Network Working Group M. Vigoureux
Internet Draft Alcatel-Lucent
Intended status: Informational D. King
Expires: May 2015 Old Dog Consulting
C. Pignataro
Cisco Systems, Inc.
November 11, 2014
IETF Working Groups' Secretaries
draft-secretaries-good-practices-07
Abstract
The Working Group Secretary's role was succinctly defined in RFC
2418. However, this role has greatly evolved and increased both in
value and scope, since the writing of RFC 2418. This document thus
provides a compilation of good practices and general guidelines
regarding the fulfilment of the role.
This document is intended for established Working Group Secretaries,
individuals motivated by taking up that role, or anyone else simply
interested in understanding better the Working Group Secretary's
role. This document may also be useful for Working Group Chairs to
better appreciate and help develop the value of Working Group
Secretaries.
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
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".
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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 May 11, 2015.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction...................................................2
2. Applicability Statement........................................3
3. WG Secretary's Functions and Responsibilities..................4
3.1. IETF Meeting Specific Tasks...............................4
3.1.1. Pre WG Session Phase.................................4
3.1.2. WG Session Phase.....................................7
3.1.3. Post WG Session Phase................................8
3.2. Continuous Tasks..........................................8
4. Complementary Considerations..................................10
5. Conclusions and Perspectives..................................11
6. Security Considerations.......................................12
7. IANA Considerations...........................................13
8. References....................................................13
8.1. Informative References...................................13
9. Acknowledgments...............................................13
Contributors' Addresses..........................................14
Authors' Addresses...............................................15
1. Introduction
The Working Group (WG) Secretary's role was defined as a minute taker
and to record WG discussions' points, and decisions (see section 6.2
of RFC 2418 [1]). Over time, the WG Secretary's role has greatly
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evolved to include a number of additional delegated functions and
responsibilities which are critical to the smooth operation of IETF
WGs. This document describes these additional functions and
responsibilities.
In that context, it shall be noted that a certain number of tools and
means exist in support of WG operation (e.g., Session Request Tool,
Meeting Materials Manager, the Datatracker, Etherpad, Trac Tool,
Wiki). Most, if not all, of these are accessible from the WG Chairs'
page (https://www.ietf.org/wg/chairs-page.html). It is however
outside of the scope of this document to describe the use of these
tools and means. It shall also be noted that no specific tool exists
in support of certain actions and tasks that can fall under the
responsibility of a WG Secretary. It is expected that a WG Secretary
would procure the right set of tools for the job, based on
availability and personal preference. This might entail searching and
finding, or developing, tools.
Section 2 of this document sets out its scope of applicability.
Section 3 of this document gives detailed descriptive information of
the WG Secretary's functions, responsibilities, and good practices.
Section 4 provides a complementary set of information.
It is expected that upon publication, the content of this document
will be transferred to the Working Groups Chairs' wiki, or this
document be referenced there.
2. Applicability Statement
The WG Secretary is a resource that can be leveraged by WG Chairs,
and is concerned with supporting the operations of a WG to make
forward progress, and with assisting in managing the WG processes. WG
Chairs hold the responsibility for the decisions and actions taken at
the level of their WG. However, WG Chairs can delegate punctually or
durably any of their responsibilities to someone else. In essence,
this document therefore lists a subset of WG Chairs' functions and
responsibilities which can typically be delegated to a WG Secretary.
The framework and perimeter of action associated to the WG
Secretary's role, depends on the WG Secretary and the Chairs, as well
as on the professional relationship they establish. Therefore this
document does not prescribe what must be performed, but lists what
might be performed by a WG Secretary. Also, this list is intended to
be as complete as possible, but it shall not be considered as
exhaustive. This document is therefore not a rigid job description.
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Also, IETF WGs differ from one another according several aspects.
Amongst those aspects is the "effective size" of the WG (number of
active participants, number of active documents, rate of WG
document's adoption calls and WG Last Calls, and mailing list
traffic). In that regard, part or even all of the guidelines provided
in this document might not be relevant for the successful operation
of smaller WGs. In those, the Chairs may not need to delegate
operational tasks.
In fact, the appointment of a WG Secretary is a matter concerning the
WG. As such it is fully up to the WG Chairs to decide whether or not
they wish to appoint a Secretary, to decide who to appoint as
Secretary and to decide which responsibilities to delegate to that
Secretary. Area Directors may nonetheless provide useful advice.
