Subject: Re: WG Interim Meeting Opportunity in January 2009

From: Russ Housley <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:58:34 -0500

WG Chairs:

Thanks for all of the valuable input.  The IAOC has just taken a 
vote, and the Malta Large Interim Meeting Experiment in January 2009 
is not going to take place.  The primarily reason for this decision 
is the number of people that are able to commit to on-site 
participation.  The total number of people that indicated that they 
would attend is less than 60.  That does not qualify as a large 
Interim Meeting.  With this level of participation, we will not learn 
the things that we had hoped from the experiment.

Please direct anyone that purchased a non-refundable airline ticket 
for the proposed Malta meeting to me.

The IESG may revisit the idea of a Large Interim Meeting Experiment 
in the future.  At this point, it is unclear when travel budgets will 
make this a viable experiment.

I encourage WG chars to experiment with virtual interim 
meetings.  Guidance about interim meetings can be found at 
http://www.ietf.org/IESG/STATEMENTS/Interim-meetings.txt

Thanks for all you do for the IETF and the Internet,
    Russ

At 03:33 PM 10/16/2008, IETF Chair wrote:
>In our continuing effort to ensure that IETF WGs are getting enough
>meeting time to progress their work, we are conducting another experiment.
>   Many WGs have found interim meetings an effective way to tackle thorny
>technical issues, resolve contentious technical issues, accelerate
>standards development, and provide traction for new work.  As always, an
>interim WG meeting is not a substitute for a regular session at the
>traditional IETF meeting.  Since some WG Chairs and ADs have found the
>amount of time necessary to put together an interim meeting can be
>excessive, we are trying to reduce the effort necessary to conduct an
>interim meeting to determine whether reducing this burden will expedite
>IETF standards development.  To this end, the Secretariat will facilitate
>a large interim meeting from 20-22 January 2009 in Malta.  If you are
>interested in participating in this experiment, please contact your Area
>Director for approval.  All face-to-face interim meetings require AD
>approval, and this is no exception.  The IETF Secretariat is putting
>together a program with three full days and four tracks on each day.  Each
>WG interim meeting is expected to consume at least one full day on one of
>the tracks.
>
>ADs will schedule the sessions.  A URL for the schedule will be announced
>shortly.  Once it is available, if you detect a scheduling conflict,
>please raise the concern with your AD for resolution.  Session time is
>limited, and sessions will be allocated first come, first served.
>
>The Secretariat will provide registration, food and beverage, audio
>visual facilities, and on site registration support.  VeriLAN will provide
>network and audio streaming support.  It is expected that the meeting fee
>will be $375 for early registration and $475 for late registration.
>
>The Internet Society is looking for meeting sponsors for this event.
>Anyone interested please contact Drew Dvorshak <[email-masked]>.
>
>Russ