Working Group Secretaries Good Practices
draft-secretaries-good-practices-00

Networking Working Group                                   M. Vigoureux
Internet Draft                                           Alcatel-Lucent
Intended status: Informational                                  D. King
Expires: April 2014                                  Old Dog Consulting

                                                       October 17, 2013

                 Working Group Secretaries Good Practices
                    draft-secretaries-good-practices-00

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Abstract

   This document is primarily intended for Working Group Secretaries,
   the role of whom is defined in RFC 2418. This document complements
   the succinct description of Working Group Secretaries' role by
   providing a compilation of good practices and some general guidelines
   regarding the fulfillment of the role.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction...................................................2
   2. An IETF Meeting................................................3
      2.1. Preparation Phase.........................................3
      2.2. A Working Group Session...................................5
      2.3. Conclusion of an IETF Meeting.............................6
   3. Inter-Meeting Phase............................................6
   4. Security Considerations........................................8
   5. IANA Considerations............................................8
   6. Conclusions....................................................8
   7. References.....................................................8
      7.1. Informative References....................................8
   8. Acknowledgments................................................9

1. Introduction

   The Working Groups (WGs) consist of contributors and participants,
   they provide the environment for the technical details to be debated
   and resolved, consensus is then reached, and subsequent standards are
   created. WG Chairs are responsible for implementing and managing the
   procedural questions and issues that will arise over time during the
   life of the WG. Previously the WG Secretarial role was defined as a
   minute taker and to record WG discussion points and decisions (see
   RFC 2418 [1]).

   Over time, this role has evolved to include a number of additional
   functions and activities which are critical to the smooth operation
   of IETF WGs. The framework, and perimeter of action, associated to
   the WG Secretary function depends on the person ensuring the function
   and on the persons he or she collaborates with (i.e., the WG Chairs),
   as well as on the professional relationship they establish. Therefore
   this document does not list what must be done, but what could be done
   by a WG Secretary. Also, this list shall not be considered as
   exhaustive. This document is therefore not a rigid job description.

   It is essential that overtime the WG Secretary and Chairs build a
   trust based efficient working relationship, and that, where required,

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   the WG Secretary develops the knowledge to fulfil the additional
   functions and activities. This shall enable the WG Secretary to both
   extend the scope of his or her actions, thus reducing the number of
   administrative tasks the Chairs might be expected to manage, and to
   be more and more involved in WG operation and decision-making, to the
   extent desired, or required. No secret recipe is given here on how to
   effectively build such relationship. In any case, while WG Chairs may
   delegate a number of tasks to the Secretary, they maintain the
   overall responsibility over the WG and the decisions and actions that
   are taken. As such, it is recommended that the WG Secretary does not
   operate without the agreement of the Chairs, or at least without the
   confidence that his or her choices and actions are in line with the
   Chairs views on any given matter.

   It shall be noted that the IETF Secretariat as well as a certain
   number of tools and means, exist in support of WG operation (session
   request tool, meeting material manager, the Datatracker, ...). Most
   (if not all) of these are accessible from the WG Chairs' page
   (http://www.ietf.org/wg/chairs-page.html). However, it is out of the
   scope of this document to describe the use of these tools. It shall
   also be noted that no specific tool exists in support of certain
   actions and tasks that can fall under the responsibility of WG
   Secretaries.

   Also, certain tasks described herein require the use of credentials
   and some rights associated to these. The WG Secretary (with the
   necessary help from the Chairs) should make sure he or she has all
   the capabilities required to perform the various tasks.

   We classify the objectives and tasks of a WG Secretary according two
   distinct phases: an IETF meeting, and the period between two
   consecutive IETF meetings. The following two sections reflect that
   classification.

2. An IETF Meeting

   This phase in fact covers the period of an IETF meeting per se, as
   well as the preparation phase and conclusion phase of a WG session.

2.1. Preparation Phase

   In a (non absolute) chronological order the tasks of a WG Secretary
   could consist in:

   o  Submitting a session request for the WG.

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   The WG Secretary should coordinate with the Chairs in order to
   appropriately fill the submission form, especially with regards to
   the number of sessions to request for, and their respective duration.

   o  Calling for presentation slots.

