Subject: Changes to the way we manage RFPs

From: IETF Executive Director <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2020 19:15:35 -0800

The IETF Administration LLC is changing the way we manage RFPs.  These changes are part of a larger overhaul that will see further changes come in future.  The changes being made today are:

1. As of next week, we will be using a new RFP Announcement Mailing List [1] [email-masked] for all announcements relating to RFPs and stop using IETF-Announce.  This change is intended to help us reach a wider network of potential vendors, both directly through a lower volume, more focused list and indirectly through automated redistribution of issued RFPs.  

2. We have a new formal process for managing RFPs, published on the RFPs page [2].

3. The RFPs page [2] now includes links to the all of the contracts for RFPs issued by the LLC.  These have the financial informaton redacted and where possible, signatures also redacted.

Planned changes include:

* Publishing vendor Conflict of Interest (COI) forms, once reviewed by the LLC Board.

* Publishing contract templates and non-negotiables (e.g. contract transparency) to allow vendors to study them before bidding.

* Engaging the community on the principles and processes we use for managing RFPs and what is and isn't appropriate for us to expect in our contracts.

* We will also investigate implementing some elements of the Open Contracting Data Standard [3]

Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or feedback.

[1] https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/rfp-announce
[2] https://www.ietf.org/about/administration/rfps/
[3] https://www.open-contracting.org/data-standard/

-- 
Jay Daley
IETF Executive Director
[email-masked]