Network Working Group R. Austein, Ed.
Internet-Draft ISC
Expires: July 15, 2005 B. Wijnen, Ed.
Lucent Technologies
January 14, 2005
Structure of the IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA)
draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-04
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions
of section 3 of RFC 3667. By submitting this Internet-Draft, each
author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of
which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of
which he or she become aware will be disclosed, in accordance with
RFC 3668.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
other groups may also distribute working documents as
Internet-Drafts.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.
The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.
This Internet-Draft will expire on July 15, 2005.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
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
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 1]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
also defines the membership and selection rules for the IAOC.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Open Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Definitions and Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Alphabet Soup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Principles of the IASA, IETF and ISOC relationship . . . . 5
2.3 Community Consensus and Grant of Authority . . . . . . . . 6
2.4 Termination and Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.5 Effective Date for Commencement of IASA . . . . . . . . . 7
3. Structure of the IASA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.1 IAD Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 IAOC Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3 Relationship of the IAOC to Existing IETF Leadership . . . 10
3.4 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.5 IASA Expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.6 Operating Reserve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6. IASA Budget Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7. ISOC Responsibilities for IASA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.1 Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.2 Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A. Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
A.1 Changes in draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-04.txt . . . . . . . . . . 19
A.2 Changes in draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-03.txt . . . . . . . . . . 20
A.3 Changes in draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-02.txt . . . . . . . . . . 21
A.4 Changes in draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-01.txt . . . . . . . . . . 22
A.5 Changes in draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-00.txt . . . . . . . . . . 23
A.6 Changes in draft-wasserman-iasa-bcp-01.txt . . . . . . . . 23
A.7 Origin of draft-wasserman-iasa-bcp-00.txt . . . . . . . . 23
Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . 25
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 2]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
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
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
activities.
1.1 Open Issues
Note to RFC Editor: Please remove this section prior to
publication.
Discussion of open issues has progressed quickly enough in recent
weeks that a summary of the current state of each open issue in this
document would be obsolete by the time anybody but the editors had a
chance to see it. A kind volunteer is now keeping reasonably
up-to-date status of each known open issue is available in an online
tracking system:
URL: https://rt.psg.com
Username: ietf
Password: ietf
Queue: iasa-bcp
The "status" of each tracked issue is stored in a "custom field"
named "Discussion". That status is also mapped onto the system's
priority field, so you can see it in the list of tickets and so you
can sort on it. The mapping is as follows:
1. No discussion
2. No consensus
3. Text Needed
4. Text Proposed
5. Text Accepted
6. No change proposed
7. No change needed
8. Document Updated
Please be sure to check the issue tracker for the latest status of
all tracked issues.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 4]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
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.
IASA: IETF Administrative Support Activity, defined by this document.
IESG: Internet Engineering Steering Group (see [RFC2026], [RFC3710]).
IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force (see [RFC3233]).
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 and IAOC shall not have any authority over the IETF
standards development activities. This document does not modify
ISOC's other roles related to the IETF standard process.
3. The IAD and IAOC, in cooperation with the ISOC President/CEO and
staff, shall 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, shall evaluate and adopt the IASA budget as part of
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 5]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
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. Once funds or in-kind donations have been credited to the IETF
accounts, they shall be irrevocably allocated to the support of
the IETF.
6. 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.
7. The IETF, through the IASA, shall have a perpetual right to use,
display, distribute, reproduce, modify and create derivatives of
all data created in support of IETF activities.
8. The IASA, in cooperation with ISOC, shall ensure that sufficient
reserves exist to keep the IETF operational in the case of
unexpected events such as income shortfalls.
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.
2.4 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.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 6]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
2.5 Effective Date for Commencement of IASA
The procedures in this document shall become operational immediately
after this document has been approved by the process defined in BCP 9
[RFC2026] and has been affirmed by a resolution of the ISOC Board of
Trustees.
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 members 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), who is 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.
Decisions to perform specific functions "in-house" should be
explicitly justified by the IAOC, with these decisions and staffing
reviewed by the IAOC on a regular basis and against a "zero base"
assumption.
The IAD is responsible for negotiating and maintaining outsourcing
contracts, as well as providing any coordination necessary to make
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. Both
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 7]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
outsourced and in-house functions must be clearly specified and
documented with well-defined deliverables, service level agreements,
and transparent accounting for the cost of such functions.
