committee consults with a broad base of the IETF community for
input to its deliberations. In particular, the nominating
committee must determine if the desired expertise for the open
positions matches its understanding of the qualifications desired
by the IETF community.
The consultations are permitted to include names of nominees, if
all parties to the consultation agree to observe the same
confidentiality rules as the nominating committee itself.
A broad base of the community should include the existing members
of the IAB and IESG, especially sitting members who share
responsibilities with open positions, e.g., co-Area Directors,
and working group chairs, especially those in the areas with open
positions.
Only voting volunteer members vote to select candidates.
13. Nominees should be advised that they are being considered and
must consent to their nomination prior to being chosen as
candidates.
Although the nominating committee will make every reasonable
effort to contact and to remain in contact with nominees, any
nominee whose contact information changes during the process and
who wishes to still be considered should inform the nominating
committee of the changes.
A nominee’s consent must be written (email is acceptable) and
must include a commitment to provide the resources necessary to
fill the open position and an assurance that the nominee will
perform the duties of the position for which they are being
considered in the best interests of the IETF community.
Consenting to a nomination must occur prior to a nominee being a
candidate and may occur as soon after the nomination as needed by
the nominating committee.
Consenting to a nomination must not imply the nominee will be a
candidate.
The nominating committee should help nominees provide
justification to their employers.
14. The nominating committee advises the confirming bodies of their
candidates, specifying a single candidate for each open position
and testifying as to how each candidate meets the qualifications
of an open position.
For each candidate, the testimony must include a brief statement
of the qualifications for the position that is being filled,
which may be exactly the expertise that was requested. If the
qualifications differ from the expertise originally requested a
brief statement explaining the difference must be included.
The testimony may include either or both of a brief resume of the
candidate and a brief summary of the deliberations of the
nominating committee.
15. Confirmed candidates must consent to their confirmation and
rejected candidates and nominees must be notified before
confirmed candidates are announced.
It is not necessary to notify and get consent from all confirmed
candidates together.
A nominee may not know they were a candidate. This permits a
candidate to be rejected by a confirming body without the nominee
knowing about the rejection.
Rejected nominees, who consented to their nomination, and
rejected candidates must be notified prior to announcing the
confirmed candidates.
It is not necessary to announce all confirmed candidates
together.
The nominating committee must ensure that all confirmed
candidates are prepared to serve prior to announcing their
confirmation.
16. The nominating committee should archive the information it has
collected or produced for a period of time not to exceed its
term.
The purpose of the archive is to assist the nominating committee
should it be necessary for it to fill a mid-term vacancy.
The existence of an archive, how it is implemented, and what
information to archive is at the discretion of the committee.
The decision must be approved by a quorum of the voting volunteer
members.
The implementation of the archive should make every reasonable
effort to ensure that the confidentiality of the information it
contains is maintained.
6. Dispute Resolution Process
The dispute resolution process described here is to be used as
indicated elsewhere in this document. Its applicability in other
circumstances is beyond the scope of this document.
The nominating committee operates under a strict rule of
confidentiality. For this reason when process issues arise it is
best to make every reasonable effort to resolve them within the
committee. However, when circumstances do not permit this or no
resolution is forthcoming, the process described here is to be used.
The following rules apply to the process.
1. The results of this process are final and binding. There is no
appeal.
2. The process begins with the submission of a request as described
below to the Internet Society President.
3. As soon as the process begins, the nominating committee may
continue those activities that are unrelated to the issue to be
resolved except that it must not submit any candidates to a
confirming body until the issue is resolved.
4. All parties to the process are subject to the same
confidentiality rules as each member of the nominating committee.
5. The process should be completed within two weeks.
The process is as follows:
1. The party seeking resolution submits a written request (email is
acceptable) to the Internet Society President detailing the issue
to be resolved.
2. The Internet Society President appoints an arbiter to investigate
and resolve the issue. A self-appointment is permitted.
3. The arbiter investigates the issue making every reasonable effort
to understand both sides of the issue. Since the arbiter is
subject to the same confidentiality obligations as all nominating
committee members, all members are expected to cooperate fully
with the arbiter and to provide all relevant information to the
arbiter for review.
