Killing old/slow groups - transition thinking

[Margaret Wasserman]

At 06:34 AM 12/10/2002 -0800, Randy Bush wrote:
> > I have been focused on off-loading the IESG, in an effort to help
> > them find time to more actively lead and manage the IETF, instead
> > of being buried in a slew of administrative details.
>
>people tend to be wary of folk who want to do them a favor for
>which they have not explicitly asked.

Fair enough...

>i prefer to hear about the desired goal(s).  given the voices which
>seem to be saying they resent the iesg taking too strong a hand
>(yes, there are voices in the other direction too), what do you
>mean by "actively lead and manage the ietf?"

We have all been told, on many occasions, how overworked the
IESG is.  At the IESG plenary in Atlanta, we were shown slides
that indicated that you sometimes need to review up to 2000 pages
of document in a two-week period, and that wasnt' the first time
that the problem of too much IESG review work was raised.

It has also been stated or implied on numerous occasions that
the IESG doesn't have the time (or ability? or willingness?) to
recruit others to help with this review process and/or offload
any of your other work.

It was indicated, in Atlanta and elsewhere, that you do not
have the time to fully document your existing processes, because
you have too much other work to do.

The IESG has repeatedly been pointed to, by IESG members as well
as others, as a bottleneck in our processes and as a scaling
problem for the IETF.

I suppose that there is really a simple question here, and I am
willing to take any consistent answer from the IESG (since you
are the ones who would know):

Is the workload of the IESG currently causing a scaling problem
for the IETF?

If so, we should try to fix that.  If not, please stop using it
as an excuse.

>btw, i also don't buy your previous that the iesg has no actual
>organizational or line management experience.

I don't think I said that.  I do think that the IESG has repeatedly
failed to demonstrate strong second-level management skills...

>also, when
>discussing how to fill areas, wgs, ... we often try to find a
>balance of folk who can do process and those who have technical
>vision.

That's a good thing.

Margaret