Internet DRAFT - draft-eggert-ietf-chair-may-delegate
draft-eggert-ietf-chair-may-delegate
IETF L. Eggert
Internet-Draft NetApp
Updates: 2850, 3710, 4949, 8713, 9281 (if 8 September 2023
approved)
Intended status: Best Current Practice
Expires: 11 March 2024
The IETF Chair May Delegate
draft-eggert-ietf-chair-may-delegate-01
Abstract
This document proposes that the IETF Chair may delegate some of their
responsibilities to other Area Directors, and updates several
existing RFCs to enable that.
About This Document
This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.
The latest revision of this draft can be found at
https://larseggert.github.io/ietf-chair-may-delegate/draft-eggert-
ietf-chair-may-delegate.html. Status information for this document
may be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-eggert-ietf-
chair-may-delegate/.
Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
https://github.com/larseggert/ietf-chair-may-delegate.
Status of This Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
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Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
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material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on 11 March 2024.
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2023 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 (https://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
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provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Emergency Stand-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2. Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. Separating the IETF Chair and IESG Chair Roles . . . . . . . 4
3.1. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2. Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Delegation of the IAB Membership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2. Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. Delegation of the General Area Director Role . . . . . . . . 7
5.1. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.2. Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6. Other Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.1. Staff Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7. Other Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.1. Liaison Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.2. Transgressions of the IETF Guidelines for Conduct . . . . 9
7.3. Managing the Ombuds- and Moderator Teams . . . . . . . . 9
7.4. Serving on the IETF LLC Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
10. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
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1. Introduction
Throughout the history of the IETF, the role of the IETF Chair has
always been filled by a single person. None of the foundational
documents of the organization precisely define the role, but most are
written with an understanding that the role is filled by a single
person who is then tasked with numerous responsibilities. The
expired Internet-Draft [I-D.carpenter-ietf-chair-tasks] attempted to
define the role of the IETF Chair more precisely but was not taken
forward.
Few documents explicitly say that the IETF Chair may delegate some of
these responsibilities. Over time, this has created a situation
where even a full-time commitment by a single person may no longer be
sufficient to fulfill all of these roles and duties.
Also, the role of the IETF Chair is a single point of failure for the
organization, with no defined processes for allowing others to
quickly and/or temporarily take over aspects of the role if the IETF
Chair becomes partially or fully unable to serve. (The defined
process is that for "mid-term vacancies" per Section 3.5 of
[RFC8713], which can take up to six weeks to complete and only allows
for the permanent replacement of the IETF Chair by another
individual.)
Single bottlenecks like this have obvious scaling and fault tolerance
issues. This document hence proposes to explicitly allow the IETF
Chair to delegate some of their responsibilities to one or more other
Area Directors. It leaves it up to each IETF Chair to determine if
they would like to delegate some of their responsibilities, and if
so, which ones, to whom and when.
One model that is specifically enabled by this proposal, but is not
required or even recommended, is a separation of the roles of the
IETF Chair from that of the IESG Chair, allowing another Area
Director to take over the chairperson role of the IESG and its
associated responsibilities. It also enables delegation of the IETF
Chair's full IAB membership and delegation or sharing of the role of
the General Area Director.
Specifically, with these changes, it should be possible for the IESG
to request the selection of a General Area Director who is not at the
same time also the IETF Chair, to whom the IETF Chair may then
delegate some of their responsibilities, such as chairing the IESG.
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There must be community transparency about which roles the IETF Chair
has delegated to which other Area Director, and for which time. This
transparency can be guaranteed in several ways, such as through the
IESG website or public email. Such operational details are out of
the scope of this document.
2. Emergency Stand-In
This section describes who may stand in for the IETF Chair in case of
emergency if they become unable to fulfill their duties.
2.1. Background
As described in Section 1, the IETF Chair role is at the moment a
single point of failure for the organization. In an emergency that
incapacitated the IETF Chair, a recall petition followed by executing
a "mid-term vacancy" replacement would need to be executed to name a
new IETF Chair. This process will likely take several weeks at best,
during which time there is no defined stand-in for the IETF Chair.
