Subject: Notes from Vancouver WG Chairs Training

From: "Margaret Wasserman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 12:51:57 -0500

Hi All,

Attached please find the notes from the WG Chairs Training that was held
during the Wednesday lunch slot in Vancouver.  Hopefully this will allow
those of you who couldn't attend the session to benefit from what was
discussed there.

Thanks to Karen O'Donoghue for the excellent notes!

Margaret

---
Notes from WG Chairs training session: 

WG Chairs Responsibilities for Meeting Materials (Dave 
Meyer):

Dave Meyer discussed an old draft he had done addressing 
working group chair responsibilities associated with 
meeting materials. Most of the problems he identified 
originally have been solved to some extent. We do need to 
work to remove stale information from the web site. Some 
additional work on the web pages could be done to make 
things cleared and more concise. There is significant 
benefit to the community to getting agendas, presentations, 
and minutes out as soon as possible. 

The key remaining issue from Dave's original draft is 
format and content guidelines for minutes. Minutes serve a 
number of purposes including informing people who 
couldn't attend what happened and researching discussions 
and decisions after the fact. 

Should audio and jabber files be part of the "official" 
record? Jabber is being used in various ways by different 
WGs. Some use it as a complete record of the conversation, 
and others use it to communicate questions from folks 
listening to the audio remotely. While both the audio and 
the jabber records are useful, the minutes should be the 
official record. Draft minutes allow for corrections by the 
participants. Dave and Olaf will work on Dave's draft to 
produce a template for minutes. 

Tools (Allison Mankin):

We switched to the Meeting Materials Management Tool 
this period. Folks seem really pleased with this tool. It is 
strongly suggested that this tool be used for producing 
proceedings. 

A new tool to assist in meeting scheduling is coming for 
IETF65. This tool will allow WG chairs to put in meeting 
requests with constraints. It will also allow updates prior to 
the schedule being produced. It will also facilitate getting 
AD approval for more than 2 sessions and for BOF 
scheduling. It does not do actual scheduling, but it does 
collect the information in one place in a standard format. 

General topics of WG meeting management (All):

The concept of having meeting materials available live 
during the IETF is working well. 
Getting minutes done earlier is a good thing and helps 
people who missed the meeting. Some groups post rough 
notes on a supplemental site. 

Working group secretaries should get passwords to the 
meeting materials management site as well as the working 
group chairs. 

Perhaps a tool could be created that made the process of 
creating minutes more dynamic. At the least, it could 
generate a standardized template from the agenda. We do 
need to be sensitive to non English speakers and to those 
who take notes offline and transcribe them. Also, we can't 
guarantee online access from meeting rooms. 

Please put hard carriage returns in text file submissions 
because text wrapping in browsers doesn't consistently 
work.  
 
What work can be pursued in the working group while 
waiting for products to be processed through AD/IESG 
review? Is it acceptable to discuss future work? The 
chartered work items are completed and in the AD/IESG 
review process. What do they do in the interim while 
waiting for the end of this phase? ADs have said no new 
work. In order to maintain momentum, chair decided to 
have an informal meeting, but he was told by ADs that they 
shouldn't have informal meetings. When are discussions of 
rechartering appropriate? Discussions of rechartering are 
acceptable at any time. There also aren't any restrictions on 
discussing individual submissions during this phase, but 
you shouldn't accept new working group items until the 
working group is rechartered. Finally, you are always better 
off scheduling a meeting and canceling then deciding not to 
schedule. 

Discussions are underway about a document tracking tool 
for tracking documents within a working group. What kind 
of reminders would be most useful to working group chairs 
or document shepherds. This document tracker could also 
help with cross area review. 
End goal is a general tool that can be customized to 
individual work methods or styles. Tool would be 
customizable including types of events and notification 
methods. Send Margaret or Allison email if you want to 
help with the prototyping. 

Should WG chairs author documents? This is a difficult 
question. It should be avoided whenever possible. One 
chair can write the document and the other chair can serve 
as "judge". Second chair must also act as policeman to 
ensure that the author/co-chair is being fair. If 60-70% of 
the documents are being written by the WG chair, then you 
don't have a working group. Need to insure there isn't a 
perception problem. Instead of doing work yourself, you 
should nature talent by finding new people with the energy 
to do the work.  

Is this forum worthwhile:
Question: Was this useful - basically unanimous answer of 
yes.
Question: Should it be done again - mostly yes (based on 
topic)
Is it time to do the tracker training again? Possible, or 
perhaps the tracker training should be part of the standard 
working group chair training.

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From: "Barbara B. Fuller" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 10:42:47 -0500

Hi Margaret:

>collect the information in one place in a standard format.

The Meeting Session Request Tool to be deployed for IETF 65 will handle 
requests for WG sessions only.  It will *not* handle requests for BOF 
sessions.  Requests for BOF sessions will be handled via e-mail until 
further notice.  We hope to develop a tool for requesting BOF sessions in 
time for IETF 66.  This will be a public tool (rather than an account-based 
tool), and will allow for AD approval of all BOF sessions.

Barbara

------------------------------------------------
Barbara B. Fuller
Acting Executive Director
Internet Engineering Task Force

Natick, Massachusetts Office:

Phone: +1-508-650-4020
Fax:     +1-508-650-4639

Reston, Virginia Office:

Phone: +1-703-620-9053
Fax:     +1-703-620-9071

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From: Avri Doria <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 07:34:33 -0500

Hi,

Will RG chairs be like WG chairs or BOF chairs.

thanks

a.

On 21 nov 2005, at 10.42, Barbara B. Fuller wrote:

> The Meeting Session Request Tool to be deployed for IETF 65 will  
> handle requests for WG sessions only.  It will *not* handle  
> requests for BOF sessions.  Requests for BOF sessions will be  
> handled via e-mail until further notice.  We hope to develop a tool  
> for requesting BOF sessions in time for IETF 66.  This will be a  
> public tool (rather than an account-based tool), and will allow for  
> AD approval of all BOF sessions.
>
> Barbara
>