4. Nominating Committee Selection
The following set of rules apply to the creation of the nominating committee and the selection of its members. 1. The completion of the process of selecting and organizing the members of the nominating committee is due within 3 months. The completion of the selection and organization process is due at least one month prior to the Third IETF. This ensures the nominating committee is fully operational and available for interviews and consultation during the Third IETF. 2. The term of a nominating committee is expected to be 15 months. It is the intent of this rule that the end of a nominating committee's term overlap by approximately three months the beginning of the term of the next nominating committee. The term of a nominating committee begins when its members are officially announced. The term ends at the Third IETF (not three meetings), i.e., the IETF meeting after the next nominating committee's term begins. A term is expected to begin at least two months prior to the Third IETF to ensure the nominating committee has at least one month to get organized before preparing for the Third IETF. A nominating committee is expected to complete any work-in- progress before it is dissolved at the end of its term. During the period of time that the terms of the nominating committees overlap, all mid-term vacancies are to be relegated to the prior year's nominating committee. The prior year's nominating committee has no other responsibilities during the overlap period. At all times other than the overlap period there is exactly one official nominating committee and it is responsible for all mid-term vacancies. When the prior year's nominating committee is filling a mid-term vacancy during the period of time that the terms overlap, the nominating committees operate independently. However, some coordination is needed between them. Since the prior year's Chair is a non-voting advisor to the current nominating committee the coordination is expected to be straightforward. 3. The nominating committee comprises at least a Chair, 10 voting volunteers, 3 liaisons, and an advisor. Any committee member may propose the addition of an advisor to participate in some or all of the deliberations of the committee. The addition must be approved by the committee according to its established voting mechanism. Advisors participate as individuals. Any committee member may propose the addition of a liaison from other unrepresented organizations to participate in some or all of the deliberations of the committee. The addition must be approved by the committee according to its established voting mechanism. Liaisons participate as representatives of their respective organizations. The Chair is selected according to rules stated elsewhere in this document. The 10 voting volunteers are selected according to rules stated elsewhere in this document. The IESG and IAB liaisons are selected according to rules stated elsewhere in this document. The Internet Society Board of Trustees may appoint a liaison to the nominating committee at its own discretion. The Chair of last year's nominating committee serves as an advisor according to rules stated elsewhere in this document. None of the Chair, liaisons, or advisors vote on the selection of candidates. They do vote on all other issues before the committee unless otherwise specified in this document. 4. The Chair of the nominating committee is responsible for ensuring the nominating committee completes its assigned duties in a timely fashion and performs in the best interests of the IETF community. The Chair must be thoroughly familiar with the rules and guidance indicated throughout this document. The Chair must ensure the nominating committee completes its assigned duties in a manner that is consistent with this document. The Chair must attest by proclamation at a plenary session of the First IETF that the results of the committee represent its best effort and the best interests of the IETF community. The Chair does not vote on the selection of candidates. 5. The Internet Society President appoints the Chair, who must meet the same requirements for membership in the nominating committee as a voting volunteer. The nominating committee Chair must agree to invest the time necessary to ensure that the nominating committee completes its assigned duties and to perform in the best interests of the IETF community in that role. The appointment is due no later than the Second IETF meeting to ensure it can be announced during a plenary session at that meeting. The completion of the appointment is necessary to ensure the annual process can complete at the time specified elsewhere in this document. 6. A Chair, in consultation with the Internet Society President, may appoint a temporary substitute for the Chair position. There are a variety of ordinary circumstances that may arise from time to time that could result in a Chair being unavailable to oversee the activities of the committee. The Chair, in consultation with the Internet Society President, may appoint a substitute from a pool comprised of the liaisons currently serving on the committee and the prior year's Chair or designee. Any such appointment must be temporary and does not absolve the Chair of any or all responsibility for ensuring the nominating committee completes its assigned duties in a timely fashion. 7. Liaisons are responsible for ensuring the nominating committee in general and the Chair in particular execute their assigned duties in the best interests of the IETF community. Liaisons are expected to represent the views of their respective organizations during the deliberations of the committee. They should provide information as requested or when they believe it would be helpful to the committee. Liaisons from the IESG and IAB are expected to provide information to the nominating committee regarding the operation, responsibility, and composition of their respective bodies. Liaisons are expected to convey questions from the committee to their respective organizations and responses to those questions to the committee, as requested by the committee. Liaisons from the IESG, IAB, and Internet Society Board of Trustees (if one was appointed) are expected to review the operation and executing process of the nominating committee and to report any concerns or issues to the Chair of the nominating committee immediately. If they can not resolve the issue between themselves, liaisons must report it according to the dispute resolution process stated elsewhere in this document. Liaisons from confirming bodies are expected to assist the committee in preparing the testimony it is required to provide with its candidates. Liaisons may have other nominating committee responsibilities as required by their respective organizations or requested by the nominating committee, except that such responsibilities may not conflict with any other provisions of this document. Liaisons do not vote on the selection of candidates. 8. The sitting IAB and IESG members each appoint a liaison from their current membership, someone who is not sitting in an open position, to serve on the nominating committee. 9. An advisor is responsible for such duties as specified by the invitation that resulted in the appointment. Advisors do not vote on the selection of candidates. 