4. After consultation with the two principal parties to the issue,
the arbiter decides on a resolution. Whatever actions are
necessary to execute the resolution are immediately begun and
completed as quickly as possible.
5. The arbiter summarizes the issue, the resolution, and the
rationale for the resolution for the Internet Society President.
6. In consultation with the Internet Society President, the arbiter
prepares a report of the dispute and its resolution. The report
should include all information that in the judgment of the
arbiter does not violate the confidentiality requirements of the
nominating committee.
7. The Chair includes the dispute report when reporting on the
activities of the nominating committee to the IETF community.
7. Member Recall
The following rules apply to the recall process. If necessary, a
paragraph discussing the interpretation of each rule is included.
1. At any time, at least 20 members of the IETF community, who are
qualified to be voting members of a nominating committee, may
request by signed petition (email is acceptable) to the Internet
Society President the recall of any sitting IAB or IESG member.
All individual and collective qualifications of nominating
committee eligibility are applicable, including that no more than
two signatories may have the same primary affiliation.
Each signature must include a full name, email address, and
primary company or organization affiliation.
The IETF Secretariat is responsible for confirming that each
signatory is qualified to be a voting member of a nominating
committee. A valid petition must be signed by at least 20
qualified signatories.
The petition must include a statement of justification for the
recall and all relevant and appropriate supporting documentation.
The petition and its signatories must be announced to the IETF
community.
2. Internet Society President shall appoint a Recall Committee
Chair.
The Internet Society President must not evaluate the recall
request. It is explicitly the responsibility of the IETF
community to evaluate the behavior of its leaders.
3. The recall committee is created according to the same rules as is
the nominating committee with the qualifications that both the
person being investigated and the parties requesting the recall
must not be a member of the recall committee in any capacity.
4. The recall committee operates according to the same rules as the
nominating committee with the qualification that there is no
confirmation process.
5. The recall committee investigates the circumstances of the
justification for the recall and votes on its findings.
The investigation must include at least both an opportunity for
the member being recalled to present a written statement and
consultation with third parties.
6. A 3/4 majority of the members who vote on the question is
required for a recall.
7. If a sitting member is recalled the open position is to be filled
according to the mid-term vacancy rules.
8. Changes From RFC 2727
This section describes the substantive changes from RFC 2727, listed
approximately in the order in which they appear in the document.
1. A section with definitions for words and phrases used throughout
the document was inserted.
2. The role of term limits as a selection criterion was clarified.
3. The nominating committee must now be provided with a brief
description of the desirable expertise for each candidate to be
nominated for each position.
4. Because of the overlapping terms of successive nominating
committees, the specific committee responsible for a mid-term
vacancy was specified.
5. The characterization of the advice and consent model was revised
to permit the confirming body to communicate with the nominating
committee during the approval process.
6. A general rule was added to define that all announcements are
made with the usual IETF Secretariat mechanism.
7. Details regarding the expected timeline of the selection and
operation of the committee were made even more explicit. An
Appendix was added that captures all the details for the
convenience of the reader.
8. The term of the nominating committee was extended to
approximately 15 months such that it explicitly overlaps by
approximately 3 months the next year’s nominating committee’s
term.
9. The terms voting member and non-voting member were replaced by
voting volunteers, liaisons, and advisors. All members vote at
all times except that only voting volunteers vote on a candidate
selection.
10. The responsibilities of the Chair, liaisons, advisors, and voting
volunteers is now explicitly stated.
11. Processes for recalling members of the committee were added.
12. Liaisons and advisors are no longer required to meet the usual
requirements for nominating committee membership.
13. The Internet Society Board of Trustees may appoint a non-voting
liaison.
14. The eligibility qualifications for the nominating committee were
changed to require attendance at 3 out of 5 of the last five
meetings, to require volunteers to submit identifying contact
information, and to request that volunteers be familiar with IETF
processes and procedures.
15. Some additional clarification was added to the method used to
select volunteers.
