Network Working Group R. Austein, Ed.
Internet-Draft ISC
Expires: May 31, 2005 B. Wijnen, Ed.
Lucent Technologies
November 30, 2004
Structure of the IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA)
draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-01
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Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).
Abstract
This document describes the structure of the IETF Administrative
Support Activity (IASA) as an IETF-controlled activity housed within
the Internet Society (ISOC) legal umbrella. It defines the roles and
responsibilities of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee
(IAOC), the IETF Administrative Director (IAD), and ISOC in the
fiscal and administrative support of the IETF standards process. It
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also defines the membership and selection rules for the IAOC.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Editors' Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Open issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Definitions and Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Alphabet Soup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Principles of the IASA, IETF and ISOC relationship . . . . 6
2.3 Community Consensus and Grant of Authority . . . . . . . . 7
3. Structure of the IASA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.1 IAD Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 IAD Committees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3 IAOC Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.4 Relationship of the IAOC to Existing IETF Leadership . . . 10
3.5 IAOC Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4. IAOC Membership, Selection and Accountability . . . . . . . . 11
4.1 Initial IAOC Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5. IASA Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.1 Divisional Accounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2 IETF meeting revenues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.3 Designated donations, monetary and in-kind . . . . . . . . 14
5.4 Other ISOC support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.5 Operating Reserve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6. IASA Budget Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7. ISOC Responsibilities for IASA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.1 Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.2 Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A. Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . 22
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1. Introduction
This document describes the structure of the IETF Administrative
Support Activity (IASA) as an IETF-controlled activity housed within
the Internet Society (ISOC) legal umbrella. It defines the roles and
responsibilities of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee
(IAOC), the IETF Administrative Director (IAD), and ISOC in the
fiscal and administrative support of the IETF standards process. It
also defines the membership and selection rules for the IAOC.
The IETF undertakes its technical activities as an ongoing, open,
consensus-based process. This document defines an administrative
support structure intended to be responsive to the administrative
needs of the IETF technical community, and describes how that support
structure fits under ISOC's organizational umbrella. This document
does not affect the ISOC-IETF working relationship as it relates to
standards development or the communication of technical advice
relevant to the policy and educational goals of ISOC.
The IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA) provides the
administrative structure required to support the IETF standards
process and to support the IETF's technical activities. As of the
time at which this document was written, this included the work of
IETF working groups, the IESG, the IAB, and the IRTF. Should the
IETF standards process at some future date come to include other
technical activities, the IASA shall provide administrative support
for those activities as well. Such support includes, as appropriate,
undertaking or contracting for the work described in
[RFC3716],including IETF document and data management, IETF meetings,
and any operational agreements or contracts with the RFC Editor and
IANA. The IASA is also ultimately responsible for the financial
activities associated with IETF administrative support such as
collecting IETF meeting fees, paying invoices, managing budgets and
financial accounts, and so forth.
The IASA is responsible for ensuring that the IETF's administrative
needs are met, and met well. The IETF does not expect the IASA to
undertake the bulk of this work directly; rather, the IETF expects
the IASA to contract this work from others, and manage these
contractual relationships to achieve efficiency, transparency and
cost effectiveness.
The IASA is distinct from IETF-related technical functions, such as
the RFC Editor, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and
the IETF standards process itself. The IASA has no influence on the
technical decisions of the IETF or on the technical contents of IETF
work. Note, however, that this in no way prevents people who form
part of the IASA from participating as individuals in IETF technical
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activities.
1.1 Editors' Notes
This document is still a work in progress, and, due to time pressure
and lack of a clear consensus on some issues, the editors have not
yet been able to incorporate all of the outstanding change requests.
Work will continue after this version has shipped.
In some cases the best way to handle a particular suggestion (in the
editors' opinion, at any rate) has been to incorporate new text with
an "Editors' note" which attempts to explain the change.
The editors request that substantive comments and requested changes
be sent, one per message, with a clear and meaningful subject line on
each message, as this will make it easier for the editors to keep
track of change requests.
1.2 Open issues
Summary of open issues for which we need to find specific IETF
consensus so that editors can put in correct and agreed-upon text.
Do we need "pre-nuptial" agreement text as part of the BCP?
Currently, the doc does not have text for it. Seems IETF
consensus on choosing Scenario O means that we (the IETF) trust
ISOC.
