Re: Updating BCP 10 -- NomCom

"Murray S. Kucherawy" <superuser@gmail.com> Thu, 12 February 2015 00:46 UTC

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Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2015 16:46:46 -0800
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Subject: Re: Updating BCP 10 -- NomCom
From: "Murray S. Kucherawy" <superuser@gmail.com>
To: Michael StJohns <mstjohns@comcast.net>
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On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 12:45 PM, Michael StJohns <mstjohns@comcast.net>
wrote:

>  A couple of things.
>
> The nomcom is not either individually nor collectively the "hiring
> manager" for the IETF.  It neither makes the final decision (that's the
> CB's call), nor does it direct the work of the "hired" entity.
>
> The Nomcom is and always has been a "search committee" and as such it
> gathers and winnows candidates before proposing them for confirmation.
> Indeed, there is no bar to the Nomcom proposing multiple candidates for a
> position and allowing the CB to choose its preference - that hasn't
> actually been done, but its not barred.
>

I think that's a fair point.  I've adjusted her suggested text accordingly.


> The interview should be used to fill in details not clear from the
> questionnaire, so matters of fairness should be addressed when crafting the
> questions, not later when you get around to talking with the candidate.
> Generally, the interview should be used to evaluate the BS factor of the
> answers from the questionnaire and not delve into new fields or hobby
> horses of the interviewers.
>

The questionnaire is actually not codified in BCP 10 anywhere.  Does anyone
think it needs to be?


> The digression to "thinking slow" is interesting, but somewhat trendy.
> Next year there will be another interview and decision method that will be
> trendy and its unclear why this "thinking slow" would be a better choice
> than next year's flavor and why it should be immortalized in the next
> version of 3777.  I would instead focus on the virtues of clarity,
> completeness and fairness and leave the rest of it to the best abilities of
> the chosen Nomcom.  In any event, attempting to "program" the Nomcom
> members to a specific behavior pattern will be unsuccessful.
>

I tend to agree with this, though since we do have an appendix that talks
about "oral tradition", there's probably little harm in including this
stuff in a similar appendix.  We could even label it clearly as something
that worked well for NomCom 2013.


> Allison - your desire to have 3+ interviewers per interviewee is going to
> contribute to slowing down the process even more.  At this point I see us
> starting to try and begin the process a full two years before confirmation.
> (Yup - hyperbole, but seriously, we're spending WAY too much calendar time
> from first indication of candidacy to selection).
>

I also disagree with this.  I served on NomComs 2013 and 2014, we did it
this way, and it worked rather well.

-MSK