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

From: IAB Executive Administrative Manager <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2018 15:02:54 -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 that 
liaison. The nomination period will close on 7 March 2018. 

The liaison normally serves a two-year renewable term; the IAB plans to 
name the new liaison by the May 2018 ICANN Board retreat with the full 
transition to be completed by October 2018. Jonne Soininen has served as 
the IETF Liaison to the ICANN Board of Directors since 2013, and has 
indicated that he will not seek another term. The IAB thanks Jonne for 
his service. 

The ICANN Mission and the role of the Board of Directors are outlined in 
the Board Governance Guidelines [1]:

  The mission of ICANN is to ensure the stable and secure operation of 
  the Internet’s unique identifier systems. The fundamental 
  responsibility of Directors… 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 and policy 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 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: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/governance-en

These include, for instance, overall governance guidelines, the ICANN 
bylaws, conflict of interest policies, and travel support:
https://www.icann.org/en/about/governance/guidelines
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en
https://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/governance/coi
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/revised-procedure-2008-08-11-en

Note that as per Section 7.22.h of the ICANN Bylaws [2], this position 
may be entitled to receive compensation from ICANN for services as a 
non-voting liaison; however, as per the IAB statement on Liaison 
Compensation [3], the IAB generally believes that the guiding principle 
should be that individuals serve without expectation of direct 
compensation from the bodies to which they are appointed, so as to avoid 
any appearance of conflict of interest. As a result, apart from 
reasonable travel expenses, the IAB generally requests that its 
appointees decline offers of compensation from the bodies to which they 
are appointed. 

The current board can be found here:
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/board-of-directors

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

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 
<[email-masked]> with a copy to <[email-masked]>.

[1] https://www.icann.org/en/about/governance/guidelines
[2] https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en/#article7
[3] https://www.iab.org/documents/correspondence-reports-documents/2015-2/iab-statement-on-liaison-compensation/