3. WG Secretary's Functions and Responsibilities
The WG Secretary supports the processes and workflows to make the WG
successful during its lifetime, with specific actions at the times of
IETF meetings. We thus classify the functions and responsibilities of
a WG Secretary according to IETF meeting specific tasks, and to
continuous tasks. The following sub-sections reflect that
classification.
3.1. IETF Meeting Specific Tasks
The set of tasks specific to an IETF meeting can be further sub-
classified into three phases: the WG session held during that meeting
as well as both the pre and post phases of that session.
3.1.1. Pre WG Session Phase
o Submitting a request for a WG session
Using the means available, the WG Secretary could submit a request
for a WG session at the upcoming IETF meeting. The WG Secretary
should coordinate with the Chairs in order to correctly formulate the
request, especially with regards to the number of sessions to request
for and their respective duration. As part of this request, care
should also be taken to specify precise conflicts lists (WGs and
individuals). Concomitantly, the WG Secretary could formulate the
request to have collaborative software (e.g., WebEx, Meetecho)
support during the WG session. It shall be noted that holding a WG
session is typically driven by the need for the WG to discuss some
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topics or documents, and that the identification of this need may
imply having interactions with the WG before requesting a session.
o Calling for discussion slots
Working Group Chairs may organise WG sessions in different ways. As
part of this organisation, they may allocate all or part of the WG
session to people wishing to discuss their work (e.g., with the
objective to resolve issues and make progress). In that context, and
as soon as the IETF agenda for a given meeting is published, the WG
Secretary could send an e-mail to the WG mailing list asking the WG
participants to submit requests for discussion slots at the upcoming
WG session. Note that WG Chairs may wish that certain conditions be
met to accept discussion's slot requests. The call for discussion
slots should remind the WG of these conditions as well as how should
the requests be formulated, together with a deadline for sending
them. The call would also typically include information on when will
the particular WG session be held during the IETF meeting noting that
the IETF agenda is draft until being final.
o Collecting the discussion's slot requests
As a preliminary step to building the WG session agenda, the WG
Secretary could collect all the requests for discussion slots. In
order to be able to do so, the WG Secretary should make sure that
he/she is aware of the formulated requests by clearly indicating in
the call for discussion slots that he/she must be one of the
recipients of the requests. It may nevertheless happen that some
requests are sent to the WG Chairs only. To cover that situation, the
WG Secretary should coordinate with the Chairs to make sure the final
list of requests for discussion slots is complete.
o Proposing a WG session agenda
Based on the collected discussion's slot requests, and depending on
the known preferences of the WG Chairs for the typical structure of
their WG sessions, or on the objectives Chairs have for a particular
WG session, and/or on his/her personal view, the Secretary could
propose to the Chairs a structured agenda for the upcoming WG
session. Following that, the WG Secretary could work with the Chairs
to finalise the agenda in view of publishing a first draft agenda.
o Submitting the WG session agenda
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At the deadline, or even earlier, the WG Secretary could publish the
draft and then final agenda for the WG session. The WG Secretary
could then inform the WG that the agenda has been published. When
doing so, the WG Secretary could ask the WG participants to verify
that discussion's slot requests have not been accidentally missed.
Also, in the case where some requests have not been granted, the WG
Secretary could inform the participants who requested the discussion
slots, of the reason(s) why they were not allocated a slot in the
final WG session agenda.
o Requesting presentations materials
In combination with the notification of the publication of the WG
session agenda, or separately, the WG Secretary could ask the
individuals who were granted a discussion slot to send the material
in support of their upcoming presentation. This request should come
with a deadline so as to give sufficient time to upload the materials
before the WG session.
Optionally the request could also include information on the practice
the WG Chairs apply if the materials fail to be delivered prior to
the deadline.
o Securing Jabber relays and minute takers
Supporting remote participation is very important. As such, the WG
Secretary could ask for one specific volunteer: a Jabber scribe,
responsible for acting as a gateway for remote participants, by way
of relaying remote questions and annotating slide numbers. Also, it
is crucial that discussions' points and decisions be written down.
The WG Secretary could make sure that minutes will be taken. The WG
Secretary may self-designate and/or find at least one other volunteer
tasked with taking notes during the WG session. Securing these two
roles in advance sets up for a successful meeting.