10. The Chair of the prior year's nominating committee serves as an advisor to the current committee. The prior year's Chair is expected to review the actions and activities of the current Chair and to report any concerns or issues to the nominating committee Chair immediately. If they can not resolve the issue between themselves, the prior year's Chair must report it according to the dispute resolution process stated elsewhere in this document. The prior year's Chair may select a designee from a pool composed of the voting volunteers of the prior year's committee and all prior Chairs if the Chair is unavailable. If the prior year's Chair is unavailable or is unable or unwilling to make such a designation in a timely fashion, the Chair of the current year's committee may select a designee in consultation with the Internet Society President. Selecting a prior year's committee member as the designee permits the experience of the prior year's deliberations to be readily available to the current committee. Selecting an earlier prior year Chair as the designee permits the experience of being a Chair as well as that Chair's committee deliberations to be readily available to the current committee. All references to "prior year's Chair" in this document refer to the person serving in that role, whether it is the actual prior year's Chair or a designee. 11. Voting volunteers are responsible for completing the tasks of the nominating committee in a timely fashion. Each voting volunteer is expected to participate in all activities of the nominating committee with a level of effort approximately equal to all other voting volunteers. Specific tasks to be completed are established and managed by the Chair according to rules stated elsewhere in this document. 12. The Chair must establish and announce milestones for the selection of the nominating committee members. There is a defined time period during which the selection process is due to be completed. The Chair must establish a set of milestones which, if met in a timely fashion, will result in the completion of the process on time. 13. The Chair obtains the list of IESG and IAB positions to be reviewed and announces it along with a solicitation for names of volunteers from the IETF community willing to serve on the nominating committee. The solicitation must permit the community at least 30 days during which they may choose to volunteer to be selected for the nominating committee. The list of open positions is published with the solicitation to facilitate community members choosing between volunteering for an open position and volunteering for the nominating committee. 14. Members of the IETF community must have attended at least 3 of the last 5 IETF meetings in order to volunteer. The 5 meetings are the five most recent meetings that ended prior to the date on which the solicitation for nominating committee volunteers was submitted for distribution to the IETF community. The IETF Secretariat is responsible for confirming that volunteers have met the attendance requirement. Volunteers must provide their full name, email address, and primary company or organization affiliation (if any) when volunteering. Volunteers are expected to be familiar with the IETF processes and procedures, which are readily learned by active participation in a working group and especially by serving as a document editor or working group chair. 15. Members of the Internet Society Board of Trustees, sitting members of the IAB, and sitting members of the IESG may not volunteer to serve on the nominating committee. 16. The Chair announces both the list of the pool of volunteers from which the 10 voting volunteers will be randomly selected and the method with which the selection will be completed. The announcement should be made at least 1 week prior to the date on which the random selection will occur. The pool of volunteers must be enumerated or otherwise indicated according to the needs of the selection method to be used. The announcement must specify the data that will be used as input to the selection method. The method must depend on random data whose value is not known or available until the date on which the random selection will occur. It must be possible to independently verify that the selection method used is both fair and unbiased. A method is fair if each eligible volunteer is equally likely to be selected. A method is unbiased if no one can influence its outcome in favor of a specific outcome. It must be possible to repeat the selection method, either through iteration or by restarting in such a way as to remain fair and unbiased. This is necessary to replace selected volunteers should they become unavailable after selection. The selection method must produce an ordered list of volunteers. One possible selection method is described in RFC 2777(-> 3797) [1]. 17. The Chair randomly selects the 10 voting volunteers from the pool of names of volunteers and announces the members of the nominating committee. No more than two volunteers with the same primary affiliation may be selected for the nominating committee. The Chair reviews the primary affiliation of each volunteer selected by the method in turn. If the primary affiliation for a volunteer is the same as two previously selected volunteers, that volunteer is removed from consideration and the method is repeated to identify the next eligible volunteer. There must be at least two announcements of all members of the nominating committee. The first announcement should occur as soon after the random selection as is reasonable for the Chair. The community must have at least 1 week during which any member may challenge the results of the random selection. The challenge must be made in writing (email is acceptable) to the Chair. The Chair has 48 hours to review the challenge and offer a resolution to the member. If the resolution is not accepted by the member, that member may report the challenge according to the dispute resolution process stated elsewhere in this document. If a selected volunteer, upon reading the announcement with the list of selected volunteers, finds that two or more other volunteers have the same affiliation, then the volunteer should notify the Chair who will determine the appropriate action. During at least the 1 week challenge period the Chair must contact each of the members and confirm their willingness and availability to serve. The Chair should make every reasonable effort to contact each member. * If the Chair is unable to contact a liaison the problem is referred to the respective organization to resolve. The Chair should allow a reasonable amount of time for the organization to resolve the problem and then may proceed without the liaison. * If the Chair is unable to contact an advisor the Chair may elect to proceed without the advisor, except for the prior year's Chair for whom the Chair must consult with the Internet Society President as stated elsewhere in this document. * If the Chair is unable to contact a voting volunteer the Chair must repeat the random selection process in order to replace the unavailable volunteer. There should be at least 1 day between the announcement of the iteration and the selection process. After at least 1 week and confirming that 10 voting volunteers are ready to serve, the Chair makes the second announcement of the members of the nominating committee, which officially begins the term of the nominating committee. 18. The Chair works with the members of the committee to organize itself in preparation for completing its assigned duties. The committee has approximately one month during which it can self-organize. Its responsibilities during this time include but are not limited to the following. * Setting up a regular teleconference schedule. * Setting up an internal web site. * Setting up a mailing list for internal discussions. * Setting up an email address for receiving community input. * Establishing operational procedures. * Establishing milestones in order to monitor the progress of the selection process.