I wanted to followup to my earlier comment on COI for the IETF LLC Board members. The discussion has gone in different directions. The case I am concerned about is where LLC board members have conflicts of interest based on a relationship they (or a family member) have with organizations that are doing business with the IETF LLC. Doing business means exchange of services/products for money. I would expect in practice it would be very unusual for a board member to have this kind of COI. The LLC doesn’t do business with many other organizations. For example to cite two theoretical examples, a LLC board members is an employee or contractor for AMS, or one of the companies doing tools development. To be clear, these are theoretical examples, I am not suggesting any LLC Board member has a conflict like this. If we do have board members with conflicts of interest due to employment or contracts with organizations the LLC is doing business with, it should be disclosed publicly. They can still be on the board, but for transparency it should be known that this COI exists to the other LLC Board itself, and to the IETF community. If they can’t publicly disclose this COI, then they should not be on the board. If it is not obvious, the reason I think these kinds of relations should be disclosed publicly, is the real and perceived conflict about how the LLC makes discussion regarding spending the IETF's money. I understand this is a higher standard that the ISOC board which I have served on. That is something the ISOC board should take up. It has had some earlier issues with COI itself. I am not trying to write rules or procedures here, that is something the LLC Board should do. I am stating a principal that I think the LLC Board should follow. The larger issue of other members of our leadership (IESG, IAB, etc.) is an interesting topic, but not what I was concerned about. That will require a different discussion. Bob
