Re: NomCom procedures revision

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



On 31/08/2015 09:37, John C Klensin wrote:
> 
> 
> --On Monday, August 31, 2015 09:20 +1200 Brian E Carpenter
> <brian.e.carpenter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
>>> This may be too radical but, in the spirit of allowing people
>>> to apply discretion, let me success such a process experiment
>>> based on the principle that the reason for Nomcom-volunteer
>>> qualification rules is to be sure that the selecting members
>>> of the Nomcom have a reasonable understanding of the IETF and
>>> how it works.   For the purpose of this experiment, 
>>>
>>> (1) Anyone meeting the current requirements is automatically
>>> qualified to volunteer, just as they are today.
>>>
>>> (2) Anyone inclined to serve on the Nomcom and willing to meet
>>> whatever requirements for attendance and participation during
>>> the Nomcom's term apply for the Nomcom of interest may submit
>>> his or her name and a very brief statement of qualifications
>>> (or, more specifically, why they believe they are qualified)
>>> to the Nomcom Chair.   The Chair and previous Chair will
>>> consider all such applications and may, based on their
>>> personal discretion and the "reasonable understanding"
>>> principle may be added to the volunteer pool.  When the Chair
>>> publishes the list of volunteers, those who submitted a
>>> statement of qualifications will be included along with their
>>> statements and the decision of the Chair and prior Chair.
>>> Egregiously silly decisions may be objected to following the
>>> usual procedures.
>>>
>>> That experimental model has three important properties: it
>>> involves no new filtering rules, it may allow some people onto
>>> the Nomcom whom everyone would agree have an adequate
>>> knowledge of the IETF but who do not qualify on meeting
>>> counts alone, and it allows us to accumulate information
>>> about who actually volunteers and asks for an exception and
>>> what their claimed qualifications are.  Put differently, it
>>> may help us tell whether we have an actual problem or only a
>>> theoretical one.
>>
>> I decided to sleep on it, and the result is that I'm quite
>> attracted by this idea. Maybe we should have three
>> "gatekeepers" instead of two, but since the random selection
>> process makes the final cut, it doesn't seem that personal
>> bias could be a major factor anyway.
> 
> Largely because of the randomization, I'm not even sure we need
> more than one, but Harald's numbers suggest that there might be
> some advantages in either load-sharing or not dumping this on
> the sitting Ncmcom Chair.  The main reason I suggested two was
> to give the sitting Chair flexibility if deciding about an
> applicant was uncomfortable because of, e.g., a work
> relationship.

Yes, fair comment. Maybe even say "any previous Chair" rather than
"the previous Chair" to give added flexibility in avoiding
conflict of interest.

>> We could add a list of *suggested* criteria such as RFC
>> authorship, active WG contributions, remote participation.
> 
> Yes, but I'd see those as recommendations to the applicant
> (would-be volunteer) to include in a request rather than as
> recommendations to those making the decision about what to
> consider.  If there were less than complete consistency in
> evaluations during the experimental period, that might actually
> be an advantage.

Agreed. We shouldn't overthink the experiment itself.

   Brian




[Index of Archives]     [IETF Annoucements]     [IETF]     [IP Storage]     [Yosemite News]     [Linux SCTP]     [Linux Newbies]     [Fedora Users]