[98all] IETF 98 IAOC Report — Long Form

[Ray Pelletier <[e-mail]>]

From:  IAOC Chair

This report is provided in advance of IETF98 for the purpose of giving IETF participants more detail of the current work of the IAOC. Please feel free to bring any questions about its contents to the IETF Plenary in Chicago, or share them directly with the IAOC ([e-mail]).

Key areas of this update are:

This meeting:
IETF 98 Chicago

Forward-looking:
Locations and Global Travel Challenges
Community Members on IAOC Committees
Sponsorship and Funding Challenges
Update on Ongoing Topics

2016 Review:
2016 Financial Summary

IETF 98 Chicago

We look forward to a successful meeting in Chicago and thank our Global Host, Ericsson for hosting this meeting. Their willingness to step up to hosting this meeting is particularly noteworthy as we meet in this backup location. We shifted to Chicago when our Montreal venue notified us about 18 months ago that they would be unavailable to house IETF 98 due to renovations. Unfortunately, we can't adjust to all shorter-notice changes that impact venues -- as most are aware has occurred for this meeting. The community has responded to this well, and we appreciate the organizations that are helping in different ways.

Locations and Global Travel Challenges

More generally, as the realities of global travel continue to change, the IAOC is endeavouring to monitor the situations that will impact all of our participants. We meet this week in the United States, a country that has changed its visa and visitor requirements significantly in recent weeks. Prior to the meeting, we received input from people who would be unable to attend the meeting in Chicago. We are interested in hearing whether or what unusual or additional challenges people faced as they crossed the border to come to the Chicago meeting.  Stay tuned for a message in the near future outlining what we're looking for in particular, and where to share the information.  Thanks, in advance, for your thoughtful input.

We have more meetings booked in the US in the upcoming years, and are reassessing these. We continue to monitor the situation for people traveling to this country (as we do for travel to other IETF meeting host countries), and will make updates as and when necessary. We are also conscious, however, that travel requirements may make it difficult for US residents to travel to a non-US IETF meeting with a reasonable expectation of a smooth return home. They may be only able to attend US meetings. Accordingly, we will have to weigh the relative impacts on the community when making a decision.

Community Members on IAOC Committees

Last July we asked the community for volunteers to help on the IAOC’s various committees (https://iaoc.ietf.org/committees.html). We remain appreciative of peoples’ willingness to volunteer, and have benefited from the participation of the community members on the committees. As the IAOC constitutes its committees annually — i.e., the nature of the committees and their composition may change — we will be putting out another call for community volunteers in the coming days.

Sponsorship and Funding — Appreciation and Challenges

Looking forward in 2017, we have set higher fundraising goals for a broader set of sponsorship and funding targets that are part of our planned budget. With attendance at IETF 98 coming in lower than expected by about 150, the sponsorship support is increasingly important. Unfortunately, early reports on progress in 2017 are not as promising as we would like, down by about $150,000.

One of the biggest challenges with finding sponsorship is often identifying interested sponsors and getting them in touch with the appropriate IETF representative to bring the sponsorship to fruition. If you are interested in any of the sponsorship opportunities outlined here https://iaoc.ietf.org/host-and-sponsorship.html, please get in touch with Howie Baggott [e-mail].

Additionally, the IAOC is considering establishing a Sponsorship Support Committee, and will be looking for additional volunteers. To be clear, the role of committee members would be to help the professional sponsorship staff identify possible opportunities, not to do fund-raising themselves!

Update on Ongoing Topics

Several people have asked about the Privacy Policy, for which we have asked for comments as drafts have progressed. The current version is on the agenda for discussion (and, hopefully, adoption) during the IAOC meeting at IETF 98.

The IANA supplementary agreement has been approved by the IAB, and we expect it will be adopted by the IAOC at this meeting.

2016 Financial Report

The December Financial Statement has been published and includes the year end IETF 2016 totals. The final numbers are in line with the shortfall the IAOC had been discussing and describing since the March meeting in 2016. There will be a more detailed year end commentary, with “lessons learned” to be published within 60 days.

Key items to note now are:

The good:
. operating expenses were as budgeted
. meeting expenses were below budget

The bad:
. attendance and sponsorship were both below expectations, meaning less income

With final 2016 numbers, the IETF’s total 2016 income of $3,925,501 was $410,499 below the Budget (-9.5%), while expenditures (excluding Tools Development) totaled $6,354,822, or $147,464 less than budgeted. Including the funding of Tools Development, ISOC provided funding of $2,574,164, $208,878 above the 2016 Budget. The overall outcome was better than we feared in March and were greatly helped by lower costs of meeting space and food and beverage as a result of changes to currency valuations.


Leslie Daigle,
IAOC Chair, for the IAOC.