Nomcom 2007-8: Requirements for the Open IAOC Position
Folks,
The following is the IAOC's desired expertise in the candidates for the open
IAOC position. The nomcom is now accepting the community's input on the
qualifications required for that position. Please send your notes, either as
commentary on the following or independent notes to nomcom07 at ietf.org.
Thank you.
regards,
Lakshminath
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Requirements for Open IAOC Position
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 12:05:38 -0400
From: IETF Executive Director <exec-director at ietf.org>
To: NomCom Chair <nomcom-chair at ietf.org>
CC: exec-director at ietf.org, kurtis at kurtis.pp.se, iaoc at ietf.org
Dear Lakshminath:
Below is a description of the expertise desired in the candidate selected
to fill the position of the IAOC member whose term will expire during the
first IETF Meeting in 2008.
Regards,
Barbara
------------------------------------------
This note outlines the expertise and duties for a member of the IETF
Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC). The structure of the IETF
Administrative Support Activity (IASA) is described and regulated in
BCP101.
BCP101 defines the IASA as
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 IAOC is responsible for developing plans to
provide administrative support for them. 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 the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (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 to 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 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 activities.
The exact mechanics of how the IAOC operates and governs are further
described in BCP101. Besides providing the above mentioned operational
support for the IETF together with and through the IAD, the members of the
IAOC as well as the IAD serves as Trustees of the IETF Trusts, that holds
the IETFs intellectual property assets, for example in the form of
copyrights to the RFCs, the name IETF, logo etc.
BCP101 in paragraph 3.2 defines the role of the IAOC as
The IAOC's role is to provide appropriate direction to the IAD, to
review the IAD's regular reports, and to oversee IASA functions to
ensure that the administrative needs of the IETF community are being
properly met. The IAOC's mission is not to be engaged in the day-
to-day administrative work of the IASA, but rather to provide
appropriate direction, oversight, and approval.
Therefore, the IAOC's responsibilities are as follows:
o To select the IAD and to provide high-level review and direction
for his or her work. This task should be handled by a sub-
committee, as described above.
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 to review the IAD's regular financial
reports.
o To ensure that the IASA is run in a transparent and accountable
manner. Although 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 that other IETF process
documents say are carried out by the IETF Executive Director.
The IAOC's role is to direct and review, not to 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 if the IAD is unavailable, the IAOC may
temporarily assign the IAD's duties to individual members of the
IAOC.
The update (RFC4371) to the original BCP101 (RFC4071) outlines the IETF
Trust. The IETF Trust is therein defined as
A Trust ("the IETF Trust") has been formed for the purpose of
acquiring, holding, maintaining, and licensing certain existing and
future intellectual property and other property used in connection
with the administration of the IETF. The Trust was formed by the
signatures of its Settlors and initial Trustees. The Settlors, who
contributed initial intellectual property to the Trust, were ISOC and
the Corporation for National Research Initiatives. The Trustees of
the IETF Trust are the members of the IAOC, and the Beneficiary of
the IETF Trust is the IETF as a whole.
In its administration of IPR under the terms of BCP 101, the IASA,
including the IAD and the IAOC, will treat the IETF Trust rather than
ISOC as the proper entity for ownership and licensing of IETF IPR.
Specifically, references to ISOC in sections 3.1, 5.3, and 7 of [1]
shall be interpreted as referring to the IETF Trust wherever IPR
issues are concerned. The duty to serve as Trustees is added to
section 3.2 of [1].
Based on the above mentioned roles, duties, responsibilities and
experience in operating the IASA so far, the current IAOC believes the
following set of experience is valuable in serving as a member of the
IAOC as well bringing value to the IAOC
o Previous management experience, such as team-leader, group director
etc is essential.
o Previous budget responsibilities. The ability to work with budget
and financial terminology, as well as basic knowledge of
accounting and auditing practices and regulations is essential.
o Previous experience in the IETF, and a good understanding of the
IETF processes, such as having been a working-group chair, IESG
or IAB member, certainly helps.
At the time of writing of this note, the IAOC and the IETF Trust,operates
through conference calls and two face-to-face retreats per year. The IAOC
in addition has formed a number of subcommittees thatare made up of it's
members. At the time of writing, this call-schedule is 10.00-11.00 EST
1 Thursday of the month, IAOC call
2 Thursday of the month, IAOC subcommittee call
3 Thursday of the month, IAOC/Trust call
however, these call times will be adopted to suit the current
membership of the IAOC, and are only provided to give an overview of the
workload. In addition, the work required will vary periodically depending
on the items on the IAOC/Trusts plate. For example around times of RFPs
issued for the various contracted services, the load will be higher. On
average over the year the time commitment is likely to be 5-10 hours a
week. Mail volume is generally low, but there are periods of contract and
related paper reviews.