Andrew >Because some people report that they experience a chilly environment, and we respect those people for their other contributions and would like more people like them to contribute in similar ways, and therefore we want to make the environment less chilly. I'm sort of surprised that that problem, which has been stated in my view quite plainly more than once in this thread, isn't evident to anyone participating. The environment may not be chilly, but may be unaware of experience (did we experience a woman as AD?). The IETF culture can be defined IMO as a argumental experience (firstly) plus technical (secondly), mostly men argue for long (may get unsensitive) but women may not fancy that. The participants' bias is not in technical experience it is in argumental, which is not true that all discussions on the IETF lists are technical, most of the time just men arguing and when they get lost in technical they get backed up with the consensus procedural argument. I don't think women were given a chance to proof their ability to lead the IETF, so men can be aware of new experience. AB