Info/exptl RFCs [Re: Killing old/slow groups - transition thinking

[Margaret Wasserman]

>[Perhaps this is all obvious to everyone. But it can't hurt to remind
>  us that we have to pay close attention to our most valuable resource
>  which are the domain experts who volunteer time to the IETF.]

Absolutely!

It is often said (and believed) that we can't get people to do things
because we can't pay them.  Sometimes, this is phrased as "you can't
expect that from volunteers".  But, I totally disagree.
The IETF has a plenty that they can give to people who do work for
the IETF, we just don't use our "coin" effectively.

I've heard various analyses regarding how people can be motivated,
and I don't remember the details of any of them...  But, they all
agree that money is not only one way to motivate people (and not the
strongest way).  Most people are more easily motivated by affiliation
(feeling like part of a team) or by public recognition (either one-time
recognition or a respected title/position) than they are by money.

One of the things that I think we could do is to form directorates
with public membership, and to assign those groups specific duties.
Members would receive credit for beging part of a directorate (we
could even have colored dots for directorate members), and would
be motivated to do that work to attain and retain that position.

Margaret