--On Tuesday, 31 July, 2012 05:41 -0400 Sam Hartman <hartmans-ietf@xxxxxxx> wrote: > I'd probably also recommend excluding paid employees of ISOC. > I cannot really think of rationale that applies to the > secretariat staff but not ISOC. There is one, which is that the IETF and its leadership bodies have just about zero influence over the recruitment and hiring of those people. But that same comment applies to IANA staff (as distinct from the Secretariat). We don't hire them, we don't pay them, no money passes (in either direction) between ICANN/IANA and the IASA/IETF, etc. In theory, we could "designate" some other entity as the IANA, which might or might not cost some current IANA staff their jobs. But there are questions about how realistic that is (not part of this discussion). We certainly cannot fire ISOC and, given their charter, it isn't clear they could fire us. If they could, they'd have to fire the entire IETF, not individuals. I suppose one could argue that ISOC staff might have undue influence on the behavior of the ISOC BoT as a confirming body, but I find that really dubious. john