwise specified, the nominate and confirm model is used throughout the process. This model is characterized as follows.
The IETF Executive Director informs the Nomcom of the IESG, IAOC and IAB positions to be reviewed.
The IESG, IAB and IAOC are responsible for providing a summary of the expertise desired of the candidates for the respective open positions to the Executive Director. Those summaries are then provided to the Nomcom for its consideration.
The Nomcom selects candidates based on its understanding of the IETF community's consensus of the qualifications required. It then presents the candidates to the appropriate confirming body for confirmation.
As part of the notification, the Nomcom provides the following per-candidate material to the appropriate confirming body:
The Nomcom is not required to provide any additional information past that listed above, but may do so at its option either unilaterally or in response to a request from the confirming body.
The Nomcom shall indicate which if any of the material provided is subject to confidentiality. In general, material provided by or specific to the candidate shall be considered confidential. The position description and the Nomcom's explanation of their interpretation of that description shall not be considered confidential and SHOULD be provided as part of the Nomcom public report.
For each candidate, the confirming bodies shall review the material specific to that candidate, the position requirements provided to the Nomcom by the Executive Director, and any explanatory material from the Nomcom with respect to how those requirements were interpreted. They may, at their discretion, provide questions, comments or requests to the nominating committee, however there is no requirement for the Nomcom to answer. After considering any response from the Nomcom (if questions are asked) and after appropriate deliberation, they may then confirm some, all, or none of the candidates.
The sitting IESG members are responsible for the confirmation process of IAOC candidates. Likewise, the sitting IAB members are responsible for IESG candidates and the Internet Society Board of Trustees are responsible for the IAB candidates.
The confirming bodies deliberate using all information and any means acceptable to them. This includes, but is not limited to, the supporting information provided by the Nomcom, information known personally to members of the confirming bodies and shared within the confirming body, the results of interactions within the confirming bodies. This should be viewed with an eye to the confirming bodies' interpretation of what is in the best interests of the IETF community. N.B.; This may result in the confirming body coming to a conclusion that differs from that of the Nomcom with respect to candidate suitability. This should not be considered a failure of process nor an impugning of the efficacy of the Nomcom.
If all of the candidates are confirmed, the job of the Nomcom with respect to those open positions is complete.
If one or more of the candidates submitted to a confirming body fails of confirmation, the confirming bodies are required only to communicate that fact to the Nomcom. A confirming body MAY, at its sole discretion, provide additional information on why the candidate failed and that should consist only of consensus opinions of the confirming body and not opinions of individual confirming body members. At no time should this process be allowed to devolve into a negotiation between the confirming body and the Nomcom for the selection of specific individuals.
The confirming body confirms individual candidates, not a slate of candidates. If a candidate is rejected, the Nomcom may only select an alternate candidate for that position, it MAY NOT attempt to withdraw other candidates previously submitted to the confirming body from consideration or attempt to void a confirmation.
Any additional time required by the Nomcom should not exceed its maximum time allotment.
A confirming body decides whether it confirms each candidate using a confirmation decision rule chosen by the confirming body.
If a confirming body has no specific confirmation decision rule, then confirming a given candidate should require at least one-half of the confirming body's sitting members to agree to that confirmation.
The decision may be made by conducting a formal vote, by asserting consensus based on informal exchanges (e.g., email), or by any other mechanism that is used to conduct the normal business of the confirming body.
Regardless of which decision rule the confirming body uses, any candidate that is not confirmed under that rule is considered to be rejected.
The confirming body must make its decision on any given candidate within 4 weeks of notification of the candidacy. Failure to act within that time shall be considered a rejection of that candidate. The results from the confirming body must be reported promptly to the Nomcom.
All announcements must be made using at least the mechanism used by the IETF Secretariat for its announcements, including a notice on the IETF web site.
As of the publication of this document, the current mechanism is an email message to both the "ietf" and the "ietf-announce" mailing lists.
The following set of rules apply to the creation of the nominating committee and the selection of its members.
The completion of the process of selecting and organizing the members of the Nomcom is due within 3 months.
The completion of the selection and organization process is due at least one month prior to the beginning of the Third IETF. This ensures the Nomcom is fully operational and available for interviews and consultation during the Third IETF.
