A few days ago, I looked up the LLC status. It was a bit surprising to find out that it is not a recognized not-for-profit legal entity even though it was incorporated in 2018. I did not ask whether that would have an impact on IETF operations.
As Ted has explained, the LLC is a 501(c)(3) but does not have a separate registration, instead it gets that status from ISOC.
The LLC Directors would have discussed the matter. I could not locate when that happened. It looks like a consultation on a theoretical paper as there isn't any evidence to back what is in it.
That does not mean that the problems which the Executive Director is tasked to work on are not real problems. As an example, an IETF attendee is only charged for half the cost of the services he/she is provided with. Where does the other half of the money come from might be one of the questions a person might ask. If it is from the Public Interest Registry, does the fact that the Internet Engineering Steering Group [1] appoint a few members on the board of its holding company mitigate the risk of the IETF LLC posting a significant loss?
Roughly 50% of LLC income comes in the form of support from ISOC. There is a major section of the strategy that discusses this.
As a reminder, the LLC is a sole-member organisation and ISOC is that sole member.
Jay
Regards,
S. Moonesamy
1. I did not verify the details for accuracy.