2.2. Proposal
This document proposes that in the case the IETF Chair becomes
incapacitated, the IAB Chair will automatically assume the role of
the IETF Chair. If the IAB Chair is unable to do so, the IETF Chair
role will automatically fall to the Chair of the IETF Administration
LLC. As soon as the NomCom appoints a new IETF Chair this emergency
delegation ends.
3. Separating the IETF Chair and IESG Chair Roles
This section analyzes which RFCs imply that the IETF Chair and IESG
Chair roles need to be filled by the same person, and makes
suggestions for updates that would allow a separation.
3.1. Background
[RFC2026] is surprisingly silent on the role of the IETF Chair, only
mentioning it in Section 14 of [RFC2026] as part of the terminology:
Area Director - The manager of an IETF Area. The Area Directors
along with the IETF Chair comprise the Internet Engineering
Steering Group (IESG).
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) - A group comprised of
the IETF Area Directors and the IETF Chair. (...)
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Similarly, the role of the IESG Chair is only briefly mentioned in
Section 6.5.2 of [RFC2026] as part of how process failures are
handled:
If an individual should disagree with an action taken by the IESG
in this process, that person should first discuss the issue with
the IESG Chair. If the IESG Chair is unable to satisfy the
complainant then (...)
[RFC2026] does not require the IETF Chair to also fulfill the role of
IESG Chair. Section 1.2 of [RFC1602], the earlier revision of the
standards process that [RFC2026] obsoletes, is an Informational RFC
and does include text to that effect, however:
The IESG is composed of the IETF Area Directors and the
chairperson of the IETF, who also serves as the chairperson of the
IESG.
Section 1.2 of [RFC1602] is likely the basis for [RFC2028], a BCP
that includes similar text:
The IESG is composed of the IETF Area Directors and the chair of
the IETF, who also serves as the chair of the IESG.
Section 3.3 of [RFC9281], a BCP that obsoletes [RFC2028], retains
that text and also states that the IETF Chair is the Area Director
for the General Area:
The IESG is composed of the ADs and the IETF Chair. The IETF
Chair also chairs the IESG and is the AD for the General Area.
Section 4 of [RFC4949], an Informational RFC containing an Internet
Security Glossary, contains this text under the "Internet Engineering
Steering Group (IESG)" glossary item:
The part of the ISOC responsible for technical management of IETF
activities and administration of the Internet Standards Process
according to procedures approved by the ISOC Trustees. Directly
responsible for actions along the "standards track", including
final approval of specifications as Internet Standards. Composed
of IETF Area Directors and the IETF chairperson, who also chairs
the IESG. (RFC 2026)
3.2. Proposal
To allow the IETF Chair to delegate the role of IESG Chair to another
AD (as arguably intended to be allowed by [RFC2026]), the following
updates to existing RFCs are proposed:
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1. Remove the sentence "The IETF Chair also chairs the IESG and is
the AD for the General Area." from Section 3.3 of [RFC9281].
2. Change the clause "The IETF chair, who is also the chair of the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)" in the second
sentence of Section 1 of [RFC2850] to "The IETF chair or their
delegate". (This is also part of the suggestions in
Section 5.2.)
3. Remove the clause "who also chairs the IESG" from the "Internet
Engineering Steering Group (IESG)" glossary item in Section 4 of
[RFC4949].
4. Delegation of the IAB Membership
This section analyzes which RFCs contain text about the full IAB
membership of the IETF Chair, and makes suggestions for updates that
would allow delegation of the IAB membership.
4.1. Background
Section 1 of [RFC2850] requires the IETF Chair to be a full member of
the IAB:
The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) shall consist of thirteen
full members, composed of the chair of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), and of twelve sitting members.
