Bert,
I think there are two key principles here, both of which I think
the community has reached some consensus about. If they are
applied, I think they answer your questions.
Principle 1: The IETF intends to establish a structure to
get these administrative mechanisms and principles managed
appropriately, according to good administrative, fiscal, and
management principles, but not to try to micromanage the
details. To repeat what many people have said in different
ways, most of the IETF participants lack the interest and/or
skills to properly micromanage this sort of effort, even if
such micromanagement were appropriate.
Principle 2: The BCP document --perhaps as distinct from any
transition ones-- should avoid extremely fine details to the
extent possible, if only because revising such documents to
make changes that become necessary takes too much community
energy that ought to be going into better and faster
standards and engineering work.
If we accept those principles, then getting the community, and
the proposed BCP, involved with questions of how bank accounts
are organized is as inappropriate as designating:
* the type of account to be used
* the currency in which the accounts are to be kept
* the country in which the banks are to be located
* the specific accounting models and standards to be used.
each of which is a subject that might be more important than how
a bank account is designated.
What the BCP should say, IMO, is that IETF funds should be
appropriately designated and segregated according to generally
accepted accounting practices (that, for those who don't know,
is a fairly specific term of art). Issues such as the above
(including labels on bank accounts) should be left to
professionals who can, e.g., consider what sorts of arrangements
will provide the best balance between safety of funds and rate
of return on investment (assuming that we do not want to leave
those funds under a mattress somewhere). Our job, and that of
the transition team and IAOC, should be to be sure that we have
the right models for getting and following appropriate
professional advice in these areas, not constraining those
decisions with details about bank accounts. Especially for the
"reserve" funds or any accumulating endowment, bank accounts
might not even be the right model.
john
--On Friday, November 26, 2004 2:15 PM +0100 "Wijnen, Bert
(Bert)" <bwijnen(_at_)lucent(_dot_)com> wrote:
In revision draft-ietf-iasa-bcp-00.txt we have text in sections
5 through 5.4 about IASA funding and where the money needs to
be kept. Specifically, the current text suggests that there
is/are one or more IASA specific bank accounts. Namely:
- Sect 5.1 says that meeting revenues go into IASA account.
When I wrote that text I meant "IASA bank account", so if
that is what we (IETF) want, then needs to be made more
explicit.
- Sect 5.2 says that designated monitary donations go to the
IASA account.
Again, I meant to write "IASA bank account". So need
clarification if that is what we (IETF) want.
- Sect 5.3 I think (I/we) intended (but is not explicit) to
also have the quarterly deposits go into IASA bank account.
So again needs clarification if that is what we (IETF) want.
- Sect 5.4 talks about reserve fund being kept in reserve for
use by IASA. It is not specific how this is done. Current
text leaves that up to ISOC to decide/arrange.
We have seen a few people raise concern about the above.
Concerns that I have seen raised and to which I would like to
see the IETF community speak their preference:
- should we (IETF) indeed have/request an IASA specific bank
account for collecting meeting fees?
- should we (IETF) indeed have/request an IASA specific bank
account for depositing designated monetary donations?
- should we (IETF) indeed have/request an IASA specific bank
account for depositing ISOC controbutions to the IASA (as
budgeted)?
- if yes to previosu question, should we (IETF) be so
prescriptive in sect 5.3 about when ISOC puts money in an
IASA (bank) account (e.g. quarterly and in equal portions)
?
- should we (IETF) request/require that the reserve fund is
kept in an IASA specific bank account.
Bert
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