Re: Diversity of IETF Leadership

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At 6:22 AM -0400 3/10/13, IETF Diversity wrote:

 For example, ten years ago, in February of 2003, there were 25 members
 of the IETF leadership (12 IAB members and 13 IESG members).  Of those
 25 members, there was one member of non-European descent, there was one
 member from a country outside of North America or Europe, and there were
 four women.  There were 23 companies represented in the IETF leadership
 (out of a total of 25 seats).

 In February of 2013, there were 32 members of the IETF leadership
 (12 IAB members, 15 IESG members and 5 IAOC members).  Of those 32
 members, there was one member of non-European descent, there were no
 members from countries outside of North America or Europe, and there
 was only one woman.  There were only 19 companies represented (out of
 a total of 32 seats).

Using only two measurement points (February 2003 and 2013) may not give an accurate picture, especially given the small population. Measuring only I* may not be the best gauge; it might be helpful to include document authors/editors, WG secretaries/chairs, nomcom makeup, etc. A broader measurement may be a better tool to let us know if we are making progress or getting worse.


 It is important to the continued relevance and success of the IETF
 that we address this issue and eliminate whatever factors are
 contributing to the lack of diversity in our leadership.  We believe
 that this is an important and urgent issue that requires your
 immediate attention.

 There are several steps that could be taken, in the short-term within
 our existing BCPs, to address this problem:

      - Each of the IETF leadership bodies (the IESG, IAB and IAOC)
        could update the qualifications that they submit to the
        Nominations Committee (through the IAD) to make it clear that
        the Nominations Committee should actively seek to increase the
        diversity of that body in terms of race, geographic location,
        gender and corporate affiliation.

Perhaps the nomcom might be a place to actively seek to increase the diversity of the bodies to which it selects members?

      - Each of the confirming bodies (the ISOC Board for the IAB, the
        IAB for the IESG, and the IESG for the IAOC) could make a
        public statement at the beginning of each year's nominations
        process that they will not confirm a slate unless it
        contributes to increased diversity within the IETF leadership,
        or it is accompanied by a detailed explanation of what
        steps were taken to select a more diverse slate and why it was
        not possible to do so.

I wonder if such a step might be better kept in reserve if other steps don't work? Especially because one of the later proposals is to better understand the causes of lack of diversity in the I* and specific measures to increase diversity? It might be better to take that step before this one.


      - The ISOC President could continue to select Nominations
        Committee Chairs who understand the value of diversity and are
        committed to increasing the diversity of the IETF.

Sounds good, although I wonder about the already difficult process of finding high quality candidates for many positions. I suppose what I am really wondering is if part of the problem of why the I* members are not diverse is that it is so hard to find a pool of willing and able candidates.


      - The Nominations Committee could be offered resources or
        training on the value of diversity, techniques to recruit a
        more diverse candidate pool, and/or information about how to
        minimize conflict-of-interest and personal bias in their
        selection process.

This sounds like a terrific idea.


 We also feel that more substantial and longer-term changes may be
 needed to fully address this issue.  Therefore, we request that the
 new IETF Chair assemble a design team (with diverse membership, of
 course) to determine the causes of this problem and to make
 suggestions for longer-term solutions to be considered by the IETF.

I think this is also a very good suggestion.



 We are committed to working within the IETF to make the changes
 that are needed to correct this serious issue.

 Best Regards,

 (In alphabetical order)

 Bernard Aboba
 Cathy Aronson
 Alia Atlas
 Mary Barnes
 Mohamed Boucadair
 Brian Carpenter
 Stuart Cheshire
 Alissa Cooper
 Spencer Dawkins
 Roni Even
 Janet Gunn
 Stephen Hanna
 Ted Hardie
 Sam Hartman
 Fangwei Hu
 Geoff Huston
 Christian Jacquenet
 Mirjam Kuehne
 Olaf Kolkman
 Suresh Krishnan
 Barry Leiba
 Ted Lemon
 Kepeng Li
 Dapeng Liu
 Allison Mankin
 Bill Manning
 Kathleen Moriarty
 Monique Morrow
 Nurani Nimpuno
 Matt Nottingham
 Erik Nordmark
 Karen O'Donoghue
 Iuniana Oprescu
 Jaqueline Queiroz
 Hosnieh Rafiee
 Pete Resnick
 Lea Roberts
 Simon Pietro Romano
 Peter Saint-Andre
 Eve Schooler
 Rifaat Shekh-Yusef
 Larissa Shapiro
 Melinda Shore
 Barbara Stark
 Brian Trammel
 Tina Tsou
 Justin Uberti
 Margaret Wasserman
 Renee Wilson-Burstein
 James Woodyatt
 Lucy Yong
 Jessica Yu
 Lixia Zhang


--
Randall Gellens
Opinions are personal;    facts are suspect;    I speak for myself only
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If dogs could talk, it would take a lot of the fun out of owning them.
                                                  --Andrew A. Rooney


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