The term of a Nomcom is expected to be 15 months.
It is the intent of this rule that the end of a nominating committee's term will overlap the beginning of the term of the next Nomcom by approximately three months.
The term of a Nomcom begins when its members are officially announced. The term ends at the end of the Third IETF (not three meetings), i.e., the IETF meeting after the next nominating committee's term begins.
A term is expected to begin at least two months prior to the Third IETF to ensure the Nomcom has at least one month to get organized before preparing for the Third IETF.
A Nomcom is expected to complete any work-in- progress before it is dissolved at the end of its term.
During the period of time that the terms of the nominating committees overlap, all mid-term vacancies are to be relegated to the prior year's Nomcom. The prior year's Nomcom has no other responsibilities during the overlap period. At all times other than the overlap period there is exactly one official Nomcom and it is responsible for all mid-term vacancies.
When the prior year's Nomcom is filling a mid-term vacancy during the period of time that the terms overlap, the Nomcoms operate independently. However, some coordination is needed between them. Since the prior year's Chair is a non-voting advisor to the current Nomcom the coordination is expected to be straightforward.
The Nomcom comprises at least a Chair, 10 voting volunteers, 3 liaisons, and an advisor.
Any committee member may propose the addition of an advisor to participate in some or all of the deliberations of the committee. The addition must be approved by the committee according to its established voting mechanism. Advisors participate as individuals.
Any committee member may propose the addition of a liaison from other unrepresented organizations to participate in some or all of the deliberations of the committee. The addition must be approved by the committee according to its established voting mechanism. Liaisons participate as representatives of their respective organizations.
The Chair is selected according to rules stated elsewhere in this document.
The 10 voting volunteers are selected according to rules stated elsewhere in this document.
The IESG, IAOC and IAB liaisons are selected according to rules stated elsewhere in this document.
The Internet Society Board of Trustees may appoint a liaison to the Nomcom at its own discretion.
The Chair of last year's Nomcom serves as an advisor according to rules stated elsewhere in this document.
None of the Chair, liaisons, or advisors vote on the selection of candidates. They do vote on all other issues before the committee unless otherwise specified in this document.
The Chair of the Nomcom is responsible for ensuring the Nomcom completes its assigned duties in a timely fashion and performs in the best interests of the IETF community.
The Chair must be thoroughly familiar with the rules and guidance indicated throughout this document. The Chair must ensure the Nomcom completes its assigned duties in a manner that is consistent with this document.
The Chair must attest by proclamation at a plenary session of the First IETF that the results of the committee represent its best effort and the best interests of the IETF community.
The Chair does not vote on the selection of candidates.
The Internet Society President appoints the Chair, who must meet the same requirements for membership in the Nomcom as a voting volunteer.
The Nomcom Chair must agree to invest the time necessary to ensure that the Nomcom completes its assigned duties and to perform in the best interests of the IETF community in that role.
The appointment is due no later than the Second IETF meeting to ensure it can be announced during a plenary session at that meeting. The completion of the appointment is necessary to ensure the annual process can complete at the time specified elsewhere in this document.
A Chair, in consultation with the Internet Society President, may appoint a temporary substitute for the Chair position.
There are a variety of ordinary circumstances that may arise from time to time that could result in a Chair being unavailable to oversee the activities of the committee. The Chair, in consultation with the Internet Society President, may appoint a substitute from a pool comprised of the liaisons currently serving on the committee and the Past Chair or designee.
Any such appointment must be temporary and does not absolve the Chair of any or all responsibility for ensuring the nominating committee completes its assigned duties in a timely fashion.
Liaisons are responsible for ensuring the Nomcom in general and the Chair in particular execute their assigned duties in the best interests of the IETF community. They are, in the final analysis, the primary guardians of the process.
Liaisons are expected to represent the views of their respective organizations during the deliberations of the committee. They should provide information as requested or when they believe it would be helpful to the committee. However, they must protect the confidentiality of deliberations of their respective organizations with respect to any interactions they have with the Nomcom.
Liaisons from the IESG, IAOC and IAB are expected to provide information to the Nomcom regarding the operation, responsibility, and composition of their respective bodies.