16. The process for selecting the 10 voting volunteers had several
clarifications and additional requirements added, including a
challenge process and the requirement to disallow more than two
volunteers with the same primary affiliation.
17. Nominations for open positions should include both contact
information and a description of the skills or expertise the
nominator believes the nominee possesses.
18. Nominees are requested to keep the nominating committee informed
of changes in their contact information. Editorially, the
distinction between a nominee and candidate was emphasized.
19. A description of a testimony to be provided with each candidate
to a confirming body by the nominating committee is specified.
20. The rules regarding the announcement of confirmed candidates were
substantially rewritten to make it easier to understand.
21. The nominating committee is permitted to keep an archive for the
duration of its term of the information it collects and produces
for its own internal use.
22. A dispute resolution process for addressing process concerns was
added.
23. The process for recalling a sitting member of the IAB and IESG
requires at least 20 eligible members of the IETF community to
sign a petition requesting the recall.
24. The section on Security Considerations was expanded.
25. Appendix A, Oral Tradition, has been added.
26. Appendix B, Nominating Committee Timeline, has been added as a
convenience to the reader.
9. Acknowledgements
There have been a number of people involved with the development of
this document over the years as it has progressed from RFC 2027
through RFC 2282 [3] and RFC 2727 [2] to its current version.
A great deal of credit goes to the first three Nominating Committee
Chairs:
1993 - Jeff Case
1994 - Fred Baker
1995 - John Curran
who had the pleasure of operating without the benefit of a documented
process. It was their fine work and oral tradition that became the
first version of this document.
Of course we can not overlook the bug discovery burden that each of
the Chairs since the first publication have had to endure:
1996 - Guy Almes
1997 - Geoff Huston
1998 - Mike St. Johns
1999 - Donald Eastlake
2000 - Avri Doria
2001 - Bernard Adoba
2002 - Ted T’so
2003 - Phil Roberts
The bulk of the early credit goes to the members of the POISSON
Working Group, previously the POISED Working Group. The prose here
would not be what it is were it not for the attentive and insightful
review of its members. Specific acknowledgement must be extended to
Scott Bradner and John Klensin, who consistently contributed to the
improvement of the first three versions of this document.
In January 2002, a new working group was formed, the Nominating
Committee Working Group (nomcom), to revise the RFC 2727 version.
This working group was guided by the efforts of a design team whose
members were as follows:
Bernard Adoba
Harald Alvestrand - Chair of the IETF
Leslie Daigle - Chair of the IAB
Avri Doria - Chair of the Working Group
James Galvin - Editor of the Document
Joel Halpern
Thomas Narten
10. Security Considerations
Any selection, confirmation, or recall process necessarily involves
investigation into the qualifications and activities of prospective
candidates. The investigation may reveal confidential or otherwise
private information about candidates to those participating in the
process. Each person who participates in any aspect of the process
must maintain the confidentiality of any and all information not
explicitly identified as suitable for public dissemination.
When the nominating committee decides it is necessary to share
confidential or otherwise private information with others, the
dissemination must be minimal and must include a prior commitment
from all persons consulted to observe the same confidentiality rules
as the nominating committee itself.
11. Informative References
[1] Eastlake, 3rd, D., "Publicly Verifiable Nominations Committee
(Nomcom) Random Selection", RFC 3797, June 2004.
[2] Galvin, J., "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall
Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees", BCP
10, RFC 2727, February 2000.
[3] Galvin, J., "IAB and IESG Selection, Confirmation, and Recall
Process: Operation of the Nominating and Recall Committees", BCP
10, RFC 2282, February 1998.
Appendix A. Oral Tradition
Over the years various nominating committees have learned through
oral tradition passed on by liaisons that there are certain
consistencies in the process and information considered during
deliberations. Some items from that oral tradition are collected
here to facilitate its consideration by future nominating committees.
1. It has been found that experience as an IETF Working Group Chair
or an IRTF Research Group Chair is helpful in giving a nominee
experience of what the job of an Area Director involves. It also
helps a nominating committee judge the technical, people, and
process management skills of the nominee.
