Re: draft-sullivan-nomcom-chair-select-00

[Andrew Sullivan <[e-mail]>]

Hi,

On Mon, Feb 14, 2022 at 05:22:52PM +0100, Eliot Lear wrote:

>guess the underlying question here is this: do we (really you) have a 
>problem getting chairs?

It's significant work, yes, but that's not my main concern.  My main
concern is that even though I know a lot of fairly long-time
participants in the IETF, my own knowledge of and familiarity with
their current interests has waned really fast since I took my present
job.  And I started with an advantage.  My contract will end, and
someone new will take my place, and such a person might not come with
the advantage I did.  So I think it's important to try to set up some
kind of regular and well-understood process before such a new
President arrives, whenever that happens.

But even more important is that "knowledge and familiarity waning"
problem.  I kinda don't know anything any more, and I would like to
hope that there have been changes to the IETF population over the
three-and-change years I've been in this job.  That's all invisible to
me, even though someone who was a newcomer in Montreal in July 2018
could now be an experienced hand at the IETF whose views about the
NomCom Chair I probably need when finding candidates.  So I'm hoping
to build something that will allow for that input.

Finally, as a general matter I dislike insider clubs, and the current
selection mechanism is basically "Internet Society President picks
somehow".  That's just _bound_ to create insider bias, so I think
something that provides a mechanism by which someone unfamiliar might
be introduced to the process is good.

None of this is to say that the community shouldn't revise the whole
NomCom process to dismiss the Internet Society President altogether,
if the community wants that.  But I don't want to hold my breath for
that day, and this is something I can do without any of those changes
being necessaary.

Best regards,

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
President & CEO, Internet Society
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