



Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                          B. Leiba
Request for Comments: 8788                        FutureWei Technologies
BCP: 10                                                         May 2020
Category: Best Current Practice                                         
ISSN: 2070-1721


           Eligibility for the 2020-2021 Nominating Committee

Abstract

   The 2020-2021 Nominating Committee (NomCom) is to be formed between
   the IETF 107 and IETF 108 meetings, and the issue of eligibility of
   who can serve on that NomCom needs clarification.  This document
   provides a one-time interpretation of the eligibility rules that is
   required for the exceptional situation of the cancellation of the in-
   person IETF 107 meeting.  This document only affects the seating of
   the 2020-2021 NomCom and any rules or processes that relate to NomCom
   eligibility before IETF 108; it does not set a precedent to be
   applied in the future.

Status of This Memo

   This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8788.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
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   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction
   2.  Background
   3.  Eligibility for the 2020-2021 Nominating Committee
   4.  IANA Considerations
   5.  Security Considerations
   6.  References
     6.1.  Normative References
     6.2.  Informative References
   Author's Address

1.  Introduction

   The COVID-19 outbreak, which at the time of this writing was declared
   a global pandemic [PANDEMIC], has resulted in the cancellation of the
   in-person IETF 107 meeting [CANCEL107].  This resulted in its
   conversion to a virtual meeting with a limited agenda and remote
   participation only [VIRTUAL107].

   The 2020-2021 Nominating Committee (NomCom) is to be formed between
   the IETF 107 and IETF 108 meetings, and the issue of eligibility of
   who can serve on that NomCom needs clarification: a one-time
   interpretation of the eligibility rules is required for this
   particular exceptional situation.  That interpretation will apply to
   the seating of that NomCom and to any rules or processes that relate
   to NomCom eligibility before the scheduled time for IETF 108.

2.  Background

   Section 4.14 of [RFC8713] (BCP 10) includes these requirements for
   eligibility:

   |  Members of the IETF community must have attended at least three of
   |  the last five IETF meetings in order to volunteer.
   |  
   |  The five meetings are the five most recent meetings that ended
   |  prior to the date on which the solicitation for NomCom volunteers
   |  was submitted for distribution to the IETF community.

   On 13 March 2020, a message was posted to the IETF discussion list
   [SOLICITINPUT] suggesting two possible interpretations and asking for
   community input that might include suggesting other interpretations.
   Discussion over the subsequent two weeks centered around three:

   1.  Do not count IETF 107 at all, for the purpose of NomCom
       eligibility, as BCP 10 clearly refers to in-person meetings only.
       NomCom eligibility would, therefore, be based on attendance at
       IETFs 102 through 106.

   2.  Do not have anyone lose eligibility because of IETF 107, but do
       count someone as having attended 107, for the purpose of NomCom
       eligibility, if that person attended the IETF 107 virtual meeting
       (signed the electronic blue sheet).  People could thus gain
       eligibility from IETF 107, but could not lose eligibility from
       it, and eligibility would be based on attendance at IETFs 102
       through 107.

   3.  Count virtual attendance at IETF 107 and consider IETF 107 as one
       of the last five meetings, so that NomCom eligibility would be
       based on attendance at IETFs 103 through 107.

   In judging rough consensus, the IESG has considered the arguments and
   levels of support for and against each option.  The arguments largely
   involved issues of fairness to newer participants, acceptance of more
   participants in the volunteer pool, and greatest adherence to the
   spirit of the rules defined in BCP 10, which is the community-
   consensus basis we are working from.

   On 25 March 2020, a message was posted to the IETF discussion list
   [COMMENTDEADLINE] asking for final comments by 30 April 2020.  This
   documents the outcome of that discussion with the choice of
   interpretation 1, above.

3.  Eligibility for the 2020-2021 Nominating Committee

   The following text modifies, for the 2020-2021 NomCom cycle only, the
   first two paragraphs (quoted above) of Section 4.14 of [RFC8713] (BCP
   10) as follows:

      Members of the IETF community must have attended at least three of
      the last five in-person IETF meetings in order to volunteer.

      The five meetings are the five most recent in-person meetings that
      ended prior to the date on which the solicitation for NomCom
      volunteers was submitted for distribution to the IETF community.
      Because no IETF 107 in-person meeting was held, for the 2020-2021
      Nominating Committee, those five meetings are IETFs 102, 103, 104,
      105, and 106.

   This update is an emergency interpretation of the intent of BCP 10
   for this current exceptional situation only.  It applies only to the
   2020-2021 NomCom, which is expected to be seated prior to IETF 108,
   and to any rules or processes that relate to NomCom eligibility
   before IETF 108.  It will explicitly not apply to any future NomCom
   and does not set precedent: an update to BCP 10 will be necessary to
   address future eligibility, as there will be time for proper
   community work on such an update (see [ELIGIBILITYDISCUSS]).  That
   update could change any part of the BCP 10 process, including
   anything specified in this document.

4.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA actions.

5.  Security Considerations

   This document is purely procedural; there are no related security
   considerations.

6.  References

6.1.  Normative References

   [RFC8713]  Kucherawy, M., Ed., Hinden, R., Ed., and J. Livingood,
              Ed., "IAB, IESG, IETF Trust, and IETF LLC Selection,
              Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the IETF
              Nominating and Recall Committees", BCP 10, RFC 8713,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8713, February 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8713>.

6.2.  Informative References

   [CANCEL107]
              The IESG and the IRTF Chair, "Subject: IETF 107 Vancouver
              In-Person Meeting Cancelled", message to the IETF
              announcement list, 10 March 2020,
              <https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf-announce/
              XenAlx4Nw6Jmg69QpXRUOwbzsXY>.

   [COMMENTDEADLINE]
              The IESG, "Subject: Re: NomCom eligibility & IETF 107",
              message to the IETF discussion list, 13 March 2020,
              <https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf/
              cc3rdjSTz8Vrzps8Ci6fi-VIDq8/>.

   [ELIGIBILITYDISCUSS]
              IETF, "Mailing list to discuss revision to IETF
              eligibility procedures",
              <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/eligibility-
              discuss>.

   [PANDEMIC] Adhanom Ghebreyesus, T., "WHO Director-General's opening
              remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19", March 2020,
              <https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-
              general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-
              19---11-march-2020>.

   [SOLICITINPUT]
              The IESG, "NomCom eligibility & IETF 107", message to the
              IETF discussion list, March 2020,
              <https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf/
              uBt8FeKeN4CRl7YTDMoy6m8leS0/>.

   [VIRTUAL107]
              IETF Secretariat, "Important Information for IETF 107
              Virtual", message to the IETF announcement list, March
              2020, <https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf-
              announce/cVDlJ4fVJIkfakBysTfsFchERCs/>.

Author's Address

   Barry Leiba
   FutureWei Technologies

   Phone: +1 914 433 2749
   Email: barryleiba@computer.org
   URI:   http://internetmessagingtechnology.org/
