1. Introduction and History

   There are a number of different methods by which an RFC is published,
   some of which include review in the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF), and some of which include approval by the Internet
   Engineering Steering Group (IESG):

   o  IETF Working Group (WG) to Standards Track: Includes WG consensus,
      review in the IETF, IETF Last Call, and IESG approval

   o  IETF WG to Experimental/Informational: Includes WG consensus,
      review in the IETF, and IESG approval

   o  Area Director (AD) sponsored to Standards Track: Includes review
      in the IETF, IETF Last Call, and IESG approval

   o  AD Sponsored Individual to Experimental/Informational: Includes
      some form of review in the IETF and IESG approval

   o  Documents for which special rules exist

   o  RFC Editor documents to Experimental/Informational

   This memo is only concerned with the IESG processing of the last
   category.

   Special rules apply to some documents, including documents from the
   Internet Architecture Board (IAB), April 1st RFCs, and republication
   of documents from other standards development organizations.  The
   IESG and the RFC Editor keep a running dialogue, in consultation with
   the IAB, on these other documents and their classification, but they
   are outside the scope of this memo.

   For the last few years, the IESG has reviewed all RFC Editor
   documents (documents submitted by individuals to the RFC Editor for
   RFC publication) before publication.  In 2003, this review was often
   a full-scale review of technical content, with the ADs attempting to
   clear points with the authors, stimulate revisions of the documents,
   encourage the authors to contact appropriate working groups and so
   on.  This was a considerable drain on the resources of the IESG, and
   since this is not the highest priority task of the IESG members, it
   often resulted in significant delays.

   In March 2004, the IESG decided to make a major change in this review
   model.  The new review model will have the IESG take responsibility
   ONLY for checking for conflicts between the work of the IETF and the
   documents submitted; soliciting technical review is deemed to be the
   responsibility of the RFC Editor.  If an individual IESG member
   chooses to review the technical content of the document and finds
   issues, that member will communicate these issues to the RFC Editor,
   and they will be treated the same way as comments on the documents
   from other sources.

   Note: This document describes only the review process done by the
   IESG when the RFC Editor requests that review.  There are many other
   interactions between document editors and the IESG for instance, an
   AD may suggest that an author submit a document as input for work
   within the IETF rather than to the RFC Editor, or the IESG may
   suggest that a document submitted to the IETF is better suited for
   submission to the RFC Editor but these interactions are not described
   in this memo.