[rgchairs] Re: 63rd IETF Agenda - DRAFT

[Rohan Mahy <[e-mail]>]

On Jul 13, 2005, at 7:17, Andrew Newton wrote:
> On Jul 12, 2005, at 11:22 PM, [e-mail] wrote:
>
>> Not to pick on you specificially, but I am always dismayed folks not
>> planning to attend on Friday.
>
> I'm not.  I know quite a few people who don't plan on attending Friday 
> sessions.  For this past meeting in Minneapolis, I knew of quite a few 
> people who left on Thursday morning.
>
> The simple fact of the matter is that many people have limited time 
> and limited budget.  And some people have little choice regarding 
> airline schedules, either they take the 11:00am flight on Friday or 
> they wait an entire extra day for the 11:00am flight on Saturday.  And 
> when meetings are held in places like Paris, some people are under 
> considerable pressure not to give the appearance of a boondoggle.

I don't believe this boondoggle criticism as a reason to go home on a 
Friday.  Anyone who has looked at a recent IETF agenda packed full of 
meetings starting at 9am and running late into evening with meetings 
through Friday is going to understand that the meeting runs for the 
entire week and is very full.  Going there Sunday through Thursday vs. 
Sunday vs. Friday will not change their impression of the conference as 
either useful or a boondoggle.  If anything, I believe I would be a bit 
suspicious if one of my employees decided he really needed to go to a 
technical conference but it wasn't important enough to attend the last 
day of it.

> There are a host of real world issues many participants must grapple 
> with, and telling them that they should be more devoted to the IETF is 
> not helpful.

True, but asking those who are willing to attend all week to jump 
through hoops to accommodate someone else's schedule who chooses not to 
attend is neither fair nor helpful.  I have left IETFs early to spend 
more time with my family and for other personal reasons, but I do not 
ask anyone else to schedule conference meetings based on that choice.

If you want to book early flights before the agenda is out, you are 
playing roulette and you have no business being upset at the folks who 
set the agenda for "losing" some of the time. I believe that the 
process is, on average, fair to everyone.  Some times things will be 
convenient for an individual, and sometimes they won't.

> As for scheduling, I'd rather see the extra plenary session abandoned 
> and have that time dedicated for more working group and bof slots.

I've chaired WG meetings and adhocs during the hours typically 
associated with the plenary, and I don't believe this time makes for 
productive meetings, especially later in the week.  I don't think extra 
evening slots will produce quality face-to-face time, which is 
ostensibly why we bother to attend the meetings at all.

thanks,
-rohan

> -andy


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