On 2/25/13 10:36 AM, Mary Barnes wrote:
In light of the upcoming meeting in Orlando, I have updated the
document. For folks that are not on the IETF-86 attendees list, we've
had a fairly lengthy discussion about the remoteness of the venue and
the lack of access to food other than the hotel restaurants that are
often mediocre and over-priced. For folks that aren't familiar, this
document has recommendations for meeting planners and IAOC folks in
terms of selecting venues that can ensure that IETF participants have
access to the types of food they require during the meetings. Lunch
is often the biggest challenge due to frequent lunchtime meetings and
the volume of people requiring lunch at the exact same time.
I wrote this document right after the IETF meeting in Dublin (almost 5
years ago) and given the Orlando venue selection (which occurred after
the Dublin meeting) it does not seem to me that the requirements and
recommendations in this document are being considered as serious input
to that process. While I am the most vocal with regards to this
issue, it isn't just me - others just don't want to be the target for
the types of discussions we inevitably have on this topic.
fwiw I generally support documents that encourage a consistent and
repeatable approach to meeting requirements and which assigns
responsibility to the participants as well, and I would probably support
this document.
One observation though. The introduction:
While much of the success of IETF protocols can be attributed to the
availability of large cookies and readily available beer, there are
some IETF participants for whom such items aren't compatible with
dietary restrictions or the choice to eat a healthy diet.
A significant contributor to the complaints about breaks without snacks
and indeed "cookies" is hypoglycemia and there the snack/cookie issue
should be seen in that light. Big cookies is clearly a trope, in the
context of plenary dicussion, but low blood sugar is not.
I will
note that if we were discussing wheel chair accessibility to IETF
meetings, most folks would understand the concern. In the US, medical
conditions that require special diets are considered hidden
disabilities and the same legal requirements apply in terms of those
diets being accommodated. While IETF is a non-profit, my
understanding is they have no legal requirements to provide the
accommodations, one would expect such as part of the nature of IETF in
terms of being an open and inclusive organization.
I will note that there have definitely been improvements since Dublin,
including the fruit bars when we have Ice Cream Thursdays and the
secretariat always communicates requirements when they are made aware
(e.g., WG chairs luncheon, as well as IAB stuff). ISOC has also been
accommodating for their Tuesday lunch sessions. As an aside while
I'm on the food topic, I didn't learn until last IETF that we don't
have Ice Cream Thursdays unless someone sponsors it. Since I was
highly disappointed at the Atlanta meeting, I was able to get Polycom
to sponsor the event at IETF-86 ;)
At this stage, the feedback I would like related to this document is
with regards it's readiness for publication as an RFC. One of the
updates to the document was with regards to the references to other
IETF logistic documents (the Tao and the travel FAQ) which have since
been published. I believe this document is equally substantive and
applicable to the IETF as those documents.
Regards,
Mary
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <internet-drafts(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Date: Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 12:18 PM
Subject: I-D Action: draft-barnes-healthy-food-06.txt
To: i-d-announce(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.
Title : Healthy Food and Special Dietary
Requirements for IETF meetings
Author(s) : Mary Barnes
Filename : draft-barnes-healthy-food-06.txt
Pages : 18
Date : 2013-02-25
Abstract:
This document describes the basic requirements for food for folks
that attend IETF meetings require special diets, as well as those
that prefer to eat healthy. While, the variety of special diets is
quite broad, the most general categories are described. There can be
controversy as to what constitutes healthy eating, but there are some
common, generally available foods that comprise the basis for healthy
eating and special diets. This document provides some
recommendations to meeting planners, as well as participants, in
handling these requirements.
The IETF datatracker status page for this draft is:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-barnes-healthy-food
There's also a htmlized version available at:
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-barnes-healthy-food-06
A diff from the previous version is available at:
http://www.ietf.org/rfcdiff?url2=draft-barnes-healthy-food-06
Internet-Drafts are also available by anonymous FTP at:
ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/
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