Community survey on IETF 125 venue

[IETF Chair <[e-mail]>]

Hi!

# Summary

The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) needs input on planning IETF 125, the March 2026 meeting.  All registered participants in a past meeting between IETF 114 and 119 will receive an individual and non-shareable survey invitation via email with the subject “IETF Survey on IETF 125 venue” from “[e-mail]”  The survey will close Saturday, 27 July 23:59 UTC, 2024, the day after the end of the IETF 120 meeting in Vancouver.

# Detailed Explanation

The IETF Administration LLC operationalized the responsibility given to it by RFC8718 of “arranging the selection … of the IETF plenary meeting venue” by creating the venue identification and selection process [1].

Consistent with Steps 1 - 3 of [1], the IETF LLC assessed and consulted the community on holding a meeting in China (Shenzhen or Beijing).  It concluded that such a meeting venue is within policy and financially viable.  See [2], [3], and [4] for a reference of these assessments, call for community input, and the two summaries of this community consultation.

Due to community concerns expressed with these venues, the IETF LLC has turned to the IESG per Step 4b of [1] to validate that the core values of “why we meet” of RFC8718 will be met.  

==[ from Section 2.1, Core Values, of RFC8718 ]==

Why we meet:
We meet to pursue the IETF's mission [RFC3935]. This is partly done by advancing the development of Internet-Drafts and RFCs. We also seek to facilitate attendee participation in multiple topics and to enable cross-pollination of ideas and technologies.

==[ end ]==

The IESG has assessed that it cannot answer this question of whether a given venue meets the core objective in RFC 8718 of “why we meet” without direct input from the community on their plans for attendance and engagement at the proposed IETF 125 venue.  Hence, a survey will be sent to all meeting participants since IETF 114 with the subject “IETF Survey on IETF 125 venue” from “[e-mail]”

The IESG will synthesize this community feedback after the conclusion of the survey, and plans to answer the IETF LLC’s question about the venue by September 2024.   This decision will be shared with the community along with the aggregated survey results.  If the IESG decision is affirmative that the venue meets the core objective of RFC8718, then the IETF LLC will proceed to step 5 of [1].  If the decision is negative, the IETF LLC will not proceed with these venues in China for IETF 125 and will consider alternatives.

If you are a survey recipient, thank you in advance for your prompt input.  The survey deadline is Saturday, July 27 23:59 UTC, 2024.

Regards,
Roman
(as IETF Chair, for the IESG)

# References

[1] https://www.ietf.org/meeting/planning/

[2] https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/ietf-announce/ph216mZaUexR18dj_pkZrtWwn_k/

[3] https://www.ietf.org/blog/proposed-response-to-meeting-venue-consultations-and-the-complex-issues-raised/

[4] https://www.ietf.org/blog/final-response-to-meeting-venue-consultations/