Request for Comments: 4071 ISC
BCP: 101 B. Wijnen, Ed.
Category: Best Current Practice Lucent Technologies
April 2005
Structure of the IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA)
Status of This Memo
This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the
Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
Abstract
This document describes the structure of the IETF Administrative
Support Activity (IASA) as an activity housed within the Internet
Society (ISOC). It defines the roles and responsibilities of the
IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC), the IETF
Administrative Director (IAD), and ISOC in the fiscal and
administrative support of the IETF standards process. It also
defines the membership and selection rules for the IAOC.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Definitions and Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1. Alphabet Soup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2. Principles of the IASA, IETF, and ISOC Relationship . . 4
2.3. Community Consensus and Grant of Authority . . . . . . . 5
2.4. Termination and Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.5. Effective Date for Commencement of IASA . . . . . . . . 5
3. Structure of the IASA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1. IAD Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2. IAOC Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3. Relationship of the IAOC to Existing IETF Leadership . . 10
3.4. IAOC Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.5. Review and Appeal of IAD and IAOC Decision . . . . . . . 10
4. IAOC Membership, Selection and Accountability . . . . . . . . 11
4.1. Initial IAOC Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5. IASA Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.1. Cost Center Accounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2. IETF Meeting Revenues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.3. Designated Donations, Monetary and In-Kind . . . . . . . 14
5.4. Other ISOC Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.5. IASA Expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5.6. Operating Reserve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6. IASA Budget Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7. ISOC Responsibilities for IASA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
1. Introduction
This document describes the structure of the IETF Administrative
Support Activity (IASA) as an activity housed within the Internet
Society (ISOC). It defines the roles and responsibilities of the
IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC), the IETF
Administrative Director (IAD), and ISOC in the fiscal and
administrative support of the IETF standards process. It also
defines the membership and selection rules for the IAOC.
The IETF undertakes its technical activities as an ongoing, open,
consensus-based process. This document defines an administrative
support structure intended to be responsive to the administrative
needs of the IETF technical community, and it describes how that
support structure fits under ISOC’s organizational umbrella. This
document does not affect the ISOC-IETF working relationship as it
relates to standards development or the communication of technical
advice relevant to the policy and educational goals of ISOC.
The IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA) provides the
administrative structure required to support the IETF standards
process and to support the IETF’s technical activities. As of the
time at which this document was written, this included the work of
IETF working groups, the IESG, the IAB, and the IRTF. Should the
IETF standards process at some future date come to include other
technical activities, the IAOC is responsible for developing plans to
provide administrative support for them. Such support includes, as
appropriate, undertaking or contracting for the work described in
[RFC3716], including IETF document and data management, IETF
meetings, and any operational agreements or contracts with the RFC
Editor and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). The IASA
is also ultimately responsible for the financial activities
associated with IETF administrative support, such as collecting IETF
meeting fees, paying invoices, managing budgets and financial
accounts, and so forth.
The IASA is responsible for ensuring that the IETF’s administrative
needs are met, and met well. The IETF does not expect the IASA to
undertake the bulk of this work directly; rather, the IETF expects
the IASA to contract this work from others and to manage these
contractual relationships to achieve efficiency, transparency, and
cost effectiveness.
The IASA is distinct from IETF-related technical functions, such as
the RFC Editor, the IANA, and the IETF standards process itself. The
IASA has no influence on the technical decisions of the IETF or on
the technical contents of IETF work. Note, however, that this in no
way prevents people who form part of the IASA from participating as
individuals in IETF technical activities.
2. Definitions and Principles
This section describes terminology and underlying principles used in
the rest of this document.
2.1. Alphabet Soup
Although most of the terms, abbreviations, and acronyms used in this
document are reasonably well known, first-time readers may find this
alphabet soup confusing. This section therefore attempts to provide
a quick summary.
IAB: Internet Architecture Board (see [RFC2026], [RFC2850]).
IAD: IETF Administrative Director, defined by this document.
IAOC: IETF Administrative Oversight Committee, defined by this
document.
IASA: IETF Administrative Support Activity, defined by this document.
IESG: Internet Engineering Steering Group (see [RFC2026], [RFC3710]).
IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force (see [RFC3233]).
ISOC: Internet Society (see [RFC2031] and [ISOC]).
2.2. Principles of the IASA, IETF, and ISOC Relationship
This section attempts to describe principles underlying the
mechanisms described in this document.