Do we need separate bank accounts? Consensus seems to be emerging
not to ask for that. So this doc does not claim so now. Instead
we specify "Divisional Accounting" (Section 5.1).
Do we need to add text to protect IETF from an IAD or an IAOC
going amok? Seems that IAD can be suspended/fired and IAOC can be
recalled, and so maybe that is sufficient.
Are designated donations specified appropriately? In particular,
does requiring that not be "unduly restricted" address previously
stated concerns? That is what current text says.
Do we need to be more specific as to how reserves are built for
emergency situations, or can we leave that at ISOC's discretion?
We have added a set of principles (Section 2.2). The remainder of
the document still contains a fair amount of detail (based on the
principles) but potentially some of those details can be removed.
It is not clear whether the IETF wants to keep the details or
remove them.
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There has been a suggestion that we may need some more wording on
startup phase. Not clear exactly what might be needed. Send text
if you feel additions are needed.
Not clear yet if we have too much about the IAD task. Should that
task be specified elsewhere, initially by the Transition Team,
later by IAOC or some committee?
Would we want the IAOC to sign off on the yearly (or more
frequent) reports in some formal sense within a reasonable amount
of time? This might protect the IAD from some form of open-ended
lingering responsibility for previous years. It might also
protect against having somebody, five years from now, state "this
is wrong and by the way this was already wrong N years ago"
How should we deal with conflict between IAD, IAOC and ISOC? This
is complicated by the fact that ISOC officially employs the IAD
while a small committee hires and fires and evaluates the IAD.
Related to above: What happens if/when there is a disagreement
between the ISOC BoT and IAOC regarding business decisions,
spending, hiring, etc?
Do we need wording about the ownership of IETF tools and data? We
have some text (in Section 2.2) about IPR, but does that fully
cover tools and data?
2. Definitions and Principles
This section describes terminology and underlying principles used in
the rest of this document.
2.1 Alphabet Soup
Although most of the terms, abbreviations, and acronyms used in this
document are reasonably well-known, first-time readers may find this
alphabet soup confusing. This section therefore attempts to provide
a quick summary.
IAB Internet Architecture Board (see [RFC2026], [RFC2850]).
IAD Internet Administrative Director, defined by this document.
IAOC Internet Administrative Oversight Committee, defined by this
document.
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IESG Internet Engineering Steering Group (see [RFC2026], [RFC3710]).
ISOC Internet Society (see [RFC2031] and [ISOC]).
2.2 Principles of the IASA, IETF and ISOC relationship
This section attempts to describe principles underlying the
mechanisms described in this document.
1. The IETF intends to establish a structure (the IASA) in order to
get IETF administrative functions managed appropriately,
according to good administrative, fiscal, and management
principles. The IASA includes the IAD and the IAOC, and shall be
housed within ISOC.
2. The IAD, IAOC and ISOC shall not have any authority over the IETF
standards development activities.
3. The IAD and IAOC, with advice from the ISOC President/CEO and
staff, will develop an annual budget for the IASA. The budget
must clearly identify all expected direct and indirect
expenditures related to the IASA. ISOC, through its normal
procedures, will evaluate and adopt the IASA budget as part of
ISOC's own budget process and commit to ensuring funds to support
the approved budget.
4. Responsibility for the evaluation, review and negotiation of
contracts and other IETF administrative and support agreements
and other expenditures of funds under the IASA shall rest with
the IAD, operating in accordance with policies and procedures set
by the IAOC and consistent with ISOC operating policies.
5. There shall be a detailed public accounting to separately
identify all funds available to and all expenditures relating to
the IETF and to the IASA, including any donations, of funds or
in-kind, received by ISOC for IETF-related activities. In-kind
donations shall only be accepted at the direction of the IAD and
IAOC.
6. The right to use any intellectual property rights created by any
IASA-related or IETF activity may not be withheld or limited in
any way by ISOC from the IETF.
7. The IASA should establish a target for a reserve fund to cover
normal operating expenses and meeting expenses in accordance with
prudent planning, and ISOC should work with the IASA to build up
and maintain the reserve.
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The remainder of this document contains details based on the above
principles.
2.3 Community Consensus and Grant of Authority
The IETF is a consensus-based group, and authority to act on behalf
of the community requires a high degree of consensus and the
continued consent of the community. After a careful process of
deliberation, a broad-based community consensus emerged to house the
IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA) within the Internet
Society. This document reflects that consensus.
