Eligibility for the 2020-2021 Nominating Committee
FutureWei Technologies
+1 914 433 2749
barryleiba@computer.org
http://internetmessagingtechnology.org/
General
nomcom
The 2020-2021 Nominating Committee (NomCom) is to be formed between
the IETF 107 and IETF 108 meetings, and the issue of eligibility of
who can serve on that NomCom needs clarification. This document
provides a one-time interpretation of the eligibility rules that is
required for the exceptional situation of the cancellation of the
in-person IETF 107 meeting. This document only affects the seating of
the 2020-2021 NomCom and any rules or processes that relate to NomCom
eligibility before IETF 108; it does not set a precedent to be applied
in the future.
Introduction
The COVID-19 outbreak, which at the time of this writing was
declared a global pandemic ,
has resulted in the cancellation of the in-person IETF 107 meeting
. This resulted in its
conversion to a virtual meeting with a limited agenda and remote
participation only .
The 2020-2021 Nominating Committee (NomCom) is to be formed between the IETF 107
and IETF 108 meetings, and the issue of eligibility of who can serve on that NomCom
needs clarification: a one-time interpretation of the eligibility rules is
required for this particular exceptional situation. That interpretation will
apply to the seating of that NomCom and to any rules or processes that relate
to NomCom eligibility before the scheduled time for IETF 108.
Background
(BCP 10) includes these requirements for eligibility:
Members of the IETF community must have attended at least three of
the last five IETF meetings in order to volunteer.
The five meetings are the five most recent meetings that ended prior
to the date on which the solicitation for NomCom volunteers was
submitted for distribution to the IETF community.
On 13 March 2020, a message was posted to the IETF discussion list
suggesting two possible
interpretations and asking for community input that might include
suggesting other interpretations. Discussion over the subsequent two
weeks centered around three:
-
Do not count IETF 107 at all, for the purpose of NomCom eligibility, as BCP 10 clearly refers to in-person meetings only. NomCom eligibility would, therefore, be based on attendance at IETFs 102 through 106.
-
Do not have anyone lose eligibility because of IETF 107, but do count someone as having attended 107, for the purpose of NomCom eligibility, if that person attended the IETF 107 virtual meeting (signed the electronic blue sheet). People could thus gain eligibility from IETF 107, but could not lose eligibility from it, and eligibility would be based on attendance at IETFs 102 through 107.
-
Count virtual attendance at IETF 107 and consider IETF 107 as one of the last five meetings, so that NomCom eligibility would be based on attendance at IETFs 103 through 107.
In judging rough consensus, the IESG has considered the arguments and
levels of support for and against each option. The arguments largely involved issues of fairness to newer participants, acceptance of more participants in the volunteer pool, and greatest adherence to the spirit of the rules defined in BCP 10, which is the community-consensus basis we are working from.
On 25 March 2020, a message was posted to the IETF discussion list
asking for final
comments by 30 April 2020. This documents the outcome of that discussion with the choice of interpretation 1, above.
Eligibility for the 2020-2021 Nominating Committee
The following text modifies, for the 2020-2021 NomCom cycle only, the first two paragraphs (quoted above) of (BCP 10) as follows:
-
Members of the IETF community must have attended at least three of
the last five in-person IETF meetings in order to volunteer.
-
The five meetings are the five most recent in-person meetings that
ended prior to the date on which the solicitation for NomCom
volunteers was submitted for distribution to the IETF community.
Because no IETF 107 in-person meeting was held, for the 2020-2021
Nominating Committee, those five meetings are
IETFs 102, 103, 104, 105, and 106.
This update is an emergency interpretation of the intent of BCP 10 for
this current exceptional situation only. It applies only to the
2020-2021 NomCom, which is expected to be seated prior to IETF 108,
and to any rules or processes that relate to NomCom eligibility before
IETF 108. It will explicitly not apply to any future NomCom and does
not set precedent: an update to BCP 10 will be necessary to address
future eligibility, as there will be time for proper community work on
such an update (see ). That update could change any part of the BCP 10
process, including anything specified in this document.
IANA Considerations
This document has no IANA actions.
Security Considerations
This document is purely procedural; there are no related
security considerations.
References
Normative References
Informative References
Subject: IETF 107 Vancouver In-Person Meeting Cancelled
IETF
message to the IETF announcement list
Subject: Re: NomCom eligibility & IETF 107
IETF
message to the IETF discussion list
Mailing list to discuss revision to IETF eligibility procedures
IETF
WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19
World Health Organization
NomCom eligibility & IETF 107
IETF
message to the IETF discussion list
Important Information for IETF 107 Virtual
IETF
message to the IETF announcement list