Subject: Nomcom 2007-8: Requirements for the Open IAOC Position

From: Lakshminath Dondeti <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:30:52 -0700

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 <[email-masked]>
To: NomCom Chair <[email-masked]>
CC: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]

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.

_______________________________________________
IETF-Announce mailing list
[email-masked]
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-announce