[Eligibility-discuss] Re: [Gendispatch] Re : Comments on Composition and Comportment of the IETF Nominating Committee d raft

[John R Levine <[e-mail]>]

On Sun, 23 Aug 2026, S Moonesamy wrote:
> Thank you for sharing the statistics.  There doesn't seem to be a correlation 
> between the number of nomination committee members who are women and the 
> number of women appointments on the IESG.

Agreed.

> Looking at a nomination committee from the outside, I would say that it does 
> not look great when there aren't any women on it.  People from other 
> communities have asked me (I was serving in a role) about gender imbalance. 
> I didn't argue too much in my replies to them on that as a potential fallout 
> could be consequential.

I don't think it would be a good use of our limited resources to make 
changes that we know are unlikely to make a real difference solely to 
impress some set of outsiders.

It's not hard to think of changes unrelated to the nomination process that 
could make the IETF a more welcoming place for people who are not old male 
nerds.  I hope that an effect of the new moderation scheme will be to tamp 
down our infamously rude image.  As I have said many times, M3AAWG set up 
some straightforward behavior rules and went from a boys club to one where 
there is gender parity in all roles from meeting attendees to the top 
leadership.

R's,
John