1. The IETF intends to establish a structure (the IASA) in order to
have IETF administrative functions managed appropriately,
according to good administrative, fiscal, and management
principles. The IASA includes the IAD and the IAOC and shall be
housed within ISOC.
2. The IAD and IAOC shall not have any authority over the IETF
standards development activities. This document does not modify
ISOC’s other roles related to the IETF standards process.
3. The IAD and IAOC, in cooperation with the ISOC President/CEO and
staff, shall develop an annual budget for the IASA. The budget
must clearly identify all expected direct and indirect
expenditures related to the IASA. ISOC, through its normal
procedures, shall evaluate and approve the IASA budget as part of
ISOC’s own budget process and commit to ensuring funds to support
the approved budget.
4. Responsibility for the evaluation, review, and negotiation of
contracts and other IETF administrative and support agreements
and other expenditures of funds under the IASA shall rest with
the IAD, operating in accordance with policies and procedures set
by the IAOC and consistent with ISOC operating policies.
5. Once funds or in-kind donations have been credited to the IASA
accounts, they shall be irrevocably allocated to the support of
the IETF.
6. There shall be a detailed public accounting to separately
identify all funds available to and all expenditures relating to
the IETF and to the IASA, including any donations, of funds or in
kind, received by ISOC for IETF-related activities. In-kind
donations shall only be accepted at the direction of the IAD and
IAOC.
7. Amongst the IETF, IASA and ISOC, the IETF, through the IASA,
shall have a perpetual right to use, display, distribute,
reproduce, modify, and create derivatives of all software and
data created in support of IETF activities.
8. The IASA, in cooperation with ISOC, shall use reasonable efforts
to ensure that sufficient reserves exist to keep the IETF
operational in the case of unexpected events such as income
shortfalls.
The remainder of this document contains details based on the above
principles.
2.3. Community Consensus and Grant of Authority
The IETF is a consensus-based group, and authority to act on behalf
of the community requires a high degree of consensus and the
continued consent of the community. After a careful process of
deliberation, a broad-based community consensus emerged to house the
IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA) within the Internet
Society. This document reflects that consensus.
2.4. Termination and Change
Any change to this agreement shall require a similar level of
community consensus and deliberation and shall be reflected by a
subsequent Best Current Practice (BCP) document.
2.5. Effective Date for Commencement of IASA
The procedures in this document shall become operational after this
document has been approved by the process defined in BCP 9 [RFC2026],
including its acceptance as an IETF process BCP by the ISOC Board of
Trustees, and after the ISOC Board of Trustees has confirmed its
acceptance of ISOC’s responsibilities under the terms herein
described.
3. Structure of the IASA
The IASA structure is designed to ensure accountability and
transparency of the IETF administrative and fiscal activities to the
IETF community. The IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC)
directs and oversees the IASA. The IAOC consists of volunteers, all
chosen directly or indirectly by the IETF community, as well as
appropriate ex officio members from ISOC and IETF leadership. The
IAOC shall be accountable to the IETF community for the
effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency of the IASA.
The IASA consists initially of a single full-time ISOC employee, the
IETF Administrative Director (IAD), who is entitled to act on behalf
of the IASA at the direction of the IAOC. The IAD is likely to draw
on financial, legal, and administrative support furnished by ISOC
support staff or consultants. Costs for ISOC support staff and
consultants are allocated based on actual expenses or on some other
allocation model determined by consultation between the IAOC and
ISOC.
Although the IAD is an ISOC employee, he or she works under the
direction of the IAOC. A committee of the IAOC is responsible for
hiring and firing the IAD, for reviewing the IAD’s performance, and
for setting the compensation of the IAD. The members of this
committee are appointed by the IAOC and consist at minimum of the
ISOC President, the IETF Chair, and one of the Nomcom-appointed IAOC
members.
The IAOC determines what IETF administrative functions are to be
performed, and how or where they should be performed (whether
internally within the IASA or by outside organizations), so as to
maintain an optimal balance of functional performance and cost of
each such function. The IAOC should document all such decisions, and
the justification for them, for review by the community. Each
function should be reviewed on a regular basis using the assumption
that, absent such justification, the function is either unnecessary
or, if necessary, it is overstaffed, rather than using an assumption
that anything that has been done in the past is still necessary; each
function should be adjusted as needed given the result of this
review.