Termination and change: Any change to this agreement shall require a
similar level of community consensus and deliberation and shall be
reflected by a subsequent Best Current Practice (BCP) document.
3. Structure of the IASA
The IASA structure is designed to ensure accountability and
transparency of the IETF administrative and fiscal activities to the
IETF community. The IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC)
directs and oversees the IASA. The IAOC consists of volunteers, all
chosen directly or indirectly by the IETF community, as well as
appropriate ex officio appointments from ISOC and IETF leadership.
The IAOC shall be accountable to the IETF community for the
effectiveness, efficiency and transparency of the IASA.
The IASA consists initially of a single full-time ISOC employee, the
IETF Administrative Director (IAD), an officer entitled to act on
behalf of the IASA at the direction of the IAOC. The IAD is likely
to draw on financial, legal and administrative support furnished by
ISOC support staff or consultants. Costs for ISOC support staff and
consultants are allocated based on actual expenses or on some other
allocation model determined by consultation between the IAOC and
ISOC.
Although the IAD is an ISOC employee, he or she works under the
direction of the IAOC. The IAD is selected and hired by a committee
of the IAOC. The members of this committee are appointed by the
IAOC, and consist at minimum of the ISOC President and the IETF
Chair. This same committee is responsible for setting the IAD's
initial compensation, reviewing the performance of the IAD
periodically, and determining any changes to the IAD's employment and
compensation.
In principle, IETF administrative functions should be outsourced.
The IAD is responsible for negotiating and maintaining such
contracts, as well as providing any coordination necessary to make
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sure the IETF administrative support functions are covered properly.
The IAOC is accountable for the structure of the IASA and thus
decides which functions are to be outsourced. All outsourcing must
be via well-defined contracts or equivalent instruments. If any
functions are performed in-house, they must be clearly specified and
documented with well-defined deliverables, service level agreements,
and transparent accounting for the cost of such functions.
3.1 IAD Responsibilities
The IAD is responsible for working with the IAOC and others to
understand the administrative requirements of the IETF, and for
managing the IASA to meet those needs. This includes determining the
structure of the IASA effort, establishing an operating budget,
negotiating contracts with service providers, managing the business
relationship with those providers, and establishing mechanisms to
track their performance. The IAD may also manage other contractors
or ISOC employees (such as support staff) as necessary, when such
contractors or employees are engaged in IASA-related work.
The IAD is responsible for running IASA in an open and transparent
manner, and for producing regular monthly, quarterly, and annual
financial and operational updates for IAOC and IETF community review.
The IAD is responsible for administering the IETF finances, managing
a separate financial account for the IASA, and establishing and
administering the IASA budget. While ISOC will need to put some
financial controls in place to protect ISOC's fiscal stability, the
IAD (with IAOC approval, as appropriate) should have signing
authority consistent with carrying out IASA work effectively,
efficiently and independently. If there are any problems regarding
the level of financial approval granted to the IAD, the IAOC and ISOC
shall work out a policy that is mutually agreeable, and shall do so
within a reasonable timeframe.
The IAD negotiates service contracts, with input, as appropriate,
from other bodies, and with review, as appropriate, by the IAOC. The
IAOC should establish guidelines for what level of review is expected
based on contract type, size, cost, or duration. Contracts are
executed by ISOC, on behalf of the IASA, after whatever review ISOC
requires to ensure that the contracts meet ISOC's legal and financial
requirements.
The IAD and IAOC are responsible for making all business decisions
regarding the IASA. In particular, the ISOC Board of Trustees shall
not have direct influence over the choice of IASA contractors or IETF
meeting sponsors. This restriction is meant to enforce the
separation between fund raising and the actual operation of the
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standards process.
The IAD prepares an annual budget, which is subject to review and
approval by the IAOC. The IAD is responsible for presenting this
budget to the ISOC Board of Trustees, as part of ISOC's annual
financial planning process. The IAOC is responsible for ensuring the
budget's suitability for meeting the IETF community's administrative
needs, but the IAOC does not bear fiduciary responsibility for ISOC.
The ISOC Board therefore needs to review and understand the budget
and planned activity in enough detail to carry out their fiduciary
responsibility properly. The IASA publishes its complete budget to
the IETF community each year.
