Re: NomCom 2022-2023 Call for Nominations

Michael StJohns <mstjohns@xxxxxxxxxxx> · Thu, 29 Sep 2022 13:27:59 -0400

On 9/29/2022 12:07 PM, Salz, Rich wrote:
   Revisiting a variation on a question that came up some months
    ago, is the description of why a nomination is being made
     * confidential to the Nomcom Chair and voting members
   	(not exposed to liaisons)
     * confidential to the Nomcom (including liaisons),
    or
     * public
We don't really have a way to keep information from liaisons.  And looking at https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8713.html#section-4.7 and all occurrences of "liaison" in the text, that is clearly not something to do, in my opinion as Chair. All information sent to the committee is confidential and should not be disclosed. This includes the questionnaire responses; they will not be made public, nor will any public statement summarized from them be made public.  (I never said there would be change in that policy, only that I wanted to do it. It's not happening.)

Hi Rich - I believe this is a entirely incorrect response. Sorry - the 
way this is done is for the information to go straight to the chair who 
shares it with the appropriate people.   That's been the case at least 
since I was chair oh so many years ago. There are situations where it's 
just not appropriate for a given liaison (or liaisons) to be given a 
piece of information.   It may be the case that the *tools* don't 
support this, but that is different than saying "this is clearly not 
something to do...".

This is no different than a confidential provision of information on a 
nominee being sent to the chair for anonymous posting.

Liaisons are there to provide information TO the Nomcom, not to glean 
information FROM the Nomcom, although the latter happens in normal course.

Later, Mike

Confidentiality is part of the "NomCom note well" that we show at the start of every meeting. Of course, information has leaked before and probably always will.

If there are concerns about some people seeing the rationale for a nomination, then send that information privately to people you trust to keep your confidence and who will find that input valuable.

-Rich Salz, 2022-2023 NomCom Chair