The IAD is responsible for negotiating and maintaining contracts or
equivalent instruments with outside organizations, and for providing
any coordination necessary to make sure that the IETF administrative
support functions are covered properly. All functions, whether
contracted to outside organizations or performed internally within
the IASA, must be clearly specified and documented with well-defined
deliverables, service level agreements, and transparent accounting
for the cost of such functions.
The IASA is responsible for managing all intellectual property rights
(IPR), including but not limited to trademarks, and copyrights that
belong to the IETF. The IASA is also responsible for managing the
ownership, registration, and administration of relevant domain names.
The IASA is responsible for undertaking any and all required actions
on behalf of the IETF to obtain, protect, and manage the rights that
the IETF needs to carry out its work.
If the IASA cannot comply with the procedures described in this
document for legal, accounting, or practical reasons, the IAOC shall
report that fact to the community, along with the variant procedure
that the IAOC intends to follow. If the problem is a long-term one,
the IAOC shall ask the IETF to update this document to reflect the
changed procedure.
3.1. IAD Responsibilities
The IAD is responsible for working with the IAOC and others to
understand the administrative requirements of the IETF, and for
managing the IASA to meet those needs. This includes determining the
structure of the IASA effort, establishing an operating budget,
negotiating contracts with service providers, managing the business
relationship with those providers, and establishing mechanisms to
track their performance. The IAD may also manage other contractors
or ISOC employees (such as support staff) as necessary, when such
contractors or employees are engaged in IASA-related work.
The IAD is responsible for running the IASA in an open and
transparent manner, and for producing regular monthly, quarterly, and
annual financial and operational updates for IAOC and IETF community
review.
The IAD is responsible for administering the IETF finances, for
managing separate financial accounts for the IASA, and for
establishing and administering the IASA budget. The IAD (with IAOC
approval, as appropriate) should have signing authority consistent
with carrying out IASA work effectively, efficiently and
independently, taking into account ISOC’s financial and approval
controls. If there are any problems regarding the level of financial
approval granted to the IAD, the IAOC and ISOC shall work out a
policy that is mutually agreeable, and they shall do so within a
reasonable time frame.
The IAD negotiates service contracts, with input, as appropriate,
from other bodies, including legal advice, and with review, as
appropriate, by the IAOC. The IAOC should establish guidelines for
what level of review is expected based on contract type, size, cost,
or duration. ISOC executes contracts on behalf of the IASA, after
whatever review ISOC requires to ensure that the contracts meet
ISOC’s legal and financial guidelines.
The IAD shall ensure that contracts entered into by ISOC on behalf of
the IASA and/or the IETF (an "IASA Contract") that provide for the
creation, development, modification, or storage of any data
(including, without limitation, any data relating to IETF membership,
documents, archives, mailing lists, correspondence, financial
records, personnel records and the like) ("Data"), grant to ISOC the
perpetual, irrevocable right, on behalf of IASA and IETF, to use,
display, distribute, reproduce, modify and create derivatives of such
Data. ISOC will permit IASA and its designee(s) to have sole control
and custodianship of such Data, and ISOC will not utilize or access
such Data in connection with any ISOC function other than IETF
without the written consent of the IAD.
The IAD shall ensure that personal data collected for legitimate
purposes of the IASA are protected appropriately; at minimum, such
data must be protected to a degree consistent with relevant
legislation and applicable privacy policies.
If an IASA Contract provides for the creation, development, or
modification of any software (including, without limitation, any
search tools, indexing tools, and the like) ("Developed Software"),
then the IAD shall, whenever reasonable and practical, ensure that
such contract either (a) grants ownership of such Developed Software
to ISOC, or (b) grants ISOC a perpetual, irrevocable right, on behalf
of IASA and IETF, to use, display, distribute, reproduce, modify, and
create derivatives of such Software (including, without limitation,
pursuant to an open source style license). It is preferred that
Developed Software be provided and licensed for IASA and IETF use in
source code form, with no ongoing payments. ISOC will permit the
IASA and its designee(s) to have sole control and custodianship of
such Developed Software. The foregoing rights are not required in
the case of off-the-shelf or other commercially-available software
that is not developed at the expense of ISOC.