Liaisons are expected to convey questions from the committee to their respective organizations and responses to those questions to the committee, as requested by the committee.
Liaisons from the IESG, IAB, IAOC, and Internet Society Board of Trustees (if one was appointed) are expected to review the operation and executing process of the Nomcom and to report any concerns or issues to the Chair of the nominating committee immediately. If they can not resolve the issue between themselves, liaisons must report it according to the dispute resolution process stated elsewhere in this document.
Liaisons from confirming bodies are expected to assist the committee in preparing the confirmation package it is required to provide with its candidates.
Liaisons may have other Nomcom responsibilities as required by their respective organizations or requested by the Nomcom, except that such responsibilities may not conflict with any other provisions of this document.
Liaisons do not vote on the selection of candidates, nor are they permitted to vote in the confirmation process within their respective organization.
The sitting IAB, IESG, and IAOC members each appoint a liaison from their current membership to serve on the Nomcom. This must be someone who is not sitting in an open position.
An advisor is responsible for such duties as specified by the invitation that resulted in the appointment.
Advisors do not vote on the selection of candidates.
The Chair of the prior year's Nomcom or their designee serves as an advisor to the current committee. For the purposes of this document, that person is known as the "Past Chair".
The Past Chair is expected to review the actions and activities of the current Chair and to report any concerns or issues to the Nomcom Chair immediately. If they can not resolve the issue between themselves, the prior year's Chair must report it according to the dispute resolution process stated elsewhere in this document.
If the Chair of the prior year's Nomcom is unable or unwilling to serve as Past Chair, he or she may select a alternate to serve as Past Chair from a pool composed of the voting volunteers of the prior year's committee and all prior Nomcom Chairs. If the prior year's Chair is unavailable or is unable or is unwilling to make such a designation in a timely fashion, the Internet Society President shall, in consultation with the current Nomcom chair, select an alternate Past Chair from the pool described above.
Selecting a prior year's committee member as the designee permits the experience of the prior year's deliberations to be readily available to the current committee. Selecting an earlier prior year Chair as the designee permits the experience of being a Chair as well as that Chair's committee deliberations to be readily available to the current committee.
Voting volunteers are responsible for completing the tasks of the Nomcom in a timely fashion.
Each voting volunteer is expected to participate in all activities of the Nomcom with a level of effort approximately equal to all other voting volunteers. Specific tasks to be completed are established and managed by the Chair according to rules stated elsewhere in this document.
The Chair must establish and announce milestones for the selection of the Nomcom members.
There is a defined time period during which the selection process is due to be completed. The Chair must establish a set of milestones which, if met in a timely fashion, will result in the completion of the process on time.
The Chair obtains the list of IESG, IAOC 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 Nomcom.
The solicitation must permit the community at least 30 days during which they may choose to volunteer to be selected for the Nomcom.
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 Nomcom.
Members of the IETF community must have attended at least 3 of the last 5 IETF meetings in order to volunteer.
The 5 meetings are the five most recent meetings that ended prior to the date on which the solicitation for Nomcom volunteers was submitted for distribution to the IETF community.
The IETF Secretariat is responsible for confirming that volunteers have met the attendance requirement.
Volunteers must provide their full name, email address, and primary company or organization affiliation (if any) when volunteering.
Volunteers are expected to be familiar with the IETF processes and procedures, which are readily learned by active participation in a working group and especially by serving as a document editor or working group chair.
Members of the Internet Society Board of Trustees, sitting members of the IAB,sitting members of the IAOC, sitting members of the IESG and the IETF chair may not volunteer to serve on the Nomcom.
The Chair announces both the list of the pool of volunteers from which the 10 voting volunteers will be randomly selected and the method with which the selection will be completed.
The announcement should be made at least 1 week prior to the date on which the random selection will occur.
The pool of volunteers must be enumerated or otherwise indicated according to the needs of the selection method to be used.
The announcement must specify the data that will be used as input to the selection method. The method must depend on random data whose value is not known or available until the date on which the random selection will occur.
