The Nominating Committee Process: Selection of volunteers
draft-moonesamy-nomcom-selection-00

INTERNET-DRAFT                                         S. Moonesamy, Ed.
Updates: 3777 (if approved)                                             
Intended Status: Best Current Practice                                  
Expires: February 3, 2012                                 August 2, 2012

       The Nominating Committee Process: Selection of volunteers
                  draft-moonesamy-nomcom-selection-00

Abstract

   RFC 3777 specifies the process by which members of the Internet
   Architecture Board, Internet Engineering Steering Group and IETF
   Administrative Oversight Committee are selected, confirmed, and
   recalled.

   This document updates RFC 3777 to increase the number of volunteers
   who are eligible to serve on NomCom and to increase the selection of
   volunteers having different primary affiliations.  It also makes some
   updates to include the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee.

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Copyright and License Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors. All rights reserved.
 

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Table of Contents

   1  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Updated Text from RFC 3777 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   4  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   5  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     5.1  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     5.2  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9

 

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1  Introduction

   RFC 3777 [RFC3777] specifies the process by which members of the
   Internet Architecture Board (IAB), Internet Engineering Steering
   Group (IESG) and IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IOAC) are
   selected, confirmed, and recalled.  The Nominating Committee
   Selection is the process by which volunteers who will serve on the
   committee (NomCom) are recognized.  A random selection of volunteers
   is used to ensure that the selection is unbiased [RFC3797].

   One of the rules for eligibility to serve on NomCom is that
   volunteers must have attended at least three of the last five IETF
   meetings in order to volunteer.  Previously, a large number of
   meetings were held in North America.  There has been a change in the
   selection of meeting venues in 2012 as there is a willingness to
   consider locations outside North America.  Volunteers familiar with
   the IETF processes and procedures end up not being eligible to serve
   on NomCom if they cannot attend the third of the last five last IETF
   meetings.

   Over the last few years a small number of large sponsors for IETF
   participants have provided a disproportionate number of NomCom
   volunteers.  Since 2010 there has been several occurrences where two
   volunteers with the same primary affiliation were selected for the
   nominating committee.

   This document updates RFC 3777 [RFC3777] to increase the number of
   volunteers who are eligible to serve on NomCom and to increase the
   selection of volunteers having different primary affiliations.  It
   also makes some updates to include the IETF Administrative Oversight
   Committee.

2.  Updated Text from RFC 3777

   RFC 3777 [RFC3777], Section 1, "Introduction", Paragraph 11, is
   replaced as follows:

      Member Recall: This is the process by which the behavior of a
         sitting member of the IESG, IAB or IAOC may be questioned,
         perhaps resulting in the removal of the sitting member.

   Section 2, "Definitions", Paragraph 5 and 6, are replaced as follows:

      nominee: A person who is being or has been considered for one or
         more open positions of the IESG, IAB or IAOC.

      sitting member: A person who is currently serving a term of
         membership in the IESG, IAB, IAOC or ISOC Board of Trustees.
 

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   Section 3, "General", Paragraph 10 and 11, are replaced as follows:

      The principal functions of the nominating committee are to review
      each open IESG, IAB and IAOC position and to either nominate its
      incumbent or a superior candidate.

      Although there is no term limit for serving in any IESG, IAB or
      IAOC position, the nominating committee may use length of service
      as one of its criteria for evaluating an incumbent.

   Section 3, "General", Bullet 7, is replaced as follows:

      Unless otherwise specified, the advice and consent model is used
      throughout the process.  This model is characterized as follows.

      1. The IETF Executive Director informs the nominating committee of
         the IESG, IAB and IAOC positions to be reviewed.

         The IESG, IAB and IAOC are responsible for providing summary of
         the expertise desired of the candidates selected for their
         respective open positions to the Executive Director.  The
         summaries are provided to the nominating committee for its
         consideration.

      2. The nominating committee selects candidates based on its
         understanding of the IETF community's consensus of the
         qualifications required and advises each confirming body of its
         respective candidates.

      3. The confirming bodies review their respective candidates, they
         may at their discretion communicate with the nominating
         committee, and then consent to some, all, or none of the
         candidates.

         The sitting IAOC members review IAOC candidates.

         The sitting IAB members review the IESG candidates.

         The Internet Society Board of Trustees reviews the IAB
         candidates.