If the IASA cannot comply with the procedures described in this
document for legal, accounting or practical reasons, the IAOC shall
report that fact to the community, along with the variant procedure
the IAOC intends to follow. If the problem is a long-term one, the
IAOC shall ask the IETF to update this document to reflect the
changed procedure.
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
separate financial accounts 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. ISOC executes
contracts on behalf of the IASA, after whatever review ISOC requires
to ensure that the contracts meet ISOC's legal and financial
requirements.
The IAD is responsible for ensuring that all contracts give IASA and
the IETF the perpetual right to use, display, distribute, reproduce,
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 8]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
modify and create derivatives of all data created in support of IETF
activities. This is necessary to make sure the IETF has access to
the data it needs at all times, and to ensure that the IASA can
change contractors as needed without disrupting IETF work.
Whenever reasonable, if software is developed under an IASA contract
it should should remain usable by the IETF beyond the terms of the
contract. Some ways of achieving this are by IASA ownership or an
open source license; an open source license is preferable. The IAD
shall decide how best to serve the IETF's interests when making such
contracts.
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
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 of Trustees 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.
3.2 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:
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.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 9]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
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.
o To designate, in consultation with the IAB and the IESG, the
person or people who carry out the tasks which other IETF process
documents say are carried out by the IETF Executive Director.
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.
If there is no IAD or the IAD is unavailable, the IAOC may
temporarily assign the IAD's duties to individual members of the
IAOC.
3.3 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 major internal customers of the
administrative support services. The IAOC and the IAD should not
consider their work successful unless the IESG and IAB are also
satisfied with the administrative support that the IETF is receiving.
3.4 IAOC Decision Making
The IAOC attempts to reach all decisions unanimously. If the IAOC
cannot achieve a unanimous decision, the IAOC decides by voting.
The IAOC decides the details about its decision-making rules,
including its rules for quorum, conflict of interest and breaking of
ties. These rules shall be made public.
All IAOC decisions shall be recorded in IAOC minutes, and IAOC
minutes shall be published regularly.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 10]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
If someone believes that the IAOC has violated the IAOC rules and
procedures, he or she can ask the IETF leadership to investigate the
matter, using the same procedure as is used for appeals of procedural
issues in the IETF, starting with the IESG.
If the IESG, IAB or the ISOC Board of Trustees find that procedures
have been violated, they may advise the IAOC, but do not have
authority to overturn or change a decision of the IAOC.
The IAOC plays no role in appeals of WG Chair, IESG, or IAB
decisions.
4. IAOC Membership, Selection and Accountability
The IAOC shall consist of eight voting members who shall be selected
as follows:
o 2 members appointed by the IETF Nominations Committee (NomCom);
o 1 member appointed by the IESG;
o 1 member appointed by the IAB;
o 1 member appointed 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 lies with the body from which the IAOC has requested the
liaison.
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 shall select one of its appointed voting
members to serve as the chair of the IAOC. The term of the IAOC
chair shall be one year from the time of selection or the remaining
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 11]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
time of his or her tenure on the IAOC, whichever is less. An
individual may serve any number of terms as chair, if selected by the
IAOC.
The Chair serves at the pleasure of the IAOC, and may be removed from
that position at any time by a two thirds vote of the voting
membership of the IAOC.
The chair of the IAOC shall have the authority to manage the
activities and meetings of the IAOC.
The two NomCom-appointed 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 documented more formally.
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
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
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 12]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
not, however, subject to recall by the bodies that appointed them.
If a vacancy occurs among the appointed members, this is filled by
the appointing body for that position according to its procedures.
The IAOC members shall not receive any compensation for their
services as members of the IAOC.
The IAOC shall set and publish rules covering reimbursement of
expenses, and such reimbursement shall generally be for exceptional
cases only.
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
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 available funding sources. 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 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.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 13]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
5.1 Divisional Accounting
Funds managed by IASA shall be accounted for in a separate set of
accounts. Separate financial reports, including a balance sheet and
a profit and loss statement for IASA alone, shall be produced as
directed by IAOC.
IAOC and ISOC shall agree upon and publish procedures for reporting
and auditing of these accounts.
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 shall be credited to
the appropriate IASA accounts.
