Re: location, location Rebooked venues

[Eliot Lear <lear=40cisco.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi John

On 3 Jun 2020, at 03:45, John Levine <johnl@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <CAKr6gn1Mu3xTEAnp0tGLRc=Kw+s0gOao4SbP3Hn5KzEM7w__PQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> you write:

My only concern is that the ESTA/CBP barriers to entry for IETF
participants who have travel issues to the USA remain. We are in
effect normalising US foreign policy discrimination against IETF
participation F2F

No matter where we meet, people will have trouble getting there. When
we met in Montreal, some people had problems getting visas. Canada now
requires an online document called an eTA which is not accidentally
similar to the ESTA in the US.

Hypothetically we might try to meet in Mexico (ICANN has met in
Cancun) but the international connections to Mexico are much sparser
than to the US or Canada, and if people have to transit the US to get
there, now they have two visa problems instead of one.

Finally, we have no idea what the political climate will be like in
the US in 2023. Depending on the results of the 2020 and 2022
elections, getting visas might be more difficult or less difficult
than it is now and I would not want to hazard a guess which.

Here is what we as a community said about this topic in RFC 8718:

      Every country has limits on who it will permit within its borders.

      However, the IETF seeks to:

      1.  Minimize situations in which onerous entry regulations

          inhibit, discourage, or prevent participants from attending

          meetings; failing that, meeting locations are to be

          distributed such that onerous entry regulations are not always

          experienced by the same attendees;

[…]

And 

   IETF meeting Venues are not selected or declined with the explicit

   purposes of:

   Politics:

      Endorsing or condemning particular countries, political paradigms,

      laws, regulations, or policies.

And under important, but not mandatory criteria:

   *  Travel barriers to entry, including visa requirements, are likely

      to be such that an overwhelming majority of participants who wish

      to do so can attend.  The term "travel barriers" is to be read

      broadly by the IASA in the context of whether a successful meeting

      can be had.

I have no doubt that the secretariat has considered all of the mandatory and important criteria, and this one in particular. There was a lot of uncertainty and chaos at the time that the San Francisco meeting was slated to meet, precisely because of new restrictions added.  While we cannot foresee what additional restrictions would be in place in 2021, the secretariat is able to  gather information on how the current restrictions are impacting other organizations.

Eliot