Subject: Follow up on consultation on IETF 112 and COVID-related restrictions

From: IETF Executive Director <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2021 11:49:08 +1200

The IESG, IETF Administration LLC and IRTF Chair recently sought feedback [1] to assist in the decisions on whether to go ahead in-person for IETF 112 Madrid or switch to a fully online meeting.  This consultation has now closed and the feedback received is reported on below:

1.  Survey of possible onsite participants
 
The results are available in an interactive dashboard https://ql.tc/c7Td95  This survey shows that there are people who will definitely attend in person and that they will attend with the known restrictions of mask wearing, social distancing and vaccines or negative tests.  Estimating the number of likely participants is going to take more work.

2.  Assessment criteria

The assessment criteria have been amended based on feedback to align with draft-ietf-shmoo-cancel-meeting [2] with the inclusion of two new tests:

- Sufficient critical support staff and contractors can be at the venue and available remotely as needed 
- The meeting will not result in a significant unbudgeted financial loss for the IETF LLC

3.  Interim planning guidelines and conditional plan for IETF meetings in a COVID-impacted venue

There was significant discussion on this topic, though only a small amount was directly relevant.  The following feedback will be incorporated somehow:

- Use a lottery instead of FCFS if onsite registrations are limited
- Contingency planning in the event of a major change in circumstances, such as a lockdown being imposed during the week
- Understanding the implications of holding a meeting where people from certain countries cannot attend.

The following feedback has not been incorporated

- the IETF should only allow vaccinated people to participate in-person.  This requires community consensus.
- the IETF should take on certain responsibilities should someone be infected.  While the IETF advises and supports participants and will continue to do so, the established practice is that participants are ultimately responsible for all health related matters.
- the IETF should specify the least invasive testing method.  The IETF will not be doing any testing itself and any requirements will be based solely on local laws/regulations.

Work has begun on assessing if IETF 112 Madrid can go ahead as an in-person meeting with an announcement due next Monday 9 August or earlier.

[1]  https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf-announce/R-1NLlYaYrZ7ldFZ0oPQWCFKfZg/
[2]  https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-shmoo-cancel-meeting/

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