Appendix C of [RFC8713] contains a similar statement as part of the
second item in a list of "oral traditions" recorded for
"consideration by future NomComs":
No person should serve both on the IAB and as an Area Director,
except the IETF Chair whose roles as an IAB member and Area
Director of the General Area are set out elsewhere.
Section 3.4 of [RFC9281] says:
The IETF Chair is also a member of the IAB, and the Chair of the
Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is an ex officio member.
4.2. Proposal
To allow the IETF Chair to delegate their full IAB membership to
another AD, the following updates to existing RFCs are suggested:
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1. Add "or their Delegate Area Director" at the end of the clause
"composed of the chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF)" in Section 1 of [RFC2850].
2. Add "With the publication of RFCXXXX, IETF guidance on this issue
has changed as described there." to the second bullet item in
Appendix C of [RFC8713].
3. Change the sentence "The IETF Chair is also a member of the IAB,
and the Chair of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is an ex
officio member." to "The Chair of the Internet Research Task
Force (IRTF) is an ex officio member of the IAB." in Section 3.4
of [RFC9281].
5. Delegation of the General Area Director Role
This section analyzes which RFCs contain text about the
responsibility of the IETF Chair to also serve as Area Director of
the General Area, and makes suggestions for updates that would allow
delegation of or sharing of the role.
5.1. Background
Section 2 of [RFC3710] states that the IETF Chair is the General Area
Director:
The IETF Chair, who also functions as the General Area Director
when this area is active
Section 3.3 of [RFC9281] also makes a similar statement:
The IETF Chair also chairs the IESG and is the AD for the General
Area.
5.2. Proposal
To allow the IETF Chair to delegate the Area Director role of the
General Area, the following updates to existing RFCs are suggested:
1. Replace "who also functions as the General Area Director" with
"who may also function as a General Area Director or may share
that role with or delegate that role to another Area Director" in
Section 2 of [RFC3710].
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2. Change the clause "The IETF chair, who is also the chair of the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)" in the second
sentence of Section 1 of [RFC2850] to "The IETF chair or their
delegate". (This is also part of the suggestions in
Section 3.2.)
6. Other Updates
This section collects updates to some text in existing RFCs that has
become stale.
6.1. Staff Supervision
Section 7.1 of [RFC3710] says
The IETF Chair has primary responsibility for supervising the work
of the IETF Secretariat, with the advice and consent of the IESG,
the IAB Chair and the ISOC president.
With the publication of [RFC8711], this responsibility has moved to
the IETF Executive Director. The proposal is to update Section 7.1
of [RFC3710] to remove the sentence above.
7. Other Roles
This section briefly summarizes other roles the IETF Chair has, but
which require no updates, usually because delegation is already
permitted.
7.1. Liaison Statements
Section 3.1 of [RFC4691] says
Liaison statements are only sent on the initiative of the IETF
chair, the IAB chair, IETF Area Directors, or IETF working group
chairs.
Section 4 of [RFC4052] says
For a liaison statement generated on behalf of the IETF as a
whole, the IETF Chair must have generated or must agree with the
sending of the liaison statement. If the liaison statement is not
sent by the IETF Chair, then his or her agreement must be obtained
in advance and confirmed by copying the IETF Chair on the message.
The combination of these two statements already allows another Area
Director to send a liaison statement on behalf of the IETF with IETF
Chair approval.
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7.2. Transgressions of the IETF Guidelines for Conduct
Appendix A of [RFC7154] says "An individual can report transgressions
of the guidelines for conduct to the IETF Chair or the IESG."
However, [RFC7154] does not define any reactions the IETF Chair or
the IESG should or may take, so the IETF Chair only acts as a
recipient here.
7.3. Managing the Ombuds- and Moderator Teams
The IETF Chair is tasked with managing the constituency of the
ombudsteam [RFC7776] and the moderator team of the IETF discussion
list [RFC9245].
