Dale said:
One way to build up enough credibility
to get respected people to answer you is to do thankless jobs. In
most WGs, there are never enough people who are willing to read and
provide detailed critiques of drafts. (And believe me, almost all
drafts need significant improvements of their presentation, and often
of the technology.) And the quality of your critiques of drafts is a
good way to demonstrate your technical skills.
Yes, this is how I started.
Review drafts. Send questions, comments, proposals, and suggest text.
This is not a thankless task! You will be thanked for valuable input.
Adrian