Internet DRAFT - draft-sullivan-nomcom-chair-select
draft-sullivan-nomcom-chair-select
Network A. Sullivan
Internet-Draft Internet Society
Intended status: Informational 2 March 2022
Expires: 3 September 2022
A Selection Process for Nomcom Chairs
draft-sullivan-nomcom-chair-select-02
Abstract
The Internet Engineering Task Force Nominating Committee is required
to have a Chair. The Chair is selected by the President of the
Internet Society. This memo outlines a procedure for Chair
selection.
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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This Internet-Draft will expire on 3 September 2022.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2022 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/
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Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1. Consult with Past Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2. Prepare and post a Call for Candidates . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3. First consideration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4. Short list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.5. Negotiation/Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.6. List Exhaustion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Process Change Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4. Precedent Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. Comments/Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
8. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1. Introduction
Various positions in the Internet Architecture Board, Internet
Engineering Steering Group, IETF Trust, and IETF Administration LLC
are selected by the IETF Nominating Committee (NomCom). The
procedures in [RFC8713] lay out the way the NomCom operates; section
4.3 says that the NomCom must have a Chair, and section 4.5 says that
the Chair is selected by the President of the Internet Society
(Internet Society President). There is no guidance for how the
Internet Society President should perform the task. There is
guidance that the selection must be complete in time for the second
IETF meeting in any year.
In order to ensure that the Internet Society President considers
factors relevant for the community in making the appointment, to
ensure that there are candidates willing and able to serve in any
given year, and to decrease the potential for familiarity bias in the
selection, the present memo outlines a procedure by which the
Internet Society President might seek candidates and feedback about
those candidates. The sitting Internet Society President intends to
use this method for selection of the Chair for the 2022-23 NomCom.
1.1. Terminology
In this memo, the key words described in BCP 14, [RFC2119] are not
used as there defined; if those words occur, it is with their
ordinary English meaning. This memo defines no protocol.
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Terms with unusual title-case capitalization (such as "Internet
Society President", and "NomCom Chair") are used here consistently
with their use in [RFC8713].
2. Procedure
2.1. Consult with Past Chair
The Internet Society President shall consult with the Past Chair (see
[RFC8713] section 4.10) for advice on issues that are likely to be of
particular concern to the incoming NomCom.
2.2. Prepare and post a Call for Candidates
The Internet Society President prepares a call for candidates to be
Chair. The call must include at least a reference to the
qualifications mandated by [RFC8713] and any additional
qualifications that seem important given the consultation mentioned
in Section 2.1. The Internet Society President is advised to include
prior experience in a NomCom as a desirable qualification: experience
indicates that there can sometimes be challenges for Chairs who have
never participated in a NomCom in any capacity. That preference
should not extend to requiring that a Chair nominee must have been a
voting volunteer of a previous NomCom. (For instance, prior liaison
experience counts.)
The Call for Candidates is to be posted at least to the IETF general
mailing list and the announcement list. Nomination of anyone,
including oneself, will be encouraged. The Call should be open for
no more than four (4) weeks, and nominees are not expected to provide
anything more than a name and email address and the indication of a
willingness to serve. The email address is a requirement to ensure
NomCom eligibility. At this stage it is explicitly not expected that
a nominee expresses availability of time or employer support to serve
in the position, though affirmations of those conditions would be of
course welcome.
Nominees also must explicitly consent to requests for confidential
feedback about the potential that they are under consideration as
NomCom Chair (see Section 2.3). Nominations are to be sent to an
email address under the sole control of the Internet Society
President, and will be treated as confidential. Note that this
represents a change to the existing process, because at present there
is no open call for nominations. See more below in Section 3.
The Internet Society President is expected to spend a certain amount
of time trying to convince especially-qualified people to consider
taking on this task.
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2.3. First consideration
The Internet Society President must examine the nominations received
and ensure that they meet the necessary qualifications outlined in
the Call for Candidates. Anyone who does not meet those
qualifications will automatically be excluded from further
consideration.
The Internet Society President ought to consult at least with the
Past Chair on those nominations that meet the necessary
qualifications, is advised to seek the advice of past NomCom members,
and may consult with anyone else in respect of any or all of the
nominees.
