Mike, On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 09:03:25PM -0400, Michael StJohns wrote: > > The process for selecting and appointing liaisons is the purview of the > IAB and not currently subject to external review - and I don't find any > problem with that. I fully agree with this. All I am asking for is a call for volunteers. I am not even asking for publication of the resulting list of volunteers to allow for public comments. The IAB, the IESG or whatever body in the IETF that needs to fill a position cannot possibly know all possible candidates for a position. The IETF is not a small community any longer where everybody knows each other. It is very easy to overlook good potential candidates. An open call helps the bodies that make the decisions to find as many candidates as possible. How can potential candidates even know that somebody is looking for a candidate if the potential candidate is not part of the incrowd him/herself ? And yes, I speak from experience: I have been an Area Director and I did open calls for volunteers whenever a position needed to filled. It involves some extra work but I did find that there were many more capable people that could fullfill the roles than I would have thought before I initiated such a call (the pool of candidates often turned out to much heathier than my initial guess of a "thin" pool). David Kessens ---