I think describing the criteria is a good thing. And, it would certainly be good to get a larger pool for chair selection, just as it would be to get larger pools for Nomcom volunteers (e.g., less than 10% that regularly attend meetings actually volunteer) and it would be good to get a larger pool of Nominees for the positions to be filled (we had 3
AD positions this past round with a single nominee).
I don't know exactly what challenges you refer to when it comes to the chair if they've not been a past member of a Nomcom. That wasn't an issue I identified in my Nomcom report: https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-barnes-nomcom-report-2009-00.txt
I don't know how many chairs have not been past members of Nomcom in some form. I think I was probably the first. And, it's not that I hadn't volunteered to be on the Nomcom for the 9+ Nomcoms. I figured with my luck being chair was the only way I'd get on a Nomcom (I don't buy lottery tickets). But, I thought being chair and not having been on a prior Nomcom was a positive because I brought in no bias into the part of the process that is not documented in our detailed process procedures. The chair has no vote on the ultimate selection and the prior year's chair is there in the case that you might have a chair that is going off the rails. I do think it's extremely important that whomever is selected as chair has a lot of IETF experience to ensure that they have a very good understanding of how things work.
I can tell you having just served on a Nomcom as a voting member that the member's insight into what all is involved in serving as chair doesn't come close to the amount of work and tasks involved. It is one of the most difficult roles in IETF in my opinion. But, the overall outcome of the process is more dependent on the voting members and the fact that only 10% of the community is generally willing to volunteer for the role is a bigger problem IMHO. And, while I don't think it's been an issue in practice having a broad range of experience amongst the voting members, it is extremely important to have experienced IETF members as voting members. We had a document on this topic, as well as other challenges of Nomcom a while back: https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-crocker-nomcom-process-00.txt. I think most of those are still relevant.
In short, I think chair selection, while probably a challenging task for the ISOC chair, is the least of our problems when it comes to the integrity of the process. It likely would be very helpful to document how past ISOC chairs have made their selection, but I don't think it's a good idea, nor necessary, to open it up to volunteers, community feedback, etc.
Regards,
Mary
On Sun, Feb 13, 2022 at 11:54 PM Andrew Sullivan <sullivan@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear colleagues,
I write with my job hat on. I'm employed by the Internet Society.
Part of my job here is to select the NomCom Chair. I've been
uncomfortable about how that has worked in the past, and more than a
year ago I said I'd write a new process. I failed at that goal, but
it's a new year so I've finally written this. It's at
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-sullivan-nomcom-chair-select/.
I am eagerly requesting feedback on that draft _for things under my
control_. The procedures in RFC 8713 give me a lot of latitude in how
to deal with this appointment. They give me no control whatsoever as
to whether I _should_ be able to do this, who else should do it, and
so on. Feedback of the form "Here's how NomCom should work for real,"
will be ignored, because they will not provide me guidance as to what
I should do.
Please also resist the temptation to tell me, "Tell someone else it's
their thing and promise to follow what they promise." If the IETF
wants to modify RFC 8713, including removing my own role in this
selection, I don't imagine a universe in which I'd work to work to
foil that. But similarly I am not willing to create an entirely new
consultative body (or new job for an existing consultative body)
without the community saying so. This document is merely an outline
of how I plan to execute my duties as they're already defined.
I hope this will be a modest contribution to the IETF, and I look
forward to your suggestions.
_Please_ send me feedback directly and not copied to the list. I
won't be able to follow discussion about this on the list except
sporadically, and I'm going to have to put this plan into action some
time in the coming weeks. Thanks very much.
Best regards,
A
--
Andrew Sullivan
President & CEO, Internet Society
sullivan@xxxxxxxx
+1 416 731 1261