The IAOC, in consultation with the IAB and the IESG, designates the
person or people who carry out the tasks which other IETF process
documents say are carried out by the IETF Executive Director.
Editors' note: The preceding paragraph has generated some
comments, given that the role of the IETF Executive director is
mentioned in a number of documents, some of which are fairly old
and dusty. The editors actively solicit feedback on whether this
paragraph is ok as it stands.
3.2 IAD Committees
The IAD may constitute special-purpose, chartered committees to bring
in expertise (on topics such as finance, IETF process, or tools), to
engage volunteers in IASA activities, or to gain additional
perspectives. Such committees may consist of subsets of the IAOC,
IAB or IESG, selected IETF participants, or external experts,
depending on the need. These committees are advisory in nature --
the IAD is responsible for the outcome, including presenting and
supporting any decisions or work items to the IAOC and the IETF
community, as appropriate.
3.3 IAOC Responsibilities
The IAOC's role is to provide appropriate direction to the IAD, to
review the IAD's regular reports, and to oversee the IASA functions
to ensure that the administrative needs of the IETF community are
being properly met. The IAOC's mission is not to be be engaged in
the day-to-day administrative work of IASA, but rather to provide
appropriate direction, oversight and approval.
Therefore, the IAOC's responsibilities are:
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o To select the IAD and provide high-level review and direction for
his or her work. This task should be handled by a sub-committee,
as described in Section 3.
o To review the IAD's plans and contracts to ensure that they will
meet the administrative needs of the IETF.
o To track whether the IASA functions are meeting the IETF
community's administrative needs, and to work with the IAD to
determine a plan for corrective action if they are not.
o To review the IAD's budget proposals to ensure that they will meet
the IETF's needs, and review the IAD's regular financial reports.
o To ensure that the IASA is run in a transparent and accountable
manner. While the day-to-day work should be delegated to the IAD
and others, the IAOC is responsible for ensuring that IASA
finances and operational status are tracked appropriately, and
that monthly, quarterly, and annual financial and operational
reports are published to the IETF community.
The IAOC's role is to direct and review, not perform, the work of the
IAD and IASA. The IAOC holds periodic teleconferences and
face-to-face meetings as needed to carry out the IAOC's duties
efficiently and effectively.
3.4 Relationship of the IAOC to Existing IETF Leadership
The IAOC is directly accountable to the IETF community for the
performance of the IASA. However, the nature of the IAOC's work
involves treating the IESG and IAB as internal customers. The IAOC
and the IAD should not consider their work successful unless the IESG
and IAB are satisfied with the administrative support that they are
receiving.
3.5 IAOC Decision Making
The IAOC attempts to reach all decisions unanimously. If unanimity
cannot be achieved, the IAOC chair may conduct informal polls to
determine the consensus of the group. In cases where it is
necessary, some decisions may be made by voting. For the purpose of
judging consensus or voting, only the "voting members" (as defined in
Section 4) shall be counted. If voting results in a tie, then IAOC
chair decides how to proceed with the decision process.
Editors' note: The above text was changed from the previous
version. Are the voting rules in the preceding paragraph
sufficient? Do we need to define rules for determining a quorum?
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The editors would prefer to specify the minimum necessary
mechanism here, but no less. The text above seems to be
acceptable to most.
Decisions of IAOC members or the entire IAOC are subject to appeal
using the procedures described in RFC 2026 [RFC2026]. Appeals of
IAOC decisions go first to the IESG, then continue up the chain as
necessary to the IAB and the ISOC Board of Trustees.
The IAOC plays no role in appeals of WG Chair, IESG, or IAB
decisions.
4. IAOC Membership, Selection and Accountability
The IAOC will consist of eight voting members who will be selected as
follows:
o 2 members chosen by the IETF Nominations Committee (NomCom)
o 1 member chosen by the IESG
o 1 member chosen by the IAB
o 1 member chosen by the ISOC Board of Trustees
o The IETF Chair (ex officio)
o The IAB Chair (ex officio)
o The ISOC President/CEO (ex officio)
The IETF Administrative Director also serves, ex officio, as a
non-voting member of the IAOC.
The IAOC may also choose to invite liaisons from other groups, but is
not required to do so; the IAOC decides whether or not to have a
liaison to any particular group. Any such liaisons are non-voting.