It must be possible to independently verify that the selection method used is both fair and unbiased. A method is fair if each number in the stream of numbers used to select volunteers is equally likely to be selected. A method is unbiased if no one can influence its outcome in favor of a specific outcome.
It must be possible to repeat the selection method, either through iteration or by restarting in such a way as to remain fair and unbiased. This is necessary to replace selected volunteers should they become unavailable after selection.
The selection method must produce an ordered list of volunteers.
One possible selection method for pool numbers is described in RFC 2777 [1].
The Chair randomly selects the 10 voting volunteers from the pool of names of volunteers and announces the members of the Nomcom.
No more than two volunteers with the same primary affiliation may be selected for the Nomcom. The Chair reviews the primary affiliation of each volunteer selected by the method in turn. If the primary affiliation for a volunteer is the same as two previously selected volunteers, that volunteer is removed from consideration and the method is repeated to identify the next eligible volunteer.
There must be at least two announcements of all members of the Nomcom.
The first announcement should occur as soon after the random selection as is reasonable for the Chair. The community must have at least 1 week during which any member may challenge the results of the random selection. The challenge must be made in writing (email is acceptable) to the Chair. The Chair has 48 hours to review the challenge and offer a resolution to the member. If the resolution is not accepted by the member, that member may report the challenge according to the dispute resolution process stated elsewhere in this document.
If a selected volunteer, upon reading the announcement with the list of selected volunteers, finds that two or more other volunteers have the same affiliation, then the volunteer should notify the Chair who will determine the appropriate action.
During at least the 1 week challenge period the Chair must contact each of the members and confirm their willingness and availability to serve. The Chair should make every reasonable effort to contact each member.
After at least 1 week and confirming that 10 voting volunteers are ready to serve, the Chair makes the second announcement of the members of the Nomcom, which officially begins the term of the Nomcom.
The Chair works with the members of the committee to organize itself in preparation for completing its assigned duties.
The committee has approximately one month during which it can self-organize. Its responsibilities during this time include but are not limited to the following.
The following rules apply to the operation of the nominating committee. If necessary, a paragraph discussing the interpretation of each rule is included.
The rules are organized approximately in the order in which they would be invoked.
All rules and special circumstances not otherwise specified are at the discretion of the committee.
Exceptional circumstances will occasionally arise during the normal operation of the Nomcom. This rule is intended to foster the continued forward progress of the committee.
Any member of the committee may propose a rule for adoption by the committee. The rule must be approved by the committee according to its established voting mechanism.
All members of the committee should consider whether the exception is worthy of mention in the next revision of this document and follow-up accordingly.
The completion of the process of selecting candidates to be confirmed by their respective confirming body is due within 3 months.
The completion of the selection process is due at least two month's prior to the First IETF. This ensures the nominating committee has sufficient time to complete the confirmation process.
The completion of the process of confirming the candidates is due within 1 month.
The completion of the confirmation process is due at least one month prior to the First IETF.
The Chair must establish for the Nomcom a set of milestones for the candidate selection and confirmation process.
There is a defined time period during which the candidate selection and confirmation process must be completed. The Chair must establish a set of milestones which, if met in a timely fashion, will result in the completion of the process on time. The Chair should allow time for iterating the activities of the committee if one or more candidates is not confirmed.
The Chair should ensure that all committee members are aware of the milestones.
The Chair must establish a voting mechanism.
The committee must be able to objectively determine when a decision has been made during its deliberations. The criteria for determining closure must be established and known to all members of the Nomcom.
At least a quorum of committee members must participate in a vote.
Only voting volunteers vote on a candidate selection. For a candidate selection vote a quorum is comprised of at least 7 of the voting volunteers.
At all other times a quorum is present if at least 75% of the Nomcom members are participating.
Any member of the Nomcom may propose to the committee that any other member except the Chair be expelled. The process for expellng the Chair is defined elsewhere in this document.
There are a variety of ordinary circumstances that may arise that could result in one or more members of the committee being unavailable to complete their assigned duties, for example health concerns, family issues, or a change of priorities at work. A committee member may choose to resign for unspecified personal reasons. In addition, the committee may not function well as a group because a member may be disruptive or otherwise uncooperative.
