Re: What to incorporate (Re: Options for IETF administrative restructuring)

[Dean Anderson <[e-mail]>]

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004, Harald Tveit Alvestrand wrote:

> > I think the IETF also has paid employees. Aren't these people paid by the
> > ISOC?  If not, please correct this information.
> 
> The IETF does not have paid employees.
> ISOC has paid employees, but they do not work for the IETF.
> Foretec has paid employees doing the secretariat job. ISI has paid 
> employees doing the RFC Editor job. ICANN has paid employees doing the IANA 
> job.


The 2003 budget includes this section:
http://www.ietf.org/u/ietfchair/financials-2003.html
==============================================================================
Funding from the Internet Society. This is accounted for in Internet 
Society financial reports. 
      This supports: 
            The RFC Editor - $516,460 
            The IETF Chair's discretionary funds - $47,276 
            The expenses related to the IAB - $37,270 
            Insurance - $13,685
[...]        
Secretariat Labor Expense                    $532 936

==============================================================================

So all labor is either outsourced or volunteer work?

What is the insurance for?

What do the IETF Chair's discretionary funds cover?

I notice that the IETF lists revenue of about $2 million.  Into whose bank
accounts is this money deposited, and what federal tax classification is
used for reporting this revenue?  I don't think its possible to be both
unincorporated and non-profit.


>From http://www.isoc.org/isoc/
==============================================================================
The Internet SOCiety (ISOC) is a professional membership society with more
than 150 organization and 16,000 individual members in over 180 countries.
It provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of
the Internet, and is the organization home for the groups responsible for
                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Internet infrastructure standards, including the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).
==============================================================================


>From RFC 2031:
==============================================================================

The legal umbrella

   To avoid the fact that the IETF has to construct its own legal
   structure to protect the standards and the standards process, ISOC
   should provide a legal umbrella. The legal umbrella will at least
   cover:
   - legal insurance for all IETF officers (IAB, IESG, Nomcom and WG
      chairs);
   - legal protection of the RFC series of documents; In such a way
     that these documents can be freely (i.e. no restrictions
     financially or otherwise) distributed, copied etc. but cannot
     be altered or misused. And that the right to change the document
     lies with the IETF.
   - legal protection in case of Intellectual property rights disputes
     over Internet Standards or parts thereof.

The standards process role

   ISOC will assist the standards process by
     - appointing the nomcom chair
     - approving IAB candidates
     - reviewing and approving the documents that describe the standards
       process (i.e. the formal Poised documents).
     - acting as the last resort in the appeals process

==============================================================================

So it would appear that the ISOC supervises what goes on.

I note that both RFC 2031 and Vint Cerf's History indicates that the 
POISED group recommended that the IETF should be split from the ISOC into 
a separate legal entity.  8 years later, this still hasn't been done.  


		--Dean


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