   As soon as the IETF agenda for a given meeting is published, the WG
   Secretary could send an e-mail to the WG mailing list asking the WG
   participants to submit requests for presentation slots at the
   upcoming WG session(s). Note that, the form this call for
   presentations might take possibly depends on the plans WG Chairs have
   for a particular session, as well as on the policies they set for
   accepting presentation slot requests. The WG Secretary might need to
   coordinate with the Chairs prior to issuing the call.

   o  Collecting the presentations slots requests.

   As a preliminary step to building the agenda, the WG Secretary could
   collect all the requests for presentations slots. In order to be able
   to do so, the WG Secretary should make sure that he or she is aware
   of all the formulated requests by 1/ clearly indicating in the call
   for presentations slots that he or she must be (one of) the
   recipients of the requests, and 2/ checking with the Chairs if they
   would have received requests that he or she was not in copy of.

   o  Proposing a WG session agenda.

   Depending on the known preferences of the WG Chairs for the typical
   structure of their WG sessions, on the objectives WG Chairs have for
   a particular WG session, and/or on his personal view, the Secretary
   could propose a structured agenda for the upcoming WG session(s).
   Following that, the WG Secretary could work with the Chairs to
   finalize the agenda in view of publishing a first draft agenda.

   o  Submitting the WG session agenda.

   At the deadline, or earlier to the extent possible, the WG Secretary
   could publish the draft and then final agenda for the WG session(s).
   The WG Secretary could then inform the WG that the agenda has been
   published. Also, depending on an agreement given by the WG Chairs,
   the Secretary could inform the participants having requested a
   presentation slot of the reason why they were not retained in the WG
   session's agenda.

   o  Requesting presentations materials.

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   Combined to the notification of the publication of the WG session's
   agenda, or separately, the WG Secretary could ask the presenters to
   send the material in support of their upcoming presentation. This
   request should come with a deadline to give sufficient time to upload
   the materials before the WG session(s).

   o  Preparing the WG Status material.

   WG sessions typically start with a slot allocated to the WG Chairs
   during which is presented an administrative status of the WG. The WG
   Secretary could produce part, or the totality, of the WG status
   slides by compiling the appropriate information. As part of this
   step, the WG Secretary could query the authors of WG documents to
   know the status of and plans for the document (e.g., envisaged date
   of readiness for WG Last Call). This, mostly if not only, applies to
   WG Documents the state of which is not evident. For example there is
   no apparent need to poll authors of a WG document which is in IESG
   processing.

   o  Uploading the materials.

   The WG secretary could, sufficiently ahead of time, upload the
   presentations materials. This is useful both to the WG participants
   wanting to have access to the material and to the person responsible
   for displaying the material during the session.

2.2. A Working Group Session

   The role of the WG Secretary could also cover the phase of a WG
   session.

   o  Check list.

   For the WG Chairs to enjoy their lunch, coffee or cookie until the
   last minute the WG Secretary could sacrifice his or her time and
   enter the meeting room well in advance to prepare the session. This
   might include for example checking if blue sheets are available, but
   also preparing the session's material to be displayed, launching
   collaborative software environments (e.g., WebEx), preparing minute
   taking, and so on. The usefulness of such preparation depends of
   course on the WG and on the session. A WG session with a light agenda
   might not require all this. On the other hand, a WG with an extremely
   packed agenda and for which every minute counts, might benefit from
   such preparation.

   o  Running the WG session.

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   The WG Secretary could be responsible for displaying the material and
   running through the slides as speakers advance through their
   presentation.

   The WG Secretary would typically also act as the minute taker. It is
   recommended that, in the event a WG Secretary is unable to attend a
   WG session or take minutes, a suitable replacement be identified
   before the WG session.

   In addition the WG Secretary might also identify a Jabber scribe to
   aid remote participants to follow discussions and proxy questions
   from remote participants.

   Performing multiple tasks during WG sessions might pose certain
   challenges but nothing insurmountable.

   o  After the WG session.

   After the end of a session the WG Secretary could bring the blue
   sheets to the Secretariat, and socialize with the very supportive and
   welcoming people composing the Secretariat.

2.3. Conclusion of an IETF Meeting

   o  Publishing the WG session's minutes.

   While it is highly recommended that the minutes of WG session(s) be
   published as quickly as possible, this might only be feasible after
   the end of the week of an IETF meeting. In any case, if the WG
   Secretary was the minute taker he or she could polish the notes taken
   (correcting typos, or even complementing missing parts with audio
   recordings) and send these to the Chairs for validation.