Regardless of the circumstances, if individual committee members can not work out their differences between themselves, the entire committee may be called upon to discuss and review the circumstances. If a resolution is not forthcoming a vote may be conducted. A member may be expelled if at least 3/4ths of all committee members, including liaisons, agree. The the member proposed for expulsion may vote.
If a liaison member is expelled the committee must notify the affected organization and must allow a reasonable amount of time for a replacement to be identified by the organization before proceeding.
If an advisor member other than the Past Chair is expelled, the committee may choose to proceed without the advisor. In the case of the Past Chair, the Internet Society President must be notified and the current Chair must be allowed a reasonable amount of time to consult with the Internet Society President to identify a replacement before proceeding.
If a single voting volunteer position on the Nomcom is vacated, regardless of the circumstances, the committee may choose to proceed with only 9 voting volunteers at its own discretion. In all other cases a new voting member must be selected, and the Chair must repeat the random selection process including an announcement of the iteration prior to the actual selection as stated elsewhere in this document.
A change in the primary affiliation of a voting volunteer during the term of the Nomcom is not a cause to request the expulsion of that volunteer, even if the change would result in more than two voting volunteers with the same affiliation.
Only the Past Chair may request the expulsion of the current Chair.
It is the responsibility of the Past Chair to ensure the current Chair completes the assigned tasks in a manner consistent with this document and in the best interests of the IETF community.
Any member of the committee who has an issue or concern regarding the Chair should report it to the Past Chair immediately. The Past Chair is expected to report it to the Chair immediately. If they can not resolve the issue between themselves, the Past Chair must report it according to the dispute resolution process stated elsewhere in this document.
All members of the Nomcom may participate in all deliberations.
The emphasis of this rule is that no member can be explicitly excluded from any deliberation. However, a member may individually choose not to participate in a deliberation.
The Chair announces the open positions to be reviewed, the desired expertise provided by the IETF Executive Director, and the call for nominees.
The call for nominees must include a request for comments regarding the past performance of incumbents, which will be considered during the deliberations of the Nomcom.
The call must request that a nomination include a valid, working email address, a telephone number, or both for the nominee. The nomination must include the set of skills or expertise the nominator believes the nominee has that would be desirable.
Any member of the IETF community may nominate any member of the IETF community for any open position, whose eligibility to serve will be confirmed by the Nomcom.
A self-nomination is permitted.
Nomcom members are not eligible to be considered for filling any open position by the Nomcom on which they serve. They become ineligible as soon as the term of the Nomcom on which they serve officially begins. They remain ineligible for any nominations from the Nomcom on which they serve.
Although each Nomcom's term overlaps with the following Nomcom's term, Nomcom members are eligible for nomination by the other committee if not otherwise disqualified.
Members of the IETF community who were recalled from any IESG, IAOC or IAB position during the previous two years are not eligible to be considered for filling any open position. Expelled members remain eligible.
The Nomcom selects candidates based on its understanding of the IETF community's consensus of the qualifications required to fill the open positions.
The intent of this rule is to ensure that the nominating committee consults with a broad base of the IETF community for input to its deliberations. In particular, the nominating committee must determine if the desired expertise for the open positions matches its understanding of the qualifications desired by the IETF community.
The consultations are permitted to include names of nominees, if all parties to the consultation agree to observe the same confidentiality rules as the Nomcom itself.
A broad base of the community should include the existing members of the IAB, IAOC and IESG, especially sitting members who share responsibilities with open positions, e.g., co-Area Directors, and working group chairs, especially those in the areas with open positions.
Only voting volunteer members vote to select candidates.
Nominees should be advised that they are being considered and must consent to their nomination prior to being chosen as candidates.
Although the Nomcom will make every reasonable effort to contact and to remain in contact with nominees, any nominee whose contact information changes during the process and who wishes to still be considered should inform the nominating committee of the changes.
A nominee's consent must be written (email is acceptable) and must include a commitment to provide the resources necessary to fill the open position and an assurance that the nominee will perform the duties of the position for which they are being considered in the best interests of the IETF community.
Consenting to a nomination must occur prior to a nominee being a candidate and may occur as soon after the nomination as needed by the Nomcom.
