Nominating Committee Process: Open Disclosure of Willing Nominees

The Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), and at-large IETF representatives to the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) are selected by a "Nominating and Recall Committee" (universally abbreviated as "NomCom"). defines how the NomCom is selected, and the processes it follows as it selects candidates for these positions. The NomCom is responsible for filling positions across the breadth of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The NomCom needs relevant information about nominees being considered for these positions, but current requirements for confidentiality limit the ability of the NomCom to solicit that information. The process change described in this document allows the NomCom to openly solicit information about willing nominees.

is the latest in a series of revisions to the NomCom process. describes the confidental nature of NomCom deliberations in section 3, "General", bullet 6, which states: All deliberations and supporting information that relates to specific nominees, candidates, and confirmed candidates are confidential. The nominating committee and confirming body members will be exposed to confidential information as a result of their deliberations, their interactions with those they consult, and from those who provide requested supporting information. All members and all other participants are expected to handle this information in a manner consistent with its sensitivity. It is consistent with this rule for current nominating committee members who have served on prior nominating committees to advise the current committee on deliberations and results of the prior committee, as necessary and appropriate.

There are two problems with existing practice - nominee lists aren't as confidential as would lead the reader to believe, but they aren't visible to the entire IETF community, either. Since at least 1996, most NomComs have sent out a "short list" of nominees under consideration to a variety of audiences. The target audiences differ from year to year, but have included members of specific leadership bodies, working group chairs in a specific area (for IESG positions), and all working group chairs (for IAB and IAOC positions). "All working group chairs" includes multiple hundreds of recipients. This practice is unavoidable, because most NomCom members will not have personal experience with most nominees for most positions, but it is periodically challenged because it's not explicitly allowed as an exception to the blanket requirement for confidentiality. In an attempt to maintain the required level of confidentiality, past NomComs have also included "ringers" on the short list - nominees who have notified NomCom that they are NOT willing to serve. Since anyone who sees the short list does not know who the ringers are, consciencious IETF participants also provide feedback on nominees who have already declined. This is a waste of precious IETF-participant cycles, and Joel Halpern (2008-2009 NomCom Chair) reports that "the ringer pool leaks like a sieve" - it's also ineffective. We also note that the practice of publishing a "short list" penalizes IETF participants who aren't members of one of the audiences being surveyed - they have no way of knowing who is being considered, except for incumbent(s), and have little incentive to provide feedback to NomCom on individuals who might not even be nominees.

We take it as given that for today's NomComs, members will not likely have personal experience with all nominees for all positions under review. We assume that asking the larger community for feedback about these nominees is preferable to NomCom members without personal experience simply deferring to the members of the NomCom who DO have personal experience with specific nominees. We assume that asking for feedback from the entire community is preferable to asking for feedback from specific segments of the community.

In proposing that an accurate nominee list be published as part of NomCom's request for feedback from the community, we considered three possibilities: Asking for feedback on all nominees, whether they are willing to serve or not. Asking for feedback on all nominees who are willing to serve. Asking for feedback on the nominees that NomCom is seriously considering (the "short list"). Asking for feedback on nominees who are not willing to serve is a waste of precious IETF-participant cycles, and may make it less likely that NomCom would receive feedback on some nominees who ARE willing to serve. Asking for feedback on all nominees who are willing to serve allows the community to point out specific strengths and weaknesses of all nominees, and this feedback should be useful to NomCom in deciding which nominees to seriously consider. It also allows NomCom to receive feedback on nominees who might not appear on a "short list" initially, in the event that a strong nominee is suddenly unwilling or unable to serve. We also note that the list of willing nominees would include incumbents who are willing to serve an additional term.

This section acknowledges possible concerns about publishing open nominee lists in previous discussions. It is possible that nominees who are willing to be considered if the nominee list is not published, would not be willing to be considered if the nominee list is published. This reluctance might be the result of personal pride, or the result of the fear of retribution, for a nominee being considered as a replacement for the nominee's managing Area Director (this concern is usually raised in an IESG context). Spencer's personal opinion is that if retribution for willingness to be considered for IETF leadership positions is a serious concern, we have bigger problems than nominee list confidentiality, and Spencer notes that it's called the "Nominating AND RECALL Committee" for a reason. We note that (for example) the Internet Architecture Board publishes the nominee list for their representative to the Internet Society Board of Trustees, without apparent ill effects. It is possible that publishing the nominee list publicly would lead to "lobbying", public statements supporting nominees on the IETF mailing list, etc. Rather than trying to prohibit specific "undesirable" behaviors, we trust that NomCom would focus on factual feedback, rather than on statements of support, in its deliberations. We note that nominees know they are under consideration and can "lobby" today, by telling people they are willing to serve and asking them to provide feedback to NomCom. Several nominees (both incumbents and non-incumbents) have posted statements of candidacy to the IETF Discussion mailing list, for example.

At the end of the three paragraphs in , section 3, "General", bullet 6, which are currently: All deliberations and supporting information that relates to specific nominees, candidates, and confirmed candidates are confidential. The nominating committee and confirming body members will be exposed to confidential information as a result of their deliberations, their interactions with those they consult, and from those who provide requested supporting information. All members and all other participants are expected to handle this information in a manner consistent with its sensitivity. It is consistent with this rule for current nominating committee members who have served on prior nominating committees to advise the current committee on deliberations and results of the prior committee, as necessary and appropriate. add the following paragraphs: The list of nominees willing to serve in positions under review in the current NomCom cycle is not confidential. The NomCom will publish the list of names of all willing nominees to the community, in order to obtain feedback from the community on these nominees. The list of nominees published should not contain nominees who have not indicated a willingness to serve in the position(s) under review. The published list is intended to be published as a complete list, but the NomCom may publish an updated list if the NomCom identifies errors/omissions in a previously-published version of the public list, or if the NomCom finds it necessary to call for additional nominees, and these nominees indicate a willingness to serve in time to be considered by the NomCom.

This specification describes issues with the current IETF Nominating Committee process () and proposes an update to allow the NomCom to solicit feedback on willing nominees from the entire community. No security considerations apply.

No IANA actions are requested in this specification.

The editor thanks the following folks who have provided useful observations and guidance on previous versions of this draft: Brian Carpenter, Leslie Daigle, Joel Halpern, Danny McPherson.