2. No person should serve both on the IAB and as an Area Director,
except the IETF Chair whose roles as an IAB member and Area
Director of the General Area are set out elsewhere.
3. The strength of the IAB is found in part in the balance of the
demographics of its members (e.g., national distribution, years
of experience, gender, etc.), the combined skill set of its
members, and the combined sectors (e.g., industry, academia,
etc.) represented by its members.
4. There are no term limits explicitly because the issue of
continuity versus turnover should be evaluated each year
according to the expectations of the IETF community, as it is
understood by each nominating committee.
5. The number of nominating committee members with the same primary
affiliation is limited in order to avoid the appearance of
improper bias in choosing the leadership of the IETF. Rather
than defining precise rules for how to define "affiliation", the
IETF community depends on the honor and integrity of the
participants to make the process work.
Appendix B. Nominating Committee Timeline
This appendix is included for the convenience of the reader and is
not to be interpreted as the definitive timeline. It is intended to
capture the detail described elsewhere in this document in one place.
Although every effort has been made to ensure the description here is
consistent with the description elsewhere, if there are any conflicts
the definitive rule is the one in the main body of this document.
The only absolute in the timeline rules for the annual process is
that its completion is due by the First IETF of the year after the
nominating committee begins its term. This is supported by the fact
that the confirmed candidate terms begin during the week of the First
IETF.
The overall annual process is designed to be completed in 7 months.
It is expected to start 8 months prior to the First IETF. The 7
months is split between three major components of the process as
follows.
1. First is the selection and organization of the committee members.
Three months are allotted for this process.
2. Second is the selection of the candidates by the nominating
committee. Three months are allotted for this process.
3. Third is the confirmation of the candidates by their respective
confirming bodies. One month is allotted for this process.
The following figure captures the details of the milestones within
each component. For illustrative purposes the figure presumes the
Friday before the First IETF is March 1.
0. BEGIN 8 Months Prior to First IETF (approx. July 1); Internet
Society President appoints the Chair. The appointment must be
done no later than the Second IETF or 8 months prior to the First
IETF, whichever comes first. The Chair must be announced and
recognized during a plenary session of the Second IETF.
1. The Chair establishes and announces milestones to ensure the
timely selection of the nominating committee members.
2. The Chair contacts the IESG, IAB, and Internet Society Board of
Trustees and requests a liaison. The Chair contacts the prior
year’s Chair and requests an advisor. The Chair obtains the list
of IESG and IAB open positions and descriptions from the IETF
Executive Director.
3. The Chair announces the solicitation for voting volunteer members
that must remain open for at least 30 days. The announcement
must be done no later than 7 months and 2 weeks prior to the
First IETF (approx. July 15).
4. After the solicitation closes the Chair announces the pool of
volunteers and the date of the random selection, which must be at
least 1 week in the future. The announcement must be done no
later than 6 months and 2 weeks prior to the First IETF (approx.
August 15).
5. On the appointed day the random selection occurs and the Chair
announces the members of the committee and the 1 week challenge
period. The announcement must be done no later than 6 months and
1 week prior to the First IETF (approx. August 22).
6. During the challenge period the Chair contacts each of the
committee members and confirms their availability to participate.
7. After the challenge period closes the Chair announces the members
of the committee and its term begins. The announcement must be
done no later than 6 months prior to the First IETF (approx.
September 1).
8. The committee has one month during which it is to self-organize
in preparation for completing its assigned duties. This must be
done no later than 5 months prior to the First IETF (approx.
October 1).
9. END the Committee Member Selection Process; BEGIN the Selection
of Candidates; Time is at least 5 months prior to the First IETF
(approx. October 1).
10. The Chair establishes and announces the milestones to ensure the
timely selection of the candidates, including a call for
nominations for the open positions. The announcement must be
done no later than 5 months prior to the First IETF (approx.
October 1).
11. Over the next 3 months the nominating committee collects input
and deliberates. It should plan to conduct interviews and other
consultations during the Third IETF. The committee is due to
complete its candidate selection no later than 2 months prior to
the First IETF (approx. January 1).