The IAB is tasked to nominate a liaison to represent the IETF on the
ICANN Board of Directors. This is a call for nominations for that
liaison. The nomination period will close on 16 March 2018.
The liaison normally serves a two-year renewable term; the IAB plans to
name the new liaison by the May 2018 ICANN Board retreat with the full
transition to be completed by October 2018. Jonne Soininen has served as
the IETF Liaison to the ICANN Board of Directors since 2013, and has
indicated that he will not seek another term. The IAB thanks Jonne for
his service.
The ICANN Mission and the role of the Board of Directors are outlined in
the Board Governance Guidelines [1]:
The mission of ICANN is to ensure the stable and secure operation of
the Internet’s unique identifier systems. The fundamental
responsibility of Directors… is to exercise their business judgment to
act in what they reasonably believe to be the best interests of ICANN
and in the global public interest, taking account of the interests of
the Internet community as a whole rather than any individual group or
interest. Actions of the Board reflect the Board's collective action
after taking due reflection.
It is the duty of the Board to oversee management's performance to
ensure that ICANN operates in an effective, efficient and ethical
manner. The Board will also be responsible for overseeing the
development of ICANN's short, medium and long-term strategic plans,
ensuring that they will result in sustainable outcomes, and taking
account of the critical interdependencies of financial, human,
natural, manufactured, social and intellectual capitals.
The position for an IETF liaison to the board is non-voting.
One of the roles of the liaison is to oversee the operations of the
ICANN in terms of their possible impact or relation to IETF work and the
Internet protocols. Another role of the liaison is to inform ICANN of
any IETF matters relevant to the ICANN. It is expected that the selected
person is effective in communicating between the two organizations, and
has a sufficient understanding of the Internet protocols, DNS, and
assigned number management to identify where potential problems might
occur or where coordination is needed. When needed, the liaison is also
expected to be able to find experts on specific issues on both sides.
The IETF liaison to the board is:
* highly regarded in technical and policy matters.
* constructive in framing new approaches, technically or in terms of
communication.
* willing and able to work well with others.
* expected to have ICANN experience and an understanding of its
processes and workings.
* willing and able to commit the time to work in the board, and follow
the related discussions.
* expected to attend and participate in the ICANN meetings as well as
any additional board meetings (although ICANN has traditionally
covered board member travel costs).
* expected to attend and participate in the IETF meetings,
particularly the working group meetings relevant to work at ICANN.
* able to agree with the requirements for the board members, such as
confidentiality and conflict of interest rules, and is unlikely to
be in a position of conflict of interest for typical board
discussion topics.
The necessary time commitment varies with the extent of work that the
liaison is interested in taking on within the board, but just the travel
and meeting time alone can be substantial. Typically, there are three
ICANN meetings and three additional board meetings per year.
For context, the governance documents for the ICANN board can be found
here: <https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/governance-en>
These include, for instance, overall governance guidelines, the ICANN
bylaws, conflict of interest policies, and travel support:
<https://www.icann.org/en/about/governance/guidelines>
<https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en>
<https://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/governance/coi>
<https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/revised-procedure-2008-08-11-en>
Note that as per Section 7.22.h of the ICANN Bylaws [2], this position
may be entitled to receive compensation from ICANN for services as a
non-voting liaison; however, as per the IAB statement on Liaison
Compensation [3], the IAB generally believes that the guiding principle
should be that individuals serve without expectation of direct
compensation from the bodies to which they are appointed, so as to avoid
any appearance of conflict of interest. As a result, apart from
reasonable travel expenses, the IAB generally requests that its
appointees decline offers of compensation from the bodies to which they
are appointed.
The current board can be found here:
<https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/board-of-directors>
The current meeting schedules of the board and ICANN itself are here:
<https://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/meetings>
<https://meetings.icann.org/en/>
If you are interested in this position, or know of someone who may be a
good fit for this position, please send the name and email address to
<iab-chair@iab.org> with a copy to <execd@iab.org>.
[1] <https://www.icann.org/en/about/governance/guidelines>
[2] <https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en/#article7>
[3] <https://www.iab.org/documents/correspondence-reports-documents/2015-2/iab-statement-on-liaison-compensation/>
