One last word on operational reserves

[Fred Baker <fred@xxxxxxxxx>]

The ISOC board has been following the development of the Structure of the 
IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA) Internet Draft and some of the 
board members have been participating in the discussion.  The board feels 
that this draft is something that the board can readily agree to support 
and agree that the ISOC will accept the responsibilities of ISOC as 
described in the document.

That said, there may be some disagreement over the meaning of section 5.6 
that should be cleared up before the document is ratified by the IESG and 
some people may have some unrealistic expectations of generating a running 
financial surplus (which we will discuss in a separate message since it 
does not impact the text of the draft)

The second paragraph of Section 5.6 reads (in the -04 version of the draft)
   The IASA expects ISOC to build and provide that operational reserve,
   through whatever mechanisms ISOC deems appropriate: line of credit,
   financial reserves, meeting cancellation insurance, and so forth.  In
   the long term, financial reserves are preferable; it should be a goal
   for ISOC to reach this level of reserves within 3 years after the
   creation of the IASA.

This paragraph could refer to an IETF (IASA)-specific operational reserve 
or to the overall ISOC operational reserve.  The ISOC plans to build up an 
operational reserve to protect all of the ISOC's activities, including the 
IETF-related ones.  The board thinks that this is the appropriate way to 
proceed.  Rob Austein suggested that maybe this paragraph should be removed 
(see http://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf/current/msg33748.html). 
Either removing the paragraph or revising it to make it clear that it is 
referring to the overall ISOC operational reserve would remove the 
potential for misunderstanding. 

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