This document does not suggest any changes here, but the community
may consider allowing delegation of either of these responsibilities
if revisions of [RFC7776] or [RFC9245] are undertaken.
7.4. Serving on the IETF LLC Board
[RFC8711] suggests that the IETF Chair, or a delegate selected by the
IESG, will serve on the Board of Directors of the IETF Administration
LLC. Because delegation of that role is already explicitly allowed,
no changes are suggested here.
8. Security Considerations
The usual security considerations [RFC3552] do not apply to this
document.
9. IANA Considerations
This document has no IANA actions.
10. Acknowledgments
These individuals suggested improvements to this document:
* Alvaro Retana
* Brian Carpenter
11. References
11.1. Normative References
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[RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, DOI 10.17487/RFC2026, October 1996,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2026>.
[RFC2850] IAB and B. Carpenter, Ed., "Charter of the Internet
Architecture Board (IAB)", BCP 39, RFC 2850,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2850, May 2000,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2850>.
[RFC3710] Alvestrand, H., "An IESG charter", RFC 3710,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3710, February 2004,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3710>.
[RFC4949] Shirey, R., "Internet Security Glossary, Version 2",
FYI 36, RFC 4949, DOI 10.17487/RFC4949, August 2007,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4949>.
[RFC8713] Kucherawy, M., Ed., Hinden, R., Ed., and J. Livingood,
Ed., "IAB, IESG, IETF Trust, and IETF LLC Selection,
Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the IETF
Nominating and Recall Committees", BCP 10, RFC 8713,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8713, February 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8713>.
[RFC9281] Salz, R., "Entities Involved in the IETF Standards
Process", BCP 11, RFC 9281, DOI 10.17487/RFC9281, June
2022, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9281>.
11.2. Informative References
[I-D.carpenter-ietf-chair-tasks]
Carpenter, B. E., "Tasks of the IETF Chair, IESG Chair,
and General Area Director", Work in Progress, Internet-
Draft, draft-carpenter-ietf-chair-tasks-00, 25 April 2006,
<https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-carpenter-
ietf-chair-tasks-00>.
[RFC1602] IAB and IESG, "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
2", RFC 1602, DOI 10.17487/RFC1602, March 1994,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1602>.
[RFC2028] Hovey, R. and S. Bradner, "The Organizations Involved in
the IETF Standards Process", RFC 2028,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2028, October 1996,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2028>.
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[RFC3552] Rescorla, E. and B. Korver, "Guidelines for Writing RFC
Text on Security Considerations", BCP 72, RFC 3552,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3552, July 2003,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3552>.
[RFC4052] Daigle, L., Ed. and IAB, "IAB Processes for Management of
IETF Liaison Relationships", BCP 102, RFC 4052,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4052, April 2005,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4052>.
[RFC4691] Andersson, L., Ed., "Guidelines for Acting as an IETF
Liaison to Another Organization", RFC 4691,
DOI 10.17487/RFC4691, October 2006,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4691>.
[RFC7154] Moonesamy, S., Ed., "IETF Guidelines for Conduct", BCP 54,
RFC 7154, DOI 10.17487/RFC7154, March 2014,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7154>.
[RFC7776] Resnick, P. and A. Farrel, "IETF Anti-Harassment
Procedures", BCP 25, RFC 7776, DOI 10.17487/RFC7776, March
2016, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7776>.
[RFC8711] Haberman, B., Hall, J., and J. Livingood, "Structure of
the IETF Administrative Support Activity, Version 2.0",
BCP 101, RFC 8711, DOI 10.17487/RFC8711, February 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8711>.
[RFC9245] Eggert, L. and S. Harris, "IETF Discussion List Charter",
BCP 45, RFC 9245, DOI 10.17487/RFC9245, June 2022,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9245>.
Author's Address
Lars Eggert
NetApp
Stenbergintie 12 B
FI-02700 Kauniainen
Finland
Email: lars@eggert.org
URI: https://eggert.org/
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