Re: IETF Chair tasks

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Hi, Brian,


Hi,

I'd be interested to know if anyone has comments on
draft-carpenter-ietf-chair-tasks-00.txt:

   This document describes tasks performed by the IETF Chair, the IESG
   Chair, and the Area Director of the General Area of the IETF.  Its
   purpose is to inform the community of what these tasks are, and to
   allow the community to consider whether combining all these roles in
   one person is optimal.

In particular, with the new NomCom cycle starting soon,
does anyone believe we should discuss the last point?

   Brian

You can expect smarter comments when people surface for air after the ID cutoff (or maybe after IETF 66), but for now, I have a couple of comments.

- the draft points out the hopefully-proactive nature of the IETF chair responsibilities, but is silent on proactive vs reactive vs just-active on the other two responsibilities. My impression as an outsider is that the IESG chair responsibilities also are/should be proactive, but the community has been EXTREMELY resistent to doing General Area work if it can be avoided, so this responsibility is between reactive and inactive. If you agree with my understanding here, it might be good to state this explicitly in the draft (identifying one more reason why you suffer from schizophrenia - lucky you).

- In section 4, I think

  1.  (deleted, down to ) Although the General Area is
      in theory for any work not covered elsewhere, it is in practice
      limited to non-technical topics, i.e.  IETF process topics.  This
      does create a curious meta-problem, which is the constant concern
      about conflict of interest for an Area Director shepherding and
      advocating work that affects (positively or negatively) his or
      her own job.

WAY understates the amount of pushback you get when you (for example) spin up PESCI, or author draft-carpenter-ietf-disputes-00.txt, or ... well, you get my drift. If I understand the situation, you believe that as General Area Director you are responsibile for making things happen that the community believes you should not be making things happen since you are the IESG and IETF chair. Madness lies this way, and it's not a long trip.

This alone would justify a few minutes of consideration, before the next NomCom cycle, I think.

Thanks,

Spencer

p.s. You might also enjoy the following story about General Braxton Bragg, in United States history, appearing in http://www.biocrawler.com/encyclopedia/Braxton_Bragg and elsewhere:

Bragg had a reputation for being a strict disciplinarian and one who adhered to regulations literally. There is a famous story about him as a lieutenant commanding a frontier post where he also served as quartermaster. He submitted a requisition for supplies, then as quartermaster declined to fill it. As company commander, he resubmitted the requisition, giving additional reasons for his requirements, but as the quartermaster he denied the request again. Realizing that he was at a personal impasse, he referred the matter to the post commandant, who exclaimed "My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarreled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarreling with yourself!"


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