   Once the WG Chairs agree on the written minutes, the Secretary could
   publish these using the means available.

   Once published, the WG Secretary could communicate the link to the
   WG, asking at the same time the WG participants to review and inform
   him or her of changes that would need to be performed before final
   publication.

3. Inter-Meeting Phase

   Tracking is the word dominating the tasks a WG Secretary could be
   expected to perform between two IETF meetings.

   o  Recording and tracking authors' inputs.

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   At least on two occasions, the WG Secretary is in position to receive
   inputs from authors of Internet-Drafts concerning the status and
   plans they have for their document(s). This is during the preparation
   phase (when building the WG status material) and during the WG
   session when authors sometime express such plans at the end of their
   presentation. The WG Secretary should record and track this
   information as it is valuable for sketching a plan and a schedule of
   the actions the WG Chairs will possibly have to take (e.g., poll for
   adoption, WG Last Call, ...).

   o  Recording and tracking WG Chairs' decisions.

   Decisions are sometimes taken by WG Chairs during WG sessions. These
   decisions often imply some follow-up actions that the WG Chairs need
   to take. The WG Secretary could record and track the action-points
   for the WG Chairs.

   o  Tracking events.

   In between the IETF meetings, a number of WG events including WG
   adoption polls, WG Last Calls, and acknowledging and managing
   Liaisons and Communications from/to external Standards organizations,
   will occur. The WG Secretary could track these events and report
   progress, or deadlines to the Chairs. For the WG adoption polls and
   WG Last Calls, the WG Secretary could remind the Chairs of the end of
   the poll/call together with an evaluation of the positions expressed
   on the WG mailing list in response to these polls/calls.

   o  Monitoring IPR Polls.

   As per [2] it is important for document authors and contributors to
   disclosed IPR in a timely fashion. Typically an IPR poll might be
   conducted prior to a WG adoption poll or WG Last Call. In some cases,
   it would benefit WG Chairs if the Secretary was to monitor, track and
   chase authors and contributors where necessary for IPR responses.
   Where IPR poll responses are not forthcoming, the WG Secretary could
   notify the Chairs.

   o  Maintaining the Datatracker and ensuring it is up to date.

   An important tool in support of WG operations is the Datatracker. The
   WG Secretary could have the responsibility of keeping the Datatracker
   up to date and reflecting the exact state each document is
   effectively in.

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   The WG Secretary could also make sure that the replacement status of
   documents is correct, and request for the application of the proper
   status in case it is incorrect or not indicated and necessary.

   o  Doing "Chair-like" work.

   Depending on the established working relationship between the WG
   Chairs and Secretary, the latter could take actions such as close
   polls for adoption or WG Last Calls, be the Shepherd as per [3] for a
   given document.

   o  Attending WG Chairs' training.

   WG Secretaries are invited to the IETF WG chairs' lunch tutorials.

4. Security Considerations

   Delegation based on trust is not expected to introduce security
   issues.

5. IANA Considerations

   This document does not require any action from the IANA.

6. Conclusions

   The role of a WG Secretary can range from a few of these possible
   tasks to the full spectrum of them, and even beyond. This depends of
   his or her willingness, free time, technical knowledge of the subject
   matter, and on the expectations and requirements from the WG Chairs.

   The closer the WG Secretary and Chairs work, the more efficient it
   will be. As such it is desired that the WG Chairs and Secretary share
   a common set of information. Finally, clear communication and the
   setting of expectations by both parties will ensure a successful and
   mutually beneficial relationship, and will directly facilitate to the
   success of the WG.

7. References

7.1. Informative References

   [1]   Bradner, S., "IETF Working Group Guidelines and Procedures",
         BCP 25, RFC 2418, September 1998.

   [2]   Bradner, S., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF Technology",
         BCP 79, RFC 3979, March 2005.

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   [3]   Levkowetz, H., Meyer, D., Eggert, L., and Mankin, A., "Document
         Shepherding from Working Group Last Call to Publication", RFC
         4858, May 2007.

8. Acknowledgments

   This document was prepared using 2-Word-v2.0.template.dot.

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Authors' Addresses

   Martin Vigoureux
   Alcatel-Lucent

   Email: martin.vigoureux@alcatel-lucent.com

   Daniel King
   Old Dog Consulting

   Email: daniel@olddog.co.uk

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