Consenting to a nomination must not imply the nominee will be a candidate.
The Nomcom should help nominees provide justification to their employers.
The Nomcom advises the confirming bodies of the candidates for confirmation, specifying a single candidate for each open position. It transmits to the confirming bodies the list of material described in Section 3.8.2 above for each candidate and open position.
Confirmed candidates must consent to their confirmation. All other nominees must be notified before confirmed candidates are announced.
It is not necessary to notify and get consent from all confirmed candidates together.
A nominee may not know they were a candidate. This permits a candidate to be rejected by a confirming body without the nominee knowing about the rejection.
Rejected nominees, who consented to their nomination, and rejected candidates must be notified prior to announcing the confirmed candidates.
It is not necessary to announce all confirmed candidates together.
The Nomcom must ensure that all confirmed candidates are prepared to serve prior to announcing their confirmation.
The Nomcom should archive the information it has collected or produced for a period of time not to exceed its term.
The purpose of the archive is to assist the Nomcom should it be necessary for it to fill a mid-term vacancy.
The existence of an archive, how it is implemented, and what information to archive is at the discretion of the committee. The decision must be approved by a quorum of the voting volunteer members.
The implementation of the archive should make every reasonable effort to ensure that the confidentiality of the information it contains is maintained.
Vacancies may occur in one of 5 ways: term expiration, resignation, death or incapacity, recall or expulsion.
A position becomes vacant at the end of the term of the incumbent if that position has not been filled by action of the Nomcom and the appropriate confirming body. There is no "holding over in office".
A member of any body covered by these rules may resign their position by written notice (email is acceptable) to the chair of their body and the IETF Executive Director.
A resignation may be effective on submission, post-dated not later than 90 days, or conditional. A conditional resignation is generally of the form "effective with the appointment of my replacement[, or not later than "date"]". Once proffered, a resignation may not be withdrawn unilaterally once the notification of vacancy has been provided to the Nomcom. However, the appropriate Nomcom MAY choose to reappoint the member if the member so requests and it is in the best interests of the IETF.
A position shall be considered vacant upon notification of the death of a member to the Executive Director once appropriate confirmation has been made.
A notification of incapacity may occur from the member or member's representative (e.g. spouse, friend) and shall be considered the same as a resignation as above and requires no further confirmation assuming such relationship is known to be valid.
A notification of incapacity may also occur from the member's body if the member fails to participate in the body's deliberations for 90 days or more. Upon receipt of the notification, the Executive Director shall attempt to contact the member and verify the incapacity. If the member disclaims the incapacity within 14 days of being contacted, the position shall not be considered vacant, otherwise it shall be considered vacant 14 days after such notification. [Notification to be by registered mail? Or international equivalent with clock starting to tick upon delivery]
Recall is a process initiated by the community as a whole. A recall process begins upon submission of a recall petition identifying the person to be recalled, the reasons for the recall and "signed" by at least three persons currently eligible for Nomcom. The petition must be emailed to the IETF Executive Director.
A recall petition is considered to be submitted upon the receipt by the Executive Director of a total of 20 additional "signatures" by Nomcom eligible persons (for a total of 23 signatures).
In the context of a recall, "signed", "signing" and "signature" shall be an indication by electronic mail to the Executive Director of agreement with the petition.
The chair of the recall committee shall be the most recent chair of the Nomcom who isn't currently serving on a Nomcom (e.g. as Past Chair or voting member) and who agrees to serve. If no previous chair is available or consents to serve, then the ISOC chair shall appoint one. This must be done within 3 days of the initiation of the recall process.
Liaisons to the recall committee are the chair of the body of the member being recalled, or one of the most senior members if the chair is being recalled (the latter selected by the committee); and the chair of the Nomcom that appointed the member or the chair's designee. Selection of the liaisons must be done within 3 days of the petition being submitted.
The recallee must be offered the opportunity to appoint a liaison to the recall committee who is there solely to protect the recallee's rights.
The liaisons (excluding the recallee's liasion if any) and chair are responsible for tallying any vote.
There are between 9 and 12 voting members on the recall committee selected from the most recently constitutied Nomcom volunteer list in the same manner as the nomcom is chosen with the following modifications:
The recall committee may consist of up to 3 members from an organization.
