Vernon,
I'm not much for mission statements either. But it's easy to fall into
a "Dilbert" view of the world, even when such things might actually help.
I think the intent is to derive from some community consensus on goals
how to evolve the organization. And we are at a crossroads. Either we
pretty much limit our scope to a more confined area, or we need to grow.
And growing is painful. It involves changing of responsibilities,
delegation, and the like. If a mission statement serves as a point of
consensus from which the IETF management can march, I'm all for it, in
principle.
Of course, it has to have sufficient substance that one can in fact
derive a direction for management of the organization.
Eliot