Dear colleagues, Attached, please find the report from the IAOC at IETF 102. We hope this is useful to you in formulating any questions you might have for us this week. If you will have questions for us that you'd like us to answer during the plenary, you can also send them to us in advance at iaoc@xxxxxxxx. If you do so, we are more likely to have the particular details available to anwer your question immediately. Of course, sending your questions in advance is not required, but you might get a more satisfying answer on the spot that way. Respectfully submitted, Andrew Sullivan for the IAOC -- Andrew Sullivan ajs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Report from the IAOC to the IETF at IETF 102 July 2018 Current state ============= The IAOC is currently working in a "business as usual" mode, pending the community decision about IASA 2.0. Our current evaluation is that the IETF LLC is likely to come into being quite soon. To that end, the IAOC has been focusing on ensuring that its role is restricted to oversight. To remind everyone of things we said around IETF 101, the "usual business" this year has included a lot of change. Partly due to retirements, we have replaced the IAD (for now on an interim basis), the IETF counsel, changed the support arrangements with AMS, and engaged a dedicated fund raiser. The IAOC elected a new chair at IETF 101, but he (Andrew Sullivan) becomes ineligible to serve starting in September, so the IAOC expects to elect a new chair at IETF 102. Some of the changes have highlighted an apparent structural weakness in the IASA. It appears that procedures were not always written down as completely as one might like, and the apparent gaps have had to be filled in from people's recollections. This has occasionally meant that things are not as smooth as we might like. We think the biggest gaps have been filled, but it is possible that the transition implied by IASA 2.0 will turn up more. Committees ========== At the IAOC retreat in April, the IAOC determined that it needed to work harder to restrict itself to its only task, which is administrative oversight. The IAOC decided that priorities and needs for IETF tools are actually set by the IETF chair in co-operation with the IESG, and that the only job of the IAOC in that area is to ensure the necessary funding is available (or to push back when the funding is not available). Accordingly, the IAOC closed the Tools Management Committee. At the same meeting, the IAOC closed the Sponsorship Committee (since it had existed to fill the gap now filled by Ken Boyden) and the RFP Committee (because that is an activity properly handled by the IAD). The IAOC also reorganized the Finance Committee in an effort to reduce the tendency to have finance discussions twice, and appointed the rest of the Venue Review Committee membership. Venue Review ============ The IAOC has been gradually implementing the approach to venue selection expressed in the output of the MTGVENUE working group, and and you can find all the relevant info at https://iaoc.ietf.org/venue-selection.html. An important part of that has been the replacement of the former Meetings Committee with a new Venue Review Committee. The new committee is intended to be quite limited in its scope, because its primary task is to evaluate staff recommendations for conformance with the MTGVENUE criteria. This is not an algorithm, of course, so some judgement will be required. But the process is intended to be lightweight and transparent to the community. We're continuing to refine procedures for this, and you should expect to see more announcements over time. Budget ====== The approved budget for 2018 did not include funds for the IASA 2.0 transition. A request for funds for that purpose has been sent to ISOC, and approved. It appears that expenses related to the EU General Data Protection Regulation were underestimated in the 2018 budget. Some other expenses have been lower than expected, however, so those funds will be used to cover the GDPR expenses. The guidance for the future indicated a possible rise in IETF meeting registration fees. As we announced in April (see https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf/hCIETWZ87KjsS7-hLEGRR-Y1BD0 and https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf/JlD0W0TwDdWcmeWqCJ4L-tQRbcE), the IAOC was able to avoid an increase this year by rearranging the fee schedule. Starting with IETF 103, a registration is not complete until it is paid. The early bird fee will remain the same at $700, but the payment deadline will be 7 weeks before the Monday opening the meeting. The standard rate of $875 will be due by 2 weeks before the Monday meeting, after which the fee rises to $1000. That is also the fee for on-site registration. Cancellations incur a 10% penalty on refund, unless the registrant's travel visa was denied (in which case we refund the registration fees completely). Montreal 102 Sponsorship Revenue realized a cash total of $443,332. The total budgeted cash sponsorship was $450,000. There was some good news due to some unanticipated sponsorship, but we still ended up in a negative position: • While we had support for the Hackathon, we did not realise a targeted Hackathon Sponsorship of $50,000. An overall Hackathon Sponsor continues to prove to be a challenge, in part due to the apparent realization that whether sponsored or not, the event will be held. The event is valuable and there is no intention to reduce our commitment to it, but if people think we'll hold it no matter what then it is harder to get separate sponsorship and it becomes a permanent part of the IETF baseline budget. • Additionally, an unachieved 2nd Bronze Sponsorship ($10,000) resulted in a separate shortfall from what we budgeted under the Precious Metals category. The net result of Montreal 102 Sponsorship is a modest deficit ($6,668), illustrating the import of an overall Hackathon sponsor for future meetings. Upcoming meetings ================= IETF 103 will meet in Bangkok, Thailand November 3-9 2018. We cannot provide particular advice to prospective participants about whether any particular traveller will need visa, but we urge everyone to consider the available evidence from the official Thai government sites, from various Thai government announcements, and from reports of other travellers (not to mention from your own or your employer's travel policies). The host letter of invitation will be available once registration opens, to anyone who has registered (i.e. paid) as well as to previous IETF attendees prior to registering for the meeting. It is the first time the IETF will be in Thailand. This meeting does not currently have a host. IETF 104 will meet in Prague, Czechia, March 23-29. This is a well-known venue and we do not anticipate problems. The hosting for this meeting is currently under negotiation. IETF 105 will return to the same venue as 102: Montréal, Québec, Canada July 20-26 2019. The host is Comcast and NBCUniversal. Negotiations for a venue, anticipated in Asia, are ongoing for IETF 106. The situation is in good shape, but we have not concluded negotiations and have not made an announcement yet.