Responsibility for selecting the individual filling a particular
liaison role with the body from which the IAOC has requested the
liaison.
Editors' note: There has been some question about whether the IAB
Chair should be a voting or non-voting member of the IAOC. There
are multiple trade-offs here, and this should be discussed by the
community. Discussion up till November 15th seems to indicate to
go for voting member, as currently described in the text above.
Earlier versions of this document used the term "liaison" to refer
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to non-voting IAOC members, but this usage has since been dropped.
However, the term begs the question of whether the IAOC might wish
to have -other- liaisons (ex officio or not), such as liaisons to
the RFC editor or the IANA. The text above has been modified to
permit this. Feedback requested.
Appointed members of the IAOC serve two year terms. IAOC terms
normally end at the first IETF meeting of a year, just as as IAB and
IESG terms do.
The members of the IAOC choose their own chair each year using a
consensus mechanism of their choosing. Any appointed voting member
of the IAOC may serve as the IAOC Chair; the IETF Administrative
Director, the IETF Chair, the IAB Chair, the ISOC President/CEO, and
non-voting liaisons are not eligible to serve as IAOC Chair. The
IAOC Chair's role is to manage the IAOC. The IAOC Chair has no
formal duty to represent the IAOC, except as directed by IAOC
consensus.
The two NomCom-selected IAOC members are chosen using the procedures
described in RFC 3777 [RFC3777]. For the initial IAOC selection, the
IESG will provide the list of desired qualifications for these
positions; in later years, the IAOC will provide this qualification
list. The IESG will serve as the confirming body for IAOC
appointments by the NomCom.
While there are no hard rules regarding how the IAB and the IESG
should select members of the IAOC, such appointees need not be
current IAB or IESG members (and probably should not be, if only to
avoid overloading the existing leadership). The IAB and IESG should
choose people with some knowledge of contracts and financial
procedures, who are familiar with the administrative support needs of
the IAB, the IESG, or the IETF standards process. The IAB and IESG
should follow a fairly open process for these selections, perhaps
with an open call for nominations or a period of public comment on
the candidates. The procedure for IAB selection of ISOC Board of
Trustees [RFC3677] might be a good model for how this could work.
After the IETF gains some experience with IAOC selection, these
selection mechanisms should be more formally documented.
Although the IAB, the IESG and the ISOC Board of Trustees choose some
members of the IAOC, those members do not directly represent the
bodies that chose them. All members of the IAOC are accountable
directly to the IETF community. To receive direct feedback from the
community, the IAOC holds an open meeting at least once per year at
an IETF meeting. This may take the form of an open IAOC plenary or a
working meeting held during an IETF meeting slot. The form and
contents of this meeting are left to the discretion of the IAOC
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Chair. The IAOC should also consider open mailing lists or other
means to establish open communication with the community.
IAOC members are subject to recall in the event that an IAOC member
abrogates his or her duties or acts against the best interests of the
IETF community. Any appointed IAOC member, including those appointed
by the IAB, IESG or ISOC Board of Trustees, may be recalled using the
recall procedure defined in RFC 3777 [RFC3777]. IAOC members are
not, however, subject to recall by the bodies that appointed them.
4.1 Initial IAOC Selection
The initial IAOC selection will start after this document is approved
as a BCP by the IESG and accepted by the ISOC Board of Trustees. The
IESG, IAB, and ISOC Board of Trustees should make their selections
within 45-days of BCP approval, and the NomCom should make their
selections as quickly as possible while complying with the documented
NomCom procedures. The IAOC will become active as soon as a majority
(three or more) of the appointed members have been selected.
Initially, the IESG and the ISOC Board of Trustees will make one-year
appointments, the IAB will make a two-year appointment, and the
NomCom will make one one-year appointment and one two-year
appointment. This will establish a pattern in which approximately
half of the IAOC is selected each year.
5. IASA Funding
Editors' note: Changes were made to this section to be more
specific about funding sources and where they go. Some text has
also been added or changed regarding the reserve funds.
Disclaimer: The IAOC is authorized to vary the procedures for legal,
accounting or practical reasons as long as it reports the variance to
the IETF community and triggers an update of this BCP.
