Not to pick on Eliot in particular... This message is really
addressed to everyone who has said "I trust the leadership to decide":
At 2:30 PM +0200 9/28/04, Eliot Lear wrote:
Just to be clear, I trust the leadership to decide better than I
can. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have a day job that
has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with IETF governance. I'd
like to have the time to go over all this fun stuff, but even if I
did I'd rather spend it pestering some CEOs as to how they would
structure such organizations(s) for success. I prefer to think of
myself as an engineer, not an MBA.
I am also an engineer with a demanding day job and no MBA, and if any
other member of the IETF leadership has an MBA or a law degree,
he/she hasn't shared that fact with me.
I do have a certain perspective on these issues as a member of the
IESG, and I spend most of my free time doing IETF-related work,
including serving on the ISOC Board. That doesn't make me any sort
of expert on corporate finances or governance, though. I may have
accepted more responsibility for the IETF than the average
participant, but I don't believe that I am fundamentally more
qualified to make this type of decision than many other IETF
participants.
I consider it (part of) my job to share my perspective with the
community. Other members of the community should also share their
perspectives and experiences (some of us do have MBAs, law degrees,
experience forming corporations, etc.). Then, we should work
together to make good decisions for the IETF.
If the community refuses to participate actively in these decisions,
I guess that the IETF leadership will be forced to decide what to do
without active community input. But, I fear that we would make a
poorer decision than we would with full community involvement and
input.
Margaret
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