A previous iteration of this memo made the suggestion of posting to
the whole IETF a list of names under consideration. This produced
considerable though not universal opposition. Given the strongly-
held opposition, the Internet Society President shall construct a
short list on the basis of whatever feedback it is possible to gather
from the sources the President knows. All feedback is to be treated
as confidential and is to be sent exclusively to an address under the
sole control of the President, or collected directly by the President
as circumstances allow. According to the Internet Society
President's discretion and availability, feedback may be collected in
person, via telephone calls, or any other way the Internet Society
President thinks is useful. The period for collection of feedback
should not be overly long, but it should not complete before the
ending of the first IETF meeting of the year.
2.4. Short list
The Internet Society President will take the feedback received, and
construct an ordered short list of candidates. The Internet Society
President is advised to discuss again at least the first few entries
in that list with the Past Chair and anyone else who seems likely to
provide helpful input, according to the Internet Society President's
thinking and discretion. This consultation will result in a final,
ordered short list.
Note that the short list is not subject to comment or public
discussion; that any candidate is on a short list should itself be
treated as a private matter (though obviously, those providing input
may be able to make some guesses).
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2.5. Negotiation/Interview
The Internet Society President will approach, in order, each
candidate on the short list and inquire as to continued willingness.
It is expected that this will entail a degree of persuasion.
Assuming the candidate remains willing, the Internet Society
President will discuss the candidate's views about the position, how
the NomCom might function or face particular problems, and so on.
This is, in effect, an interview, and it is possible that the
President will decide that the candidate is not as qualified as
expected. Assuming, however, the discussions remain positive, the
Internet Society President will ask the candidate to confirm
availability of time and where necessary employer support or other
financial support. If it is confirmed, the Internet Society
President shall select that candidate as NomCom Chair. If not, the
Internet Society President shall move to the next candidate in the
list.
2.6. List Exhaustion
There is no procedure defined in this memo for recovery from the case
where no candidate on the short list is willing and able to be
appointed Chair. This is a gap in the existing processes that ought
to be filled, but it is not filled yet. It is important to note
that, without a selected NomCom Chair, the procedures in [RFC8713]
appear not to work, but that document seems to have no provision for
a NomCom without a Chair.
3. Process Change Considerations
The model outlined in this memo represents a departure from past
practice. It is not clear whether that departure is a good thing, so
it is worth considering what the consequences might be. There are
advantages and disadvantages. Some are listed below, though this is
probably not an exhaustive list.
The proposed process has a better chance of capturing a wider range
of possible candidates for NomCom Chair than the process historically
used. It is not possible for the Internet Society's President to
know everyone participating in the IETF; indeed, depending on the
President's background, the selection could be made with little
personal knowledge at all. So, a mechanism to solicit suggestions
seems like a way to improve both the size and diversity of the pool
of potential NomCom Chair candidates.
Historically, feedback about potential candidates necessarily had to
come from informal information-gathering, because the list of people
who might be up for consideration to be NomCom Chair was largely
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unknown (though it may have been a more or less widely-held secret).
A consequence of that mode of operation is a reinforcement of the
idea that selection of future leaders might be managed by an
"insider's club". That the NomCom Chair does not have a vote might
be irrelevant to that perception. The process outlined here does
nothing to resolve that issue.
This process has an initial nomination component that is larger than
the informal methods historically used. A larger number of messages
may increase the absolute risk (though ideally not the proportional
risk) that some message will be disclosed inappropriately. In
effect, then, this process might increase the risk that someone's
candidacy will become public when it should not have been.
4. Precedent Considerations
The approach outlined in this memo is the one selected at the time of
writing by the then-sitting Internet Society President. This does
not represent a change to the processes of [RFC8713] or its
successors, and does not reflect or purport to reflect IETF
consensus. Therefore, there is no reason to suppose that a future
Internet Society President will or will not follow this procedure.
5. Comments/Discussion
Comments on this memo are welcome at the author's email address.
There is no mailing list for discussion of this proposed process.
Given the wide discretion afforded the Internet Society President in
the text, the procedures in this memo will be used without further
alteration for the 2022 selection round.
6. Security Considerations
This document defines no protocol, so there are no protocol
considerations of any kind. The procedure depends on people sending
observations via email, which could be intercepted.
7. IANA Considerations
This memo involves no actions by IANA.
8. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
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[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/info/rfc8713>.
Author's Address
Andrew Sullivan
Internet Society
Email: sullivan@isoc.org
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