Subject: Call for nominations: IETF Liaison to ICANN Board of Directors

From: IAB Chair <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:41:08 -0800

The IAB is tasked to nominate a liaison to represent the IETF on the ICANN Board of Directors. This is a call for nominations for the liaison. The nomination period will close on March 8, 2013. The liaison should be in place before the July 2013 ICANN meeting, and normally serves a two-year term. The current liaison is Thomas Narten.

As described by the ICANN governance documents, "The mission of ICANN is to coordinate, at the overall level, the global Internet's systems of unique identifiers, and in particular to ensure the stable and secure operation of the Internet's unique identifier systems. The fundamental responsibility of Directors (as defined below) is to exercise their business judgment to act in what they reasonably believe to be the best interests of ICANN and in the global public interest, taking account of the interests of the Internet community as a whole rather than any individual group or interest. Actions of the Board reflect the Board's collective action after taking due reflection.

It is the duty of the Board to oversee management's performance to ensure that ICANN operates in an effective, efficient and ethical manner. The Board will also be responsible for overseeing the development of ICANN's short, medium and long-term strategic plans, ensuring that they will result in sustainable outcomes, and taking account of the critical interdependencies of financial, human, natural, manufactured, social and intellectual capitals."

The position for an IETF liaison to the board is non-voting.

One of the roles of the liaison is to oversee the operations of the ICANN in terms of their possible impact or relation to IETF work and the Internet protocols. Another role of the liaison is to inform ICANN of any IETF matters relevant to the ICANN. It is expected that the selected person is effective in communicating between the two organizations, and has a sufficient understanding of the Internet protocols, DNS, and assigned number management to identify where potential problems might occur or where coordination is needed. When needed, the liaison is also expected to be able to find experts on specific issues on both sides.

The IETF liaison to the board is

     * highly regarded in technical, policy, and Internet governance matters.

     * constructive in framing new approaches, technically or in terms of communication.

     * willing and able to work well with others.

     * expected to have ICANN experience from either inside or outside, and an understanding of its processes and workings.

     * willing and able to commit the time to work in the board, and follow the related discussions.

     * expected to attend and participate in the ICANN meetings as well as any additional board meetings (although ICANN has traditionally covered board member travel costs).

     * expected to attend and participate in the IETF meetings, particularly the working group meetings relevant to work at ICANN.

     * able to agree with the requirements for the board members, such as confidentiality and conflict of interest rules, and is unlikely to be in a position of conflict of interest for typical board discussion topics.

The necessary time commitment varies with the extent of work that the liaison is interested in taking on within the board, but just the travel and meeting time alone can be substantial. Typically, there are three ICANN meetings and three additional board meetings per year.

For context, the governance documents for the ICANN board can be found here:
http://www.icann.org/en/about/governance

These include, for instance, overall governance guidelines, the ICANN bylaws, conflict of interest policies, and travel support:
http://www.icann.org/en/about/governance/guidelines
http://www.icann.org/en/about/governance/bylaws#VI
http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/governance/coi
http://www.icann.org/en/news/in-focus/travel-support/revised-procedure-11aug08-en.htm

The current board can be found here:
http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board

The current meeting schedules of the board and ICANN itself are here:
http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/meetings
http://meetings.icann.org/

If you are interested in this position, or know of someone who may be a good fit for this position, please send the name and email address to <iab at iab.org>.