For the purpose of minutes taking, the WG Secretary may suggest the
use of the Etherpad tool (available from each WG web page at
https://tools.ietf.org) which enables the other WG participants to
also contribute, as well as provides immediate access to the minutes.
o Preparing the WG Status material
Working Groups sessions typically start with a slot allocated to the
Chairs during which is presented a status of the WG. The WG Secretary
could produce part, or the totality, of the WG status slides by
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compiling the appropriate information. As part of this step, the WG
Secretary could query the authors of WG documents to know the status
of -and the plans they have for- their document (e.g., envisaged date
of readiness for WG Last Call). This, mostly if not only, applies to
WG documents the state of which is not evident. For example there is
no apparent need to query authors of a WG document which is in IESG
processing.
o Uploading the materials
The WG Secretary could, sufficiently ahead of time, upload the
presentations materials. This is useful both to the WG participants
wanting to have access to the materials and to the person responsible
for displaying the materials during the WG session.
3.1.2. WG Session Phase
o Before the WG session
For the WG Chairs to enjoy their lunch, cookie, coffee, tea (or any
other favoured drink) until the last minute, the Secretary could
sacrifice his/her time and enter the meeting room well in advance to
prepare the WG session. This might include: checking if blue sheets
are available, preparing the session's material to be displayed,
launching collaborative software environments, preparing minute
taking, etc. The usefulness of such preparation depends of course on
the WG and on the WG session. A WG session with a light agenda might
not require all this. On the other hand, a WG session with an
extremely packed agenda, and for which every minute counts, shall
surely benefit from such preparation.
The WG Secretary could also confirm the Jabber scribe assignment, as
well as the minute taker assignment if applicable.
o During the WG session
The WG Secretary could be responsible for displaying the material and
running through the slides as speakers advance through their
presentation. The WG Secretary could also act as the time keeper to
ensure there is sufficient remaining time for all discussions to
happen.
In case the WG Secretary also takes minutes, performing multiple
tasks in parallel might pose certain challenges but nothing
insurmountable.
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o After the WG session
After the end of a WG session, the WG Secretary could bring the blue
sheets to the IETF Secretariat and socialize with the very supportive
and welcoming people composing it.
3.1.3. Post WG Session Phase
o Publishing the WG session minutes
While it is highly recommended that the minutes of a WG session be
published as quickly as possible, this might only be feasible after
the end of the week of an IETF meeting. In any case, if the WG
Secretary was the minute taker he/she could polish the notes taken
(correcting typos, or even complementing missing parts with audio
recordings) and send these to the Chairs for validation.
Alternatively, depending on the WG Chairs' preferences, the Secretary
could nearly immediately share with the WG the raw minutes and
collect corrections.
Once the WG Chairs agree on the written minutes, the Secretary could
publish these using the means available and ask the WG participants
to review them and inform him/her of changes that would need to be
performed before final publication.
3.2. Continuous Tasks
Tracking is the word dominating the tasks a WG Secretary could be
expected to continuously perform.
o Recording and tracking authors' inputs
At least on two occasions, the WG Secretary is in position to receive
inputs from authors of Internet-Drafts concerning the status and
plans they have for their document(s). This is during the WG session
preparation phase (when building the WG status material) and during
the WG session when authors sometimes communicate such plans. The WG
Secretary should record and track this information as it is valuable
for sketching a plan and a schedule of the actions the Chairs will
have to take (e.g., WG document's adoption calls, WG Last Call).
o Recording and tracking WG Chairs' decisions
Decisions are sometimes taken by WG Chairs during WG sessions. These
decisions often imply some follow-up actions that the WG Chairs need
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to take. The WG Secretary could record and track the action-points
for the Chairs, as well as remind them of these when necessary.
o Tracking events
Between IETF meetings, a number of WG events, including WG document's
adoption calls, WG Last Calls, publication of new revisions of
Internet-Drafts, will occur. The WG Secretary could track these
events and report progress, or deadlines to the Chairs. For the WG
document's adoption calls and WG Last Calls, the WG Secretary could
notify the Chairs of the end of the call together with an evaluation
of the positions expressed on the WG mailing list in response to
those calls. For Internet-Drafts that require a revision before being
progressed further, the WG Secretary could also notify the Chairs
when the expected revision is published.
o Watching over compliance with IETF IPR rules
As per [2] it is important for people making IETF contributions to
disclose relevant IPR in a timely manner. Verification that authors
are in compliance with IETF IPR rules may for example be conducted
prior to a WG document's adoption call or WG Last Call (see [3]). The
WG Secretary could monitor and track responses to such verifications,
and chase authors and contributors where necessary. Where responses
are not forthcoming, the WG Secretary could notify the Chairs.
o Tracking of documents' issues
Working Groups have issue trackers to facilitate the tracking of
documents issues. The WG Secretary could identify the issues raised
in a review of a WG document or during WG discussions and record the
information in the issue tracker. The WG Secretary could liaise with
the document editor to find which issues were resolved and how they
were resolved and record that information.
o Maintaining the Datatracker and ensuring it is up to date
An important tool in support of WG operations is the Datatracker [4].