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 shall create and maintain appropriate structures and programs to
coordinate donations intended to support the work of the IETF, and
these shall 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 shall ensure that those programs are not unduly
restrictive. ISOC shall maintain programs that allow for designated
donations to the IETF.
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 shall be credited to the
appropriate IASA accounts.
5.4 Other ISOC Support
Other ISOC support shall be based on the budget process as specified
in Section 6, which includes deciding when ISOC monetary support is
to be credited to the IASA accounts.
All ISOC support, no matter how it is delivered, shall be reported in
the IASA financial reports.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 14]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
5.5 IASA Expenses
The IASA exists to support the IETF. Therefore, only expenses
related to supporting the IETF may be debited from the IASA accounts.
5.6 Operating Reserve
As an initial guideline and 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. However, the IASA
shall establish a target for a reserve fund to cover normal operating
expenses and meeting expenses in accordance with prudent planning.
The IASA expects 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. In
the long term, financial reserves are preferable; it should be a goal
for ISOC to reach this level of reserves within 3 years after the
creation of the IASA.
If the IASA accounts accumulate a surplus, ISOC may count that as
part of the reserve.
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 shall be established each year by IASA and
ISOC. As an example, a general annual timeline for budgeting is:
July 1: The IAD presents a budget proposal (prepared in consultation
with ISOC staff) 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.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 15]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
November 1: Final budget to the ISOC Board for approval.
The dates described above are examples, and are subject to change.
They will most likely be modified each year based on the dates of the
second and third IETF meetings of that year. They also need to be
synchronized with the ISOC budgeting process.
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 shall meet the following goals:
Transparency: The IETF community shall 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
financial reports shall all be available to the IETF community.
In addition, key contract material and MOUs shall also be publicly
available. The IAD and IAOC are 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 shall be distinct from other ISOC activities.
ISOC shall support the IASA through the mechanisms specified in
this document and its successors.
Support: ISOC shall work with the IAD and IAOC to ensure appropriate
financial support for the IASA, following the mechanisms described
in this document and its successors.
Removability: While there is no current plan to transfer the legal
and financial home of the IASA to another corporation, the IASA
shall be structured to enable a clean transition in the event that
the IETF community decides that such a transition is required and
documents its consensus in a formal document (currently called a
BCP). In such a case, the IAOC shall give ISOC a minimum of six
months notice before the transition formally occurs. During that
period, the IETF and ISOC shall 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
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 16]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
of IASA shall either include a clause allowing termination by ISOC
with six months notice, or shall be transferable to another
corporation in the event that the IASA transitions away from ISOC.
Any balance in the IASA accounts, any IETF-specific intellectual
property rights, and any IETF-specific data and tools shall also
transition to the new entity. Other terms shall be negotiated
between the IETF and ISOC.
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.
10. Acknowledgements
The editors would like to thank everyone who provided feedback on
this document or any of its predecessors back to the original
"Scenario O" e-mail message. In particular, the editors would like
to thank: Bernard Aboba, Jari Arkko, Fred Baker, Scott Bradner, Scott
Brim, Brian Carpenter, Dave Crocker, Spencer Dawkins, Avri Doria,
Tony Hain, Joel Halpern, Ted Hardie, Sam Hartman, Geoff Huston, John
Klensin, Valdis Kletnieks, Eliot Lear, Henrik Levkowetz, Kurt Erik
Lindqvist, John Loughney. Carl Malamud, Allison Mankin, Eric
Rescorla, Pete Resnick, Glenn Ricart, Jonne Soininen, Lynn St Amour,
and Michael StJohns.
Special thanks are due to Leslie Daigle and Margaret Wasserman, who
wrote the original "Scenario O" message and edited the earliest
versions of this document.
Special thanks are also due to Henrik Levkowetz for kindly
volunteering to maintain the issue tracking system associated with
this document.
Last, special thanks are due to Harald Alvestrand, for leading the
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 17]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
search for consensus on the IETF mailing list.
No doubt the above list is incomplete. We apologize to anyone whom
we left out.
This document was written using the xml2rfc tool described in RFC
2629 [RFC2629].
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.
[RFC3233] Hoffman, P. and S. Bradner, "Defining the IETF", BCP 58,
RFC 3233, February 2002.
[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.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 18]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
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 appendix (including all of
its subsections) 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).
This text corresponds to $Revision: 1.46 $ of the XML source for this
document.
