Subject: Re: [irtf-discuss] IETF 107 Vancouver In-Person Meeting Cancelled

From: Spencer Dawkins at IETF <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2020 18:37:37 -0500

For what it's worth,

On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 2:11 PM The IESG <[email-masked]> wrote:

> The IESG and the IRTF Chair have decided to cancel the in-person IETF 107
> Vancouver meeting. This decision is based on input we gathered from Working
> Group (WG) and Research Group (RG) chairs about our ability to hold
> productive WG and RG sessions at IETF 107. Our assessment of this feedback
> is that a majority of sessions would not be viable if we were to hold the
> in-person IETF meeting. On this basis, we believe we cannot hold an
> effective in-person meeting.
>

Deleted down to

> These are unusual times given the circumstances created by the spread of
> COVID-19.  We hope that everyone remains safe and healthy.
>

I'm not on the IESG now (to everyone's relief!) but I was on the IESG in
2016, when we were trying to figure out what to do with IETF 95 in Buenos
Aires as reports of the spread of Zika virus were arriving. That was
stressful enough, and I note that Alyssa, Deborah, Alvaro, and Barry were
on the IESG for IETF 95, and are on the current IESG, so they got to live
through both experiences (good times, huh?)

So I wanted to add my thanks to a few folk.

   - Thanks to the IESG and to Colin, as IETF chair, for making a critical
   decision. I suspect it's the right one - if you believe a doubling of
   reported cases every 6-8 days, things could easily be much worse by the end
   of IETF 107 as we are traveling home - but that's not really the key thing.
   You took it seriously.
   - Thanks to the people who slaved over the revisions to IASA 2.0 - the
   point that was made further down that thread about the separation between
   the IESG considering whether anyone was going to get anything out of
   in-person attendance, and the LLC considering whether we would infect the
   in-person attendees, would have been really helpful in 2016. If you enjoy
   watching the IESG Discuss documents during a two-week telechat cycle, you
   would have loved watching the IESG Discussing inconsistent, incomplete,
   bursty, and confusing advice arriving every day for a couple of months!
   - Thanks to Jay, and I can almost promise you, your next IETF experience
   will be less stressful!

Speaking from my own perspective, I'm in at least two high-risk categories
for CoViD-19, but I didn't cancel my in-person travel arrangements until
tonight. I believe in what the IETF does, I know the value of in-person
participation, and as long as in-person attendance made any sense, I was
ready to gamble, even after my employer was strongly encouraging remote
attendance. By focusing on whether an in-person meeting could be effective,
the IESG is encouraging ME to Do The Right Thing. That's a refreshing
turnabout.

And I look forward to seeing you, in-person and/or virtually, throughout
2020.

Best,

Spencer