         The confirming bodies conduct their review using all
         information and any means acceptable to them, including but not
         limited to the supporting information provided by the
         nominating committee, information known personally to members
         of the confirming bodies and shared within the confirming body,
         the results of interactions within the confirming bodies, and
         the confirming bodies interpretation of what is in the best
 

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         interests of the IETF community.

         If all of the candidates are confirmed, the job of the
         nominating committee with respect to those open positions is
         complete.

         If some or none of the candidates submitted to a confirming
         body are confirmed, the confirming body should communicate with
         the nominating committee both to explain the reason why all the
         candidates were not confirmed and to understand the nominating
         committee's rationale for its candidates.

         The confirming body may reject individual candidates, in which
         case the nominating committee must select alternate candidates
         for the rejected candidates.

         Any additional time required by the nominating committee should
         not exceed its maximum time allotment.

      4. 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 within a reasonable
         time frame.  The results from the confirming body must be
         reported promptly to the nominating committee.

   Section 4, "Nominating Committee Selection", Rule 7, is replaced as
   follows:

      Liaisons are responsible for ensuring the nominating committee in
      general and the Chair in particular execute their assigned duties
      in the best interests of the IETF community.

 

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      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.

      Liaisons from the IESG, IAB and IAOC are expected to provide
      information to the nominating committee 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 nominating committee 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 testimony it is required to provide
      with its candidates.

      Liaisons may have other nominating committee responsibilities as
      required by their respective organizations or requested by the
      nominating committee, except that such responsibilities may not
      conflict with any other provisions of this document.

      Liaisons do not vote on the selection of candidates.

   Section 4, "Nominating Committee Selection", Rule 8, is replaced as
   follows:

      The sitting IAB, IESG and IAOC members each appoint a liaison from
      their current membership, someone who is not sitting in an open
      position, to serve on the nominating committee.

   Section 4, "Nominating Committee Selection", Rule 14, is replaced as
   follows:

      Members of the IETF community must have attended at least four of
      the last ten IETF meetings in order to volunteer.

      The ten meetings are the ten most recent meetings that ended prior
      to the date on which the solicitation for nominating committee
      volunteers was submitted for distribution to the IETF community.
 

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      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.

   Section 4, "Nominating Committee Selection", Rule 17, is replaced as
   follows:

      "The Chair randomly selects the ten voting volunteers from the
      pool of names of volunteers and announces the members of the
      nominating committee.

      No more than one volunteer with the same primary affiliation may
      be selected for the nominating committee.  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
      previously selected volunteer, 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
      nominating committee.

      The first announcement should occur as soon after the random
      selection as is reasonable for the Chair.  The community must have
      at least one 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 one week challenge period the Chair must
      contact each of the members and confirm their willingness and
 

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      availability to serve.  The Chair should make every reasonable
      effort to contact each member.

      *  If the Chair is unable to contact a liaison the problem is
         referred to the respective organization to resolve.  The Chair
         should allow a reasonable amount of time for the organization
         to resolve the problem and then may proceed without the
         liaison.

      *  If the Chair is unable to contact an advisor the Chair may
         elect to proceed without the advisor, except for the prior
         year's Chair for whom the Chair must consult with the Internet
         Society President as stated elsewhere in this document.

      *  If the Chair is unable to contact a voting volunteer the Chair
         must repeat the random selection process in order to replace
         the unavailable volunteer.  There should be at least one day
         between the announcement of the iteration and the selection
         process.

      After at least one week and confirming that 10 voting volunteers
      are ready to serve, the Chair makes the second announcement of the
      members of the nominating committee, which officially begins the
      term of the nominating committee.

 

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3  Security Considerations

   The document makes changes to the IETF process.  These changes will
   not affect the security of the Internet.

   The IETF community depends on the honor and integrity of the
   participants to make the process work.  Instead of defining
   "affiliation" this document encourages the volunteers not to cause
   any perception that their sponsors are "gaming" the system. 

4  IANA Considerations

   This document does not require IANA to take any action.

5  References

5.1  Normative References

   [RFC3777]  Galvin, J., Ed., "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation,
              and Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall
              Committees", BCP 10, RFC 3777, June 2004.

5.2  Informative References

   [RFC3797]  Eastlake 3rd, D., "Publicly Verifiable Nominations
              Committee (NomCom) Random Selection", RFC 3797, June 2004.

Authors' Addresses

   S. Moonesamy (editor)
   76, Ylang Ylang Avenue
   Quatres Bornes
   Mauritius

   Email: sm+ietf@elandsys.com

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