IETF Administrative Support Activity 2
charter-ietf-iasa2-00-02

The arrangements relating to administrative support for the IETF (referred to
as the "IETF Administrative Support Activity" (IASA) [RFC4071]) were created
more than ten years ago, when the IETF initially took charge of its own
administration. The arrangements have served the IETF reasonably well, but
there have been considerable changes in the size and scope of the IASA work,
in the world around the IETF, and in the IETF community's own expectations
since the creation of IASA.

As documented in [draft-haberman-iasa20dt-recs], the current
administrative arrangements are facing a number of challenges. The range of
IETF administrative tasks have grown considerably; the IASA organizational
structure is not as clear, efficient, or as fully resourced as it should be;
the division of responsibilities between the IETF and ISOC continues to
evolve; expectations about transparency have changed; and the IETF faces
continued challenges related to funding IETF activities against a backdrop of
increasing costs and lack of predictability in our funding streams.

In November 2016, the IETF Chair launched a project in the community to
re-assess the IETF's administrative arrangements. Since then, the IETF
community has discussed the challenges we face, the properties we expect from
future arrangements, options for the legal structure of future arrangements,
and options for the organizational structure of future arrangements.

For legal purposes, IASA is currently organized as an activity of ISOC. Among
multiple legal structure options that were considered by the IETF community, a new
limited liability corporation (LLC) that is a disregarded entity of ISOC
(i.e., it is treated as a branch or division of ISOC for tax purposes) will
be created to house the administration of the IETF. ISOC supports this plan.

This working group is chartered to document the normative changes to IETF
administrative structures and processes necessary to effectuate this change.
The main deliverable will be a document that obsoletes RFC 4071. The working
group will produce other supporting documents as necessary to achieve its
charter objective. In parallel, the legal documents necessary to establish
the LLC will be developed outside the working group with the support of legal
counsel. These documents will not be products of the working group, but this
working group will be the venue where these documents will be presented to
the IETF community for review and discussion before they are finalized.

Aside from instances where they presently relate to IASA, it is outside the
scope of this working group to consider any changes to anything related to
the oversight or steering of the standards process as currently conducted by
the IESG and IAB, the appeal chain, the confirming bodies for existing IETF
and IAB appointments, the IRTF, or ISOC's memberships in other organizations.