The IASA manages money from three sources:
1. IETF meeting revenues.
2. Designated donations to ISOC (both monetary and in-kind).
3. Other ISOC support.
Note that the goal is to achieve and maintain a viable IETF support
function based on meeting fees and designated donations. The IETF
community expects the IAOC and ISOC to work together to attain that
goal, and recognizes that doing so will require striking some sort of
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balance. For example, dropping the meeting fees to $0 and expecting
ISOC to pick up the slack would not be viable in the long term, and
neither would be raising the meeting fees to prohibitive levels in
order to fund all non-meeting-related activities.
5.1 Divisional Accounting
Editors' note: Added following paragraph on Divisional accounting
(thanks Glenn Ricart) and then removed the text about "deposit in
IASA account" from subsections below. To the best of the editors'
ability to determine the will of the community, there does not
appear to be enough support to prescribe separate bank accounts,
and Divisional Accounting as described below should suffice to
achieve transparency. If you do not agree, please speak up ASAP.
For bookkeeping purposes, funds managed by IASA should be kept in a
separate set of accounts which can be rolled-up periodically to the
equivalent of a balance sheet and a profit and loss statement for
IASA alone after taking into account the effect of common items paid
for or received by ISOC as a whole.
5.2 IETF meeting revenues
Meeting revenues are an important source of funds for IETF functions.
The IAD, in consultation with the IAOC, sets the meeting fees as part
of the budgeting process. All meeting revenues will be credited to
the appropriate IASA account.
5.3 Designated donations, monetary and in-kind
Donations are an essential component of funding. The IASA undertakes
no direct fund-raising activities. This establishes a practice of
separating IETF administrative and standards activities from
fund-raising activities, and helps ensure that no undue influence may
be ascribed to those from whom funds are raised.
ISOC will create and maintain appropriate structures and programs to
coordinate donations intended to support the work of the IETF, and
these will include mechanisms for both in-kind and direct
contributions to the work supported by IASA. Since ISOC will be the
sole entity through whom donations may be made to the work of the
IETF, ISOC will ensure that those programs are not unduly
restrictive. For the benefit of individuals, smaller organizations
and countries with developing economies, it will maintain programs
that allow for designated donations to the IETF.
Editors' note: Some have suggested we need explicit IETF consensus
on the above. So if you do not agree, please speak up ASAP.
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Editors' note: Removed "either using an overhead model or other
unrestricted donation program." because it is too detailed and
prescriptive. Send objections ASAP if you do not agree.
ISOC will create appropriate administrative structures to coordinate
such donations with the IASA. In particular, it is important that
in-kind contributions be "useful". In-kind resources are owned by
the ISOC on behalf of the IETF and shall be reported and accounted
for in a manner that identifies them as such. Designated monetary
donations will be credited to the appropriate IASA account.
5.4 Other ISOC support
Other ISOC support shall be based on the budget process as specified
in Section 6. ISOC will credit the appropriate IASA accounts at
least quarterly.
If ISOC pays any other IETF expenses directly, without transferring
funds to the IASA, this will be documented as a footnote to the IASA
accounts.
5.5 Operating Reserve
In normal operating circumstances, the IASA should have an operating
reserve for its activities sufficient to cover 6-months of
non-meeting operational expenses, plus twice the recent average for
meeting contract guarantees. Rather than having the IASA attempt to
build that reserve in its separate accounts, the IASA looks to ISOC
to build and provide that operational reserve, through whatever
mechanisms ISOC deems appropriate: line of credit, financial
reserves, meeting cancellation insurance, and so forth. Such
reserves do not appear instantaneously; the goal is to reach this
level of reserves within 3 years after the creation of the IASA.
Such funds shall be held in reserve for use by IASA for use in the
event of IETF meeting cancellation or other unexpected fiscal
emergencies. These reserves shall only be spent on IETF support
functions.
6. IASA Budget Process
While the IASA sets a budget for the IETF's administrative needs, its
budget process clearly needs to be closely coordinated with ISOC's.
The specific timeline will be established each year. A general
annual timeline for budgeting will be:
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July 1: The IAD presents a budget proposal for the following fiscal
year, with 3 year projections, to the IAOC.
August 1: The IAOC approves the budget proposal for IETF purposes,
after any appropriate revisions. As the ISOC President is part of
the IAOC, the IAOC should have a preliminary indication of how the
budget will fit with ISOC's own budgetary expectations. The
budget proposal is passed to the ISOC Board of Trustees for review
in accordance with their fiduciary duty.
