Hi, Rich,
On Mon, Oct 4, 2021 at 9:06 AM Salz, Rich <rsalz=40akamai.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> then making a big deal about getting additional candidates for a
slot that will almost certainly be returned to the incumbent
(because they are completing their first term and have done a
competent job) may actually discourage candidacies for other
positions because, unless people clearly understand the
distinction between first-term and later incumbents -- a
distinction those public calls rarely make-- the impression is
that there is no point being a candidate against an incumbent
unless one is prepared to argue that incumbent has done a bad
job.
When I was first asked to stand for Security AD, I was told that I should consider this a practice run for future because it was almost definite that the current incumbent was going to be re-selected. I don't know if that is, or was, still commonplace.
I certainly learned a lot, the first time I accepted a nomination for a Nomcom-reviewed position, and I've made that observation to other people more than once, when they asked me for advice about accepting a nomination.
But it's also worth noting that even the people on the Nomcom (who shouldn't be telling anyone that) don't know for sure who will be selected in advance, because that depends on a lot of factors, and not all of those factors are under anyone's control.
Perhaps it should be. It has to be a negative impact on the nominee pool, however. Because it means that if you want to be an AD, you have to convince your employer that it will be a couple of years of nearly-full-time commitment, but not immediately. That means convincing them at least twice.
And if you told your boss "yeah, but this is really a practice run, because I'm very unlikely to be selected this year", and then you ARE selected, that's going to be an interesting conversation when the Nomcom contacts you to confirm that you're still willing and able to serve.
The public information about candidates should include all previous nomcom-selected positions they've had. It should be fairly simple to link the nominees to their "dt.ietf/org/person/Lars%20Eggert" page, for example.
Hmmm. You can see that information in https://datatracker.ietf.org/person/Spencer%20Dawkins for me, but it's in text that I wrote, which means that it may not be present for everyone. My current roles are listed, but not previous roles. Mostly, my previous roles don't matter, but for Nomcoms, they're more likely to matter.
More importantly, I notice many of these same suggestions being made annually. The only forum we have for preserving these things is the previous Chair's recommendations, which doesn't seem good enough.
I couldn't possibly comment. 🙂
Best,
Spencer