Members who were eligible to serve on the Nomcom remain eligible to serve on a recall committee formed during that Nomcom's term.
Recall petitions are public. No one is excluded from signing a recall petition on the basis of position. The 3-of-5 meetings basis applies to the qualification to sign the petition.
A recall is confirmed if 2/3 of the voting members of the recall committee vote in the affirmative. A vote must be taken if 1/2 of the voting members request it. A recall fails if 2/3s of the voting member vote in the negative, or if no decision has been arrived at 7 (14?) days from the committee being appointed.
Deliberations are private. Period. Votes are secret. Period.
Petition signatures are valid for 30 days from the first signature. If 20 signatures are not received in 30 days, the petition fails and may not be resubmitted for 90 days for that member in any capacity.
With the exception of the Chair of the IETF, any member of a body covered by this document may be proposed to be expelled by that body upon a 2/3 vote of the formal members of that body (e.g. for the IESG, all of the area directors including the IETF chair, for the other bodies all but the liaisons) excepting the member being expelled, and with the expulsion confirmed by a 2/3 vote of the appropriate confirming body.
The body proposing the expulsion shall send a note to the confirming body explaining its reasons for the expulsion. The member being proposed for expulsion shall have access to that statement and shall be allowed to submit a statement explaining why the expulsion should not be sustained. The member shall have 3 business days after receipt of the explusion statement to submit their statement.
The confirming body shall complete their deliberations within one calendar week of receiving the expulsion statement and response. If the confirming body does not vote to confirm the expulsion by the end of this deadline, the expulsion shall not be sustained.
The contents of the statement on the reasons for expulsion shall be held confidential by both bodies. However, the member being proposed for expulsion in their sole discretion, MAY make their statement public.
Deliberations and votes by both bodies shall be private (and among only the members voting) and only the fact of a successful vote yea or nay shall be reported publicly. The number of votes for or against shall not be reported.
The Chair of the IETF may not be removed by expulsion.
Discussion points: The general model for expulsion is that its used by a body to exclude a member who has proven disruptive to that body. Most expulsion models only require a single vote by the expelling body. That may be more appropriate than the two step model proposed above.
In the case of a recall or expulsion the Nomcom MAY begin prospective action to fill the seat in the form of advertising for the position and setting deadlines. NO actual deliberation on candidates shall be done unless and until the position is actually vacant. For a recall, this process may begin with a valid submitted recall petition; for an expulsion, this process may begin upon a successful vote proposing the expulsion.
In the event a vacancy in either the IAOC or IESG extends past the time allotted for its replacement, the chair of the respective body may appoint an IETF participant to fill that position on an acting basis until the Nomcom process has completed. Such appointment requires the unanimous consent of the chairs of the IAOC, IETF and IAB.
As noted elsewhere, the time alloted to fill normal vacancies is the end of the First IETF, and for mid-term vacancies, 6 weeks from the vacancy.
In the event of a vacancy in the IETF chair position that extends past the above dates, the ISOC chair shall ask one of the most senior Area Directors to act as Chair until the Nomcom process completes.
Temporary appointments shall not be made to the IAB.
An acting member of the IAOC shall not be considered a member of the IETF Trust Board of Trustees due to their acting status.
The dispute resolution process described here is to be used as indicated elsewhere in this document. Its applicability in other circumstances is beyond the scope of this document.
The Nomcom operates under a strict rule of confidentiality. For this reason when process issues arise it is best to make every reasonable effort to resolve them within the committee. However, when circumstances do not permit this or no resolution is forthcoming, the process described here is to be used.
The following rules apply to the process.
The process is as follows:
This section describes the substantive changes from RFC 2727, listed approximately in the order in which they appear in the document.
There have been a number of people involved with the development of this document over the years as it has progressed from RFC 2027 through RFC 2282 [3] and RFC 2727 [2] to its current version.
A great deal of credit goes to the first three Nomcom Chairs:
who had the pleasure of operating without the benefit of a documented process. It was their fine work and oral tradition that became the first version of this document.