The WG Secretary could have the responsibility of keeping the
Datatracker up to date so that it reflects the exact state each
document is effectively in. See RFC 6174 [5] for further information
on the states of IETF WG Documents. The WG Secretary could also make
sure that the replacement status of documents is correct, and apply
of the proper status in case it is incorrect or not indicated and
necessary. Note that performing actions on the Datatracker requires
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greater privileges than those associated to the WG Secretary status;
see the following section for further information.
o Shepherding documents
By convention and default WG Chairs tend to be Document Shepherds.
This may lead to overloading the WG Chairs and they should recall
that they are allowed to assign anyone to be a Document Shepherd (see
[6]). One option is to assign the shepherding role for some documents
to the WG Secretary.
4. Complementary Considerations
o Empowerment
When appointed as WG Secretary, the concerned person shall be
identified as such on the WG charter page of the Datatracker.
Additionally, his/her e-mail address shall be added both to the WG
Chairs general alias (wgchairs@ietf.org) and to the specific WG
Chairs alias (<wgname>-chairs@tools.ietf.org). Also, certain tasks
described herein require the use of credentials and some rights
associated to these. In principle, when appointed as WG Secretary,
the concerned person is automatically given access to both the
Session Request Tool and the Meeting Materials Manager. The WG Chairs
should nevertheless make sure all of these elements are effective as
they are necessary for the Secretary to perform the various tasks.
o Secretary versus Delegate
As noted in the previous section, performing actions on the
Datatracker requires greater privileges than those associated to the
WG Secretary status. Working Group Chairs have the possibility to
delegate part of their privileges on the Datatracker (while retaining
them) to anyone. As a result, the person inheriting the delegation is
identified as Delegate on the WG charter page of the Datatracker, and
benefits from an extended scope of action. It is up to the WG Chairs
to decide whether a Secretary should also be a Delegate or not, and
conversely whether a Delegate is expected to also act as a Secretary
or not. It is nevertheless preferable that if a Delegate is expected
to act as WG Secretary, he/she also be explicitly identified as such.
o Secretary to WG ratio
Although typically a WG might only have one Secretary there is no
reason why two Secretaries might not be appointed. This might be to
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help transition a new WG Secretary into the role, before the previous
Secretary steps down, or simply to load balance the tasks across two
Secretaries. Reciprocally, a person may perfectly be Secretary of
multiple WGs. This primarily depends on his/her ability to deal with
the induced workload, noting nevertheless that synergies may be
realised in such a situation. In any case, this document does not
give a recommendation on what should be the appropriate value for the
"Secretary / WG" ratio.
o Further delegation
There are tasks that the WG Secretary might be expected to perform
but in fact may further delegate. Typical examples of those tasks are
jabber scribing and minute taking. More generally, there are
situations where the WG Secretary is unable to perform certain tasks
(absence at an IETF meeting, agenda conflict with the WG session,
participation to the technical discussions during the WG session,
...). The WG Secretary may fall back on the Chairs for performing the
impacted tasks but this would defeat the purpose of the Secretary's
role. Therefore it is preferable that, in those situations, the WG
Secretary further delegates those tasks, in agreement with the
Chairs.
As a final consideration, WG Secretaries are invited to the IETF WG
Chairs' lunch tutorial held during IETF meetings, usually on
Wednesdays. The WG Secretaries are also welcome to attend, when it is
scheduled, the Sunday afternoon training on WG Leadership.
5. Conclusions and Perspectives
Section 3 has listed the typical functions and responsibilities of WG
Secretaries. The role of a given WG Secretary can range from a few of
these to the full spectrum of them, and even beyond. In that regard,
there is a number of additional WG related events for which the
support of the WG Secretary would be useful. Those for example
include planning and setting for WG interim meetings, design team
meetings, etc. Nevertheless, some tasks described herein apply to
these contexts.
It is essential that over time the WG Secretary and Chairs build
trust to facilitate an effective and productive working relationship.
No secret recipe was however given here on how to achieve such a
relationship. Nevertheless, making clear expectations from both
perspectives and clear communication, the higher the probability of
an efficient and productive relationship. In that context, while the
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WG Secretary function can be viewed as being a support function to
the Chairs, it is crucial that the Chairs also provide support to the
Secretary as needed.