September 1: The ISOC Board of Trustees approves the budget proposal
provisionally. During the next 2 months, the budget may be
revised to be integrated in ISOC's overall budgeting process.
November 1: Final budget to the ISOC Board for approval.
The dates described above are subject to change, and will most likely
be modified each year based on the dates of the second and third IETF
meetings of that year.
The IAD shall provide monthly accountings of expenses, and shall
update expenditures forecasts every quarter. This may require
adjustment of the IASA budget: if so, the revised budget will need to
be approved by the IAOC, the ISOC President/CEO and, if necessary,
the ISOC Board of Trustees.
7. ISOC Responsibilities for IASA
Within ISOC, support for the IASA should meet the following goals:
Transparency: The IETF community should have complete visibility into
the financial and legal structure of the ISOC standards activity.
In particular, a detailed budget for the entire standards
activity, quarterly financial reports, and audited annual
financials should all be available to the IETF community. In
addition, key contract material and MOUs should also be publicly
available. The IAOC is responsible for providing regular
overviews of the state of the IASA to the IETF community.
Unification: As part of this arrangement, ISOC's sponsorship of the
RFC Editor, IAB and IESG shall be managed as part of the IASA
under the IAOC.
Independence: The IASA should be financially and legally distinct
from other ISOC activities. IETF meeting fees shall be deposited
in a separate IETF-specific financial account and used to fund the
IASA under the direction and oversight of the IAOC. Any fees or
payments collected from IETF meeting sponsors should also be
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deposited into this account. The IAD administers this account and
uses it to fund the IASA in accordance with a budget and policies
developed as described above.
Support: ISOC may, from time to time, choose to transfer other funds
into the IASA account to fund IETF administrative projects or to
cover IETF meeting revenue shortfalls. There may also be cases
where ISOC chooses to loan money to the IASA to help with
temporary cash flow issues. These cases should be documented
carefully and tracked on both sides. ISOC will work to provide
the operational reserve for IASA functioning described above.
Removability: While there is no current plan to transfer the legal
and financial home of the IASA to another corporation, the IASA
should be structured to enable a clean transition in the event
that the IETF community decides, through BCP publication, that
such a transition is required. In such a case case, the IAOC will
give ISOC a minimum of six months notice before the transition
formally occurs. During that period, the IAOC and ISOC will work
together to create a smooth transition that does not result in any
significant service outages or missed IETF meetings. All
contracts executed by ISOC on behalf of IASA should either include
a clause allowing termination or transfer by ISOC with six months
notice, or should be transferable to another corporation in the
event that the IASA transitions away from ISOC. Any accrued funds
or IETF-specific intellectual property rights concerning
administrative data and tools should also transition to the new
entity.
Within the constraints outlined above, all other details of how to
structure this activity within ISOC (whether as a cost center, a
department, or a formal subsidiary) shall be determined by ISOC in
consultation with the IAOC.
8. Security Considerations
This document describes the structure of the IETF's administrative
support activity. It introduces no security considerations for the
Internet.
9. IANA Considerations
This document has no IANA considerations in the traditional sense.
However, some of the information in this document may affect how the
IETF standards process interfaces with IANA, so IANA may be
interested in the contents.
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10. Acknowledgements
The editors would like to thank the following people for their
feedback on the original "Scenario O" e-mail message or intermediate
versions of this document: Bernard Aboba, Harald Alvestrand, Scott
Bradner, Brian Carpenter, Dave Crocker, Tony Hain, Joel Halpern, Sam
Hartman, John Klensin, Valdis Kletnieks, Eliot Lear, Carl Malamud,
and Glenn Ricart.
Particular thanks are due to Leslie Daigle and Margaret Wasserman,
who wrote the original "Scenario O" message and edited the earliest
versions of this document.
This document was written using the xml2rfc tool described in RFC
2629 [RFC2629].
No doubt the above list is incomplete. We apologize to anyone whom
we left out.
11. References
11.1 Normative References
[RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.
[RFC3716] Advisory, IAB., "The IETF in the Large: Administration and
Execution", RFC 3716, March 2004.
[RFC3777] Galvin, J., "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and
Recall Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall
Committees", BCP 10, RFC 3777, June 2004.