Of course we can not overlook the bug discovery burden that each of the Chairs since the first publication have had to endure:
The bulk of the early credit goes to the members of the POISSON Working Group, previously the POISED Working Group. The prose here would not be what it is were it not for the attentive and insightful review of its members. Specific acknowledgement must be extended to Scott Bradner and John Klensin, who consistently contributed to the improvement of the first three versions of this document.
In January 2002, a new working group was formed, the Nominating Committee Working Group (nomcom), to revise the RFC 2727 version. This working group was guided by the efforts of a design team whose members were as follows:
Any selection, confirmation, or recall process necessarily involves investigation into the qualifications and activities of prospective candidates. The investigation may reveal confidential or otherwise private information about candidates to those participating in the process. Each person who participates in any aspect of the process must maintain the confidentiality of any and all information not explicitly identified as suitable for public dissemination.
When the Nomcom decides it is necessary to share confidential or otherwise private information with others, the dissemination must be minimal and must include a prior commitment from all persons consulted to observe the same confidentiality rules as the Nomcom itself.
| [RFC2119] | Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. |
| [RFC3777] | Galvin, J., "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees", BCP 10, RFC 3777, June 2004. |
| [RFC3797] | Eastlake, D., "Publicly Verifiable Nominations Committee (NomCom) Random Selection", RFC 3797, June 2004. |
| [RFC5078] | Dawkins, S., "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall Process: Revision of the Nominating and Recall Committees Timeline", RFC 5078, October 2007. |
| [RFC6859] | Leiba, B., "Update to RFC 3777 to Clarify Nominating Committee Eligibility of IETF Leadership", BCP 10, RFC 6859, January 2013. |
Over the years various Nomcoms have learned through oral tradition passed on by liaisons that there are certain consistencies in the process and information considered during deliberations. Some items from that oral tradition are collected here to facilitate its consideration by future Nomcoms.
This section is included for the convenience of the reader and is not to be interpreted as the definitive timeline. It is intended to capture the detail described elsewhere in this document in one place. Although every effort has been made to ensure the description here is consistent with the description elsewhere, if there are any conflicts the definitive rule is the one in the main body of this document.
The only absolute in the timeline rules for the annual process is that its completion is due by the First IETF of the year after the Nomcom begins its term. This is supported by the fact that the confirmed candidate terms begin during the week of the First IETF.
The overall annual process is designed to be completed in 7 months. It is expected to start 8 months prior to the First IETF. The 7 months is split between three major components of the process as follows.
The following figure captures the details of the milestones within each component. For illustrative purposes the figure presumes the Friday before the First IETF is March 1.
This section is intended to be a drop in replacement for Section 4.17 above. It addresses some statistical issues where it is possible for large organizations to all but guarantee two slots in the Nomcom.
The current method of selection does a single stage lottery from a pool consisting of all volunteers with the goal of selecting 10 voting members for the Nomcom. It differs from a straight lottery in that it mandates re-selection if a the organization of a selectee matches that of two previously selected members.
Given these paramaters, the binomial distribution for an organization who has members comprising 30% of the volunteer pool is:
The 85.1% is the sum of all the expected results from 2 to 10 members, given the cap at 2 members. An organization with 20% of the pool has a distribution of 10.7%/26.8%/62.4% for 0, 1 and 2 members. The proposal below suggests a method which caps these percentages at 34.9%/38.7%/26.4% for any organization which provides 10% or more of the volunteer pool.
The Chair groups volunteers by the volunteer's self-identified organization and creates a first pass selection pool consisting of the collection of N tokens from each organization, where N is the lesser of the number of volunteers from that organization or 10% of the total number of volunteers (rounded up). E.g. if the total volunteer pool is 124 members, and if an organization has 13 members, 13 tokens will be placed in the initial selection pool for that organization; if the organization has 5 members, 5 tokens will be placed in the pool; and if the organization has 23 members, only 13 tokens will be placed in the pool.
The Chair randomly selects 10 tokens from the pool, reselecting if 2 tokens from that organization have already been selected.
For each token the Chair selected in the initial lottery, the Chair will now randomly select one member from the set of volunteers from the organization represented by that token. Those selectees are the members of the Nomcom.