Re: [Gendispatch] draft-knodel-nomcom-gender-representation-00.txt

[Mallory Knodel <[e-mail]>]

Hi Bob,

On 11/22/23 1:43 PM, Bob Hinden wrote:
>
>> On Nov 22, 2023, at 5:02 AM, Mallory Knodel 
>> <mknodel=[e-mail]> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> On Wed, 22 Nov 2023 at 04:15, Ted Hardie <[e-mail]> wrote:
>>
>>
>>     The advantage of this approach is that in many years you don't
>>     need to do anything to the process at all; in 3 of the past 4
>>     years nothing additional would have happened.  It is only when
>>     the random lot fails to produce the minimum diversity that action
>>     is needed.  It is also relatively simple to work out what to do
>>     to get the minimum diversity.
>>
>>
>> The approach I’ve proposed also would not have required action to the 
>> process at all in three of the past four years.
>
> What is the actual data here?
>
The main data point that motivated this draft is the voting members of 
the current nomcom are all men. There is a lot more data, but I don't 
have it and couldn't speak with authority on it or the careful analysis 
of it. There is also Merika's report shared some weeks back.

> The reason I am asking, is it seems to me given the random selection 
> of NomCom members, that as long as there is a diverse pool of NomCom 
> volunteers, we should get a diverse set of people selected to serve.
>
Yes and in most cases this works out. Statistically sometimes it will 
not. The draft makes a very brief case for why we should intervene by 
ensuring at minimum one gender minority is on the nomcom.
> If there isn’t a diverse pool of NomCom volunteers, that is a 
> different problem and isn’t addressed by this proposal.   That is a 
> serious issue for the IETF and we would be better off discussing how 
> to fix that.

It is a different problem, and not one that this draft is meant to 
address, though I have listed this as part of the problem space. It is a 
serious issue and we should absolutely discuss that, too. We should do 
all of the things and be supportive of every effort at the very same time.

-Mallory

-- 
Mallory Knodel
CTO :: Center for Democracy and Technology
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