IAOC Report for may, 2005

Monthly Report for the IAOC for May, 2005.

The IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) was formed

to provide appropriate direction to the IAD [IETF Administrative
Director], to review the IAD's regular reports, and to oversee
IASA functions to ensure that the administrative needs of the IETF
community are being properly met."

The IAOC is charged by BCP 101 with providing regular reports to the
IETF community; this monthly report is intended to serve as part of
this reporting requirement.

The current membership is (in alphabetical order):

Brian Carpenter, IETF Chair, ex officio.
Steve Crocker, appointed by the ISOC Board of Trustees for two years.
Leslie Daigle, IAB Chair, ex officio.
Kurtis Lindqvist, appointed by the IESG for one year.
Lucy Lynch, appointed by the IAB for two years.
Lynn St Amour, ISOC President/CEO, ex officio.

Two additional members are to be provided by the NomCom; this
selection process is still underway.

The IAOC conducts regular (presently weekly) teleconferences, for
which minutes are currently available at
http://www.alvestrand.no/ietf/adminrest/transteam/notes/.

The work conducted by the IAOC during the month of May centered on the
following areas : hiring of the IAD, establishment of a Trust for IETF
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), establishment of a contract for
Secretariat Services, and resolving logistical and housekeeping
details associated with the start of a new oversight body and a new
employee.

IAD Hiring :

In December of 2004, the IASA Transition Team developed a position
description for the IETF Administrative Director (IAD) based on
documents and discussion developed as part of the AdminRest effort
(http://www.alvestrand.no/ietf/adminrest/).

The IETF Administrative Director Job Announcement was posted to
ietf@ietf.org on Tuesday, January 18th, 2005. The position was also
posted on the ISOC web site. Additional copies were distributed via
email to operator and RIR mailing lists (NANOG, LACNIC, NORDNOG,
AFNOG, APNIC, ARIN, RIPE, SANOG), and to local ISOC chapter mailing
lists.

Review of applications began on February 15th, and a second call for
applications was made in late February. The received timely
applications from 71 candidates and of those 9 self identified as
Ms/Miss/Mrs Mme, 5 self identified as Dr/Prof, and 5 selected no
title. Applicants came from 29 countries, and 28 listed the USA as
their current residence. Other countries listed included: Argentina,
Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iraq,
Italy, Japan, Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine,
Paraguay, Peru, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden,
Switzerland, Trinidad/Tobago, United Kingdom, Venezuela, and Wales.

The IASA-TT did three rounds of paper screenings in early March and a
group of candidates was selected for telephone interviews based on
qualifications. Those interviews were conducted in late March by the
IASA-TT. The IAOC was formally seated the first week in April and
decided to bring a small pool of candidates in for a second round of
in-depth interviews. The selected candidates were asked to provide
references from former employers (2), former employees (2), and from
professional or personal contacts (2). Individual members of the IAOC
then conducted interviews with references by phone and debriefed with
the group.

The format for the in-depth interview required candidates to review
the BCP and to monitor recent postings to ietf@ietf.org. Interviews
were conducted during the second week of May and each candidate
participated in a combined phone/face-to-face meeting with members of
the IAOC. Candidates were questioned on their understanding of the
proposed IETF restructuring and to share their observations and
reactions to current issues (as viewed via ietf@ietf.org). This
process yielded several strong candidates and provided the IAOC with
some interesting feedback on what our process looks like from the
outside.

The final selection process once again involved a phone interview and
an assignment. Candidates were asked to prepare a short written
presentation and members of the IAB and IESG were invited to
participate in the telechat based delivery of these materials. IAB and
IESG members then had a chance to question each of the candidates
directly. The IAOC solicited feedback from these "audience members"
and made a final evaluation based on qualifications, reference checks,
candidate presentations, and group feedback. A decision was made to
offer the position to Ray Pelletier and he accepted the offer from the
ISOC and started on May 31..

As IAD, Pelletier will take charge of a number of activities that the
IETF depends on for smooth operation, such as oversight of its global
budget, meeting planning, secretariat, document publication, and
parameter assignment. Most of these activities are carried out for the
IETF by other organizations under various forms of agreement;
Pelletier will be responsible for reviewing and establishing those
agreements and for future bidding processes.

Pelletier has extensive leadership and management experience across
the breadth of public, private, for-profit, non-profit, and volunteer
organizations. As Director of Information Systems for the Navy Jag
Corps he was responsible for managing a $10 million worldwide
automation program. In his role as Executive Director for the Northern
Virginia Technology Council he successfully managed the organizational
development and operational support of a fast growing membership
association, the Northern Virginia Technology Council (nvtc.org).

The IAOC felt that it had a number of highly qualified applicants for
this position and it very much appreciates the care and commitment
that the individuals interviewed demonstrated throughout the process,
and wished to extend its thanks to everyone who participated.

IPR Trust :

The IAOC received on May 5th a new draft Trust Agreement from CNRI and
is in the process of preparing a response. The IAOC expects that a
revised Trust Agreement will be sent to CNRI in early June.

Contract for Secretariat Services :

At present, there is no outstanding contract for the services provided
by the IETF Secretariat. The IAOC is empowered by the BCP 101 to
execute such a contract and is pursuing this matter vigorously. The
IETF Secretariat is hosted by Foretec Seminars Inc., a subsidiary of
the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). Foretec is
currently in the process of being sold to NeuStar, Inc. Assuming that
this sale is completed, the IAOC intends to contract with NeuStar, if
mutually acceptable terms can be reached, to provide these services
for a term not to exceed 2 years, with subsequent terms being
contracted under a formal Request for Proposals. The IAOC held a
meeting on May 19th with Mark Foster of NeuStar, together with legal
counsel. The IAOC is currently awaiting a new draft contract from
NeuStar for Secretariat services.

Housekeeping :

The IAOC has decided that at least three web sites are appropriate for
its work; an official web site hosted by the IETF Secretariat for
official announcements, a private wiki space for internal working
documents, and a regularly-updated public copy of the non-sensitive
parts of the wiki workspace. The IAOC set up the new e-mail alias for
the IAD (IAD@ietf.org) and prepared announcements to the community and
to the Press about the new position.

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