> On Dec 7, 2018, at 2:33 AM, John C Klensin <john-ietf@xxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > --On Thursday, December 6, 2018 14:25 -0800 Bob Hinden > <bob.hinden@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> ... >>> This retreat's agenda is out of the ordinary with its heavy >>> legal and finance focus, whereas regular IETF LLC Board >>> meetings won't be as loaded with this material and will >>> follow the structure of having the majority of the meeting >>> open to observers and a smaller executive session on an as >>> needed basis to deal with personnel, legal, and financial >>> discussions. >> >> I am not sure I understand why the board discussing financial >> and legal matters all need to be in closed session. Other >> than topics like contract negotiations, personal compensation, >> operational legal issues, etc. But I didn't see anything >> like that in the agenda. Much of the agenda appears to be >> about transition, process, policies, procedures, etc. > > In addition, I note that the Nomcom has not yet filled the > positions so the Board is either shorthanded or operating with > at least some people who were appointed under the criteria for > the IAOC rather than those for the LLC Board. Because decisions > about financial and legal matters, and even contract > negotiations, etc., tend to be irreversible (at least at any > reasonable level of cost and trouble). I wonder about how many > of those issues absolutely have to be addressed now rather than > after the full LLC Board, selected under the new criteria, is > seated. > > john The Interim Board is deferring as many decisions as possible to the full board to take up when it is seated in March. However the administrative tasks to support the IETF didn’t go away with the shutdown of the IAOC, as well there are a number of timely responsibilities for the IETF LLC that come with the IASA 2 transition and the upcoming year end. Meaning, there are a number of items which must be either addressed, or put into motion before the full board is seated. The iETF LLC is an active entity that has responsibilities that it needs to deal with that cannot be deferred, that’s why the current Interim board was necessary and was put into place while the full board selection process was conducted. The interim board is operating under the mode of deferring as much as is possible to the full board, but the interim board does have the duty to make sure the LLC is meeting its legal, financial, and operating responsibilities and dealing with IASA 2 transition related duties. There are contracts which have been held by ISOC which are transitioning to the LLC, some of which come with issues that must be dealt with now. There are financial tasks including transfers from ISOC to the LLC which are happening before year end that need to be dealt with now as the LLC is responsible for paying our bills associated with those transitioned contracts.. There are also future IETF meeting issues that need to be addressed now that would have previously been dealt with by the IAOC. Finally, there are topics such as RFPs that will be decided by the full LLC board, but which we need to start the RFP process for now because there are contracts which expire very shortly after the full board is expected to be seated and it would be irresponsible to dump it on the incoming board to attempt to properly run a well run RFP process in the short window between seating and the contract expiry date. Decisions which can be responsibly deferrable are being deferred, and in other cases where a decision needs to be made now we have been trying to leave flexibility where possible for the full board to make changes after they are seated. Regards Glenn
