Brian:
I'd really like to hear from
Olaf, Bernard and Russ what has changed in the workload in the
last few years.
I am fortunate that my sponsorship situation lets me spend almost full time on
the IETF Chair position. Even so, there are aspects of the job that exceed
full time. I am not talking about IETF meeting week -- the job far exceeds
full time for many others too during that week. That said, the answer to your
question is not simple.
The IETF Chair is a member of the IAOC, the IETF Trust, the IAB, and the IESG.
The IAOC has many committees, and I am unable to participate in all of them.
Even though I am interested in all of the topics, it is just not possible to
participate in all of them. So, I rely on the people that do participate and
review their recommendations when they come to the whole IAOC for a vote.
The IETF Trust is the least time commitment. It is important, but it is not
usually time consuming.
The IAB has recently adopted a structure of "projects" and "initiatives."
These are much like IAOC committees, and it will not be possible for any IAB
member to participate in all of them. This is necessary and healthy. It also
lets the IAB draw on expertise from outside the IAB more easily.
The IESG does much less work by committee, but some ADs have directorates or
review teams to help with the vast amount of document review. The IETF Chair
has relied on Gen-ART since it was established by Harald about eight years ago.
I know that I depend on these reviews heavily.
The IETF Chair also depends upon the IETF Executive Director and other members
of the Secretariat for many day-to-day tasks. I believe that I have made
greater use of the Secretariat than many previous IETF Chairs.
So, you can readilly see that there is a significant amount of delegation going
on. Still, some tasks get starved, simply because other things are more
important at the time. Recently, for example, activities around the
relationship with ITU SG15 have consumed all available cycles.
The proposed update to BCP 101 permits further delegation of the IAOC voting
position. While I do not see myself taking advantage of this new feature, I do
think we should give future IETF Chairs this option. It is a cohesive part of
the work that can be delegated. Some coordination between the IETF Chair and
the delegate would be necessary, but the time commitment would be significantly
less than participating in the IAOC and a subset of its committees.
Russ
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