11.2 Informative References
[ISOC] Internet Society, "Internet Society By-Laws", February
2001,
<http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/trustees/bylaws.shtml>.
[RFC2031] Huizer, E., "IETF-ISOC relationship", RFC 2031, October
1996.
[RFC2629] Rose, M., "Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML", RFC 2629,
June 1999.
[RFC2850] Internet Architecture Board and B. Carpenter, "Charter of
the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)", BCP 39, RFC 2850,
May 2000.
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[RFC3668] Bradner, S., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF
Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3668, February 2004.
[RFC3677] Daigle, L. and Internet Architecture Board, "IETF ISOC
Board of Trustee Appointment Procedures", BCP 77, RFC
3677, December 2003.
[RFC3710] Alvestrand, H., "An IESG charter", RFC 3710, February
2004.
Authors' Addresses
Rob Austein (editor)
Internet Systems Consortium
950 Charter Street
Redwood City, CA 94063
USA
EMail: sra@isc.org
Bert Wijnen (editor)
Lucent Technologies
Schagen 33
3461 GL Linschoten
NL
EMail: bwijnen@lucent.com
Appendix A. Change Log
Note to RFC Editor: Please remove this entire appendix prior to
publication.
This document was produced as part of the overall IETF Administrative
Restructuring (AdminRest) effort. Information about the effort and
related documents can be found at:
http://www.alvestrand.no/ietf/adminrest
We are using an issue tracker to track the editorial and substantive
feedback on this document. It can be found at:
https://rt.psg.com (user: ietf, password: ietf, queue: iasa-bcp).
Changes in draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-01.txt:
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o Added a list of open issues (Section 1.2).
o Added that small committee determines initial compensation for
IAD.
o Added a set of Principles (Section 2.2) on which any details are
(should be) based.
o Added "Community Consensus and Grant of Authority" (Section 2.3).
o Added more acknowledgments (no doubt still incomplete).
o Clarified Section 5 and subsections. Added Editors' note.
o Clarified what happens if IAOC voting results in a tie.
o Changed the selection of person(s) to act as IETF Executive
Director.
o Added a disclaimer in Section 5, stating that IAOC can deal with
changes because of legal, accounting or practical reasons.
o Removed "insurance" example in Section 5.4.
o Added a reference to ISOC bylaws.
o Stop using term "liaison" to mean "non-voting IAOC member";
instead, spell out which members are voting and which are not.
Add text allowing IAOC to request non-voting liaisons from other
bodies.
o Various editorial cleanups.
Changes in draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-00.txt:
o Modified the text of Section 5.
o Added text on Reserve funds.
o Made IAB chair a voting member of IAOC; added tie-breaker rule
that if voting results in equal split, then IAOC chair decides.
o Changed 2nd para in "Structure of IASA" sect to replace the fuzzy
term "executive-level" and to be clear about cost aspects.
o Made it explicit that IESG only conforms the IAOC appoints made by
the NomCom.
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o Editorial changes at various places in the document.
Changes in draft-wasserman-iasa-bcp-01.txt:
o Adjusted the description of the IAD role and reporting structure
to make it clear that the IAD is expected to serve as
executive-level management for IASA, with only high-level
direction (not day-to-day management) from the IAOC.
o Removed some troublesome wording regarding termination of the IAD
by the ISOC President/CEO.
o Moved the initial IAOC selection into a separate section and added
some text describing how and when the initial IAOC will be seated.
o Added the concept of IAD committees, largely taken from Leslie
Daigle's original AdminRest proposal.
o Performed some general text editing and clean-up.
Origination of draft-wasserman-iasa-bcp-00.txt:
draft-wasserman-iasa-bcp-00.txt was derived from an e-mail message
written by Leslie Daigle and Margaret Wasserman and posted to the
IETF by Leslie Daigle. The original message can be found at:
http://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf/current/msg31326.html
This document was derived from the "Draft BCP" portion of that
message and has been updated based on comments received.
$Revision: 1.22 $
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Intellectual Property Statement
The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
made any independent effort to identify any such rights. Information
on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
http://www.ietf.org/ipr.
The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
this standard. Please address the information to the IETF at
ietf-ipr@ietf.org.
Disclaimer of Validity
This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). This document is subject
to the rights, licenses and restrictions contained in BCP 78, and
except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights.
Acknowledgment
Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
Internet Society.
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