A.1 Changes in draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-04.txt
o Removed Editors' Note in section on "Designated Donations", since
the text seems to have settled.
o Reworded principle 8, per "IASA Finances" posting.
o Reworded Section 5.6 per "IASA Finances" posting. The text
changes address issues 740, 748, 769 and 772.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 19]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
o Added text regarding compensation and reimbursement of expenses
for IAOC members, to address issue 770.
o Reworded Removability text in Section 7 per "IASA removability -
rephrase IAOC role" discussion on the IETF list, to address issue
779.
o Reworded text about IAOC minutes (Section 3.4), issue 718.
o Reworded Section 5.1 ("Divisional Accounting") per issue 721.
o Reworded Section 5.4 ("Other ISOC Support") per issue 722.
o A little rewording of text on donations in support for IETF, per
issue 737.
o Reworded text on outsourcing and in-house work, per issue 733.
o Reduced the text on IAOC decision making (Section 3.4) quite a
bit, per issue 746.
o Modified text on IAOC chair selection and authority (Section 4),
per issue 771.
A.2 Changes in draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-03.txt
o Removed "Closed Issues" section, replaced "Open Issues" section
with another pointer to the RT ticket queue, since that is now
more likely to be up-to-date than any list in this document.
o Added text that IAOC specifies and publishes rules for conflict
resolution. See issue #754.
o Changed text on quarterly credits to IASA accounts as per
discussion in issue #748. Issue seems not closed yet.
o Clarifications in budget process, see issue #749.
o Editorial change on wording "rights in data" as per issue #735.
o Editorial changes as per issue #727.
o Clarified text about requirements for in-house and outsourced
activities. Issue #723.
o Added text about how an IAOC vacancy is dealt with. Issue #741.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 20]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
o Removed a redundant sentence on donation coordination. Issue
#738.
o Added text to state that IAOC decisions are minuted and minutes
are published. Issues #714 and #718.
o Refined text on removability (BCP doc) as per issue #751.
o Removed word "officer" from text, as per issue #731.
o Added a 2nd paragraph on IAOC decision making rules. Issue #746.
o Added text at the end of Section 3.2 to make IAOC responsible for
filling in if there is no IAD or when IAD is not available. Issue
#744.
o Clarified text in 2nd principle. Issue #730.
o Added IETF to Section 2.1. Issue #743.
o Changed wording of 3rd principle in Section 2.2 to make it clearer
that budget development is an iterative process that happens in
cooperation with ISOC.
o Added a principle about the fact that IETF money stays IETF money
once credited to IETF accounts.
o Changed the word "account" into "accounts" at a few places to be
more in line with the concept of divisional accounting.
A.3 Changes in draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-02.txt
o Split issues list into separate lists of open issues and closed
issues (as seen by the editors). Removed some inline Editors'
comments when we believed that an issue has been resolved.
o Added Section 2.5 on when the procedures in this document become
effective.
o Changed text in Section 5 to state that the goal is a viable IASA
based on all funding as opposed to just meeting fees and
designated donations.
o Added text to Section 2.2 stating that funds and donations shall
be irrevocably assigned to IETF.
o Removed section on IAD Committees.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 21]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
o Changed the text in Section 4 on IAOC Chair selection and
responsibilities. It is now very similar to IAB chair selection
as in RFC2850.
o Various textual clarifications. This also includes several
changes of "will" and "should" into "shall".
o Moved disclaimer of variance procedure to Section 3 and
generalized it.
o Improved wording on IPR in Section 2.2 and added specific text for
IAD to ensure we have proper rights to any IPR. Section 5.1
o Cleanup Section 7.
A.4 Changes in draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-01.txt
o Added a list of open issues (Section 1.1).
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.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 22]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
o Various editorial cleanups.
A.5 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 paragraph in "Structure of IASA" section to replace
the fuzzy term "executive-level" and to be clear about cost
aspects.
o Made it explicit that the IESG's role as a confirming body only
applies to IAOC appointments made by the NomCom.
o Editorial changes at various places in the document.
A.6 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.
A.7 Origin 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
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 23]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
This document was derived from the "Draft BCP" portion of that
message and has been updated based on comments received.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 24]
Internet-Draft Structure of IASA January 2005
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 (2005). 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.
Austein & Wijnen Expires July 15, 2005 [Page 25]