If an IASA Contract relates to the licensing of third-party software,
the IAD shall ensure that such license expressly permits use of such
software for and on behalf of the IASA and/or the IETF, as
applicable, and that such license is transferable in accordance with
the provisions of Section 7 (Removability).
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the IAD can enter into different terms
if doing so is in the best interest of the IETF and upon approval of
the IAOC.
The IAD and IAOC are responsible for making all business decisions
regarding the IASA. In particular, the ISOC Board of Trustees shall
not have direct influence over the choice of IASA contractors or IETF
meeting sponsors. This restriction is meant to enforce the
separation between fund-raising and the actual operation of the
standards process.
The IAD prepares an annual budget, which is subject to review and
approval by the IAOC. The IAD is responsible for presenting this
budget to the ISOC Board of Trustees, as part of ISOC’s annual
financial planning process. As described elsewhere in this document,
the IAOC is responsible for ensuring the budget’s suitability for
meeting the IETF community’s administrative needs, but the IAOC does
not bear fiduciary responsibility for ISOC. The ISOC Board of
Trustees therefore needs to review and understand the budget and
planned activity in enough detail to carry out its fiduciary
responsibility properly. The IAD is responsible for managing this
process of review and approval. The IAD sees to it that the IASA
publishes its complete approved budget to the IETF community each
year.
3.2. IAOC Responsibilities
The IAOC’s role is to provide appropriate direction to the IAD, to
review the IAD’s regular reports, and to oversee IASA functions to
ensure that the administrative needs of the IETF community are being
properly met. The IAOC’s mission is not to be engaged in the day-
to-day administrative work of the IASA, but rather to provide
appropriate direction, oversight, and approval.
Therefore, the IAOC’s responsibilities are as follows:
o To select the IAD and to provide high-level review and direction
for his or her work. This task should be handled by a sub-
committee, as described above.
o To review the IAD’s plans and contracts to ensure that they will
meet the administrative needs of the IETF.
o To track whether the IASA functions are meeting the IETF
community’s administrative needs, and to work with the IAD to
determine a plan for corrective action if they are not.
o To review the IAD’s budget proposals to ensure that they will meet
the IETF’s needs, and to review the IAD’s regular financial
reports.
o To ensure that the IASA is run in a transparent and accountable
manner. Although the day-to-day work should be delegated to the
IAD and others, the IAOC is responsible for ensuring that IASA
finances and operational status are tracked appropriately, and
that monthly, quarterly, and annual financial and operational
reports are published to the IETF community.
o To designate, in consultation with the IAB and the IESG, the
person or people who carry out the tasks that other IETF process
documents say are carried out by the IETF Executive Director.
The IAOC’s role is to direct and review, not to perform, the work of
the IAD and IASA. The IAOC holds periodic teleconferences and face-
to-face meetings as needed to carry out the IAOC’s duties efficiently
and effectively.
If there is no IAD or if the IAD is unavailable, the IAOC may
temporarily assign the IAD’s duties to individual members of the
IAOC.
3.3. Relationship of the IAOC to Existing IETF Leadership
The IAOC is directly accountable to the IETF community for the
performance of the IASA. However, the nature of the IAOC’s work
involves treating the IESG and IAB as major internal customers of the
administrative support services. The IAOC and the IAD should not
consider their work successful unless the IESG and IAB are also
satisfied with the administrative support that the IETF is receiving.
3.4. IAOC Decision Making
The IAOC attempts to reach consensus on all decisions. If the IAOC
cannot achieve a consensus decision, then the IAOC may decide by
voting.
The IAOC decides the details about its decision-making rules,
including its rules for quorum, conflict of interest, and breaking of
ties. These rules shall be made public.
All IAOC decisions shall be recorded in IAOC minutes, and IAOC
minutes shall be published in a timely fashion.
3.5. Review and Appeal of IAD and IAOC Decision
The IAOC is directly accountable to the IETF community for the
performance of the IASA. In order to achieve this, the IAOC and IAD
will ensure that guidelines are developed for regular operational
decision making. Where appropriate, these guidelines should be
developed with public input. In all cases, they must be made public.
If a member of the IETF community questions whether a decision or
action of the IAD or the IAOC has been undertaken in accordance with
IETF BCPs or IASA operational guidelines, or questions whether the
IASA has created and maintained appropriate guidelines, he or she may
ask the IAOC for a formal review of the decision or action.