The WG Secretary's role is not mandatory in WGs, hence no formal
selection process exists and it is also difficult to identify a
general practice for that purpose. Reality is that WG Chairs select
their Secretary in different ways. Nevertheless, to become a WG
Secretary, the first step is to be active and involved in the WG of
interest as well as show willingness and have time to dedicate to
that function.
While the apparent value of a good WG Secretary might be in the
delegation of tasks that the Chairs are expected to manage and in the
smoothed operation of WGs, this role carries a second important
value. As the WG Secretary develops the knowledge to fulfil the above
functions and responsibilities, he/she will be in a position to both
extend the scope of his/her actions, and to be more and more involved
in WG operation and decision-making. The WG Secretary's role is
therefore an excellent means for training individuals in the art of
WG operation, and ideally towards the role of WG Chair.
6. Security Considerations
Delegation based on trust is not expected to introduce security
issues.
Nevertheless, while the WG Chairs may delegate a number of tasks to
the Secretary, they maintain the overall responsibility and
accountability over the WG and the decisions and actions that are
taken. As such, it is recommended that the WG Secretary does not
operate without the agreement of the Chairs, or at least without the
confidence that his/her choices and actions are in line with the
Chairs views on any given matter.
In the context of his/her functions, a WG Secretary will have access
to the Session Request Tool and to the Meeting Materials Manager.
This access is in principle automatically given. The WG Chairs might
also give the Secretary the rights to perform certain actions onto
the WG Datatracker. The WG Chairs should know how to revoke both the
latter and former privileges.
Also, the WG Secretary might have access to sensitive information,
usually only destined to the Chairs. Therefore, it is very important
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that a WG Secretary acts with ethics, respecting the privacy of these
data.
7. IANA Considerations
This document does not require any action from the IANA.
8. References
8.1. Informative References
[1] Bradner, S., "IETF Working Group Guidelines and Procedures",
BCP 25, RFC 2418, September 1998.
[2] Bradner, S., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF Technology",
BCP 79, RFC 3979, March 2005.
[3] Polk, T., and Saint-Andre, P., "Promoting Compliance with
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Disclosure Rules", RFC 6702,
August 2012.
[4] "The IETF Datatracker tool", Web Application:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/, Version 5.7.2, November 2014.
[5] Juskevicius, E., "Definition of IETF Working Group Document
States", RFC 6174, March 2011.
[6] Levkowetz, H., Meyer, D., Eggert, L., and Mankin, A., "Document
Shepherding from Working Group Last Call to Publication", RFC
4858, May 2007.
9. Acknowledgments
The authors thank a number of Working Group Secretaries (in
alphabetical order) who have contributed to the development of this
document: Daniele Ceccarelli, Luigi Iannone, Subramanian Moonesamy,
Ines Robles, and Sam Weiler. The authors also thank Scott Bradner for
his thorough review and useful input. The authors also thank the
following WG Chairs for their reviews and comments: Lou Berger,
Spencer Dawkins, and Hannes Tschofenig, as well as Loa Andersson for
also acting as Document Shepherd. Finally, the authors thank Adrian
Farrel, as Area Director, for sponsoring this document.
This document was prepared using 2-Word-v2.0.template.dot.
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Contributors' Addresses
Daniele Ceccarelli
Ericsson
Via Melen 77, Genova, Italy
Email: daniele.ceccarelli@ericsson.com
Luigi Iannone
Telecom ParisTech
23, Avenue d'Italie, 75013 Paris, France
Email: ggx@gigix.net
Subramanian Moonesamy
76, Ylang Ylang Avenue
Quatre Bornes
Mauritius
Email: sm+ietf@elandsys.com
Ines Robles
Universidad Tecnologica Nacional - FRM
Rodriguez 273, Mendoza, Argentina
Email: ines.robles@gridtics.frm.utn.edu.ar
Samuel Weiler
Parsons
7110 Samuel Morse Drive
Columbia, Maryland, 21046, USA
Email: weiler@tislabs.com
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Authors' Addresses
Martin Vigoureux
Alcatel-Lucent
Email: martin.vigoureux@alcatel-lucent.com
Daniel King
Old Dog Consulting
Email: daniel@olddog.co.uk
Carlos Pignataro
Cisco Systems, Inc.
7200-12 Kit Creek Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA
Email: cpignata@cisco.com
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