On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 10:23 PM, John C Klensin <john-ietf(_at_)jck(_dot_)com>
wrote:
Hi,
Two suggestions that seemed easier to send in email than to
stand in the mic line that I'd encourage people to think about...
(1) I've found the Newcomer's Meet-and-Greet very useful in
finding newcomers I want to keep and eye on and try to help move
along and my personal instincts are to go for diversity in those
decisions. But those sessions are open only to WG Chairs and
IAB and IESG members --people who tend to be among the more
overextended in terms of schedules-- in addition to the
newcomers. So those sessions are more useful for giving
newcomers an opportunity to meet relevant WG Chairs (for
example) than for setting up any sort of mentoring relationship.
It may be worth thinking a bit about some other ways of
establishing relevant contacts, perhaps (as is done with ISOC
IETF Fellows) even getting those relationships in place before
the newcomer shows up.
[MB] What I find interesting is that there was 200+ newcomers, but I
certainly didn't find that many at the meet and greet. I have to
wonder whether this doesn't have to do with the overlap between Sunday
tutorials and this event. I think that needs to be fixed. Another
comment about the meet and greet is that I see far more WG chairs
chatting with one another as opposed to newcomers. While I find that
there is rarely new comers to RAI area, just welcoming these folks is
really important independent of technical area of interest. I also
try to find the WG chairs that are in that area. I regularly talk to
at least 10 newcomers - and do chide some of you all that are not
chatting with newcomers ;) I can't imagine as a newcomer approaching a
group of WG chairs to introduce myself. The chairs should be actively
seeking out newcomers at these event.
One question I have is whether there isn't a list for newcomers to ask
questions that some of us can be on to help them before they get to
the meeting? It is incredibly rare for a newcomer to ask questions on
the IETF discussion. Also, it might help to setup a mentoring group
and related mailing list and perhaps a wiki where folks that are
willing to be mentors put their names and areas of focus and
expertise. This could be helpful to both newcomers and folks that are
interested in learning about new areas. [/MB]
(2) This applies to leadership development as well as to the
diversity and mentoring issues in particular, but the focus on
WG Chairs and I* members tends to exclude and underutilize what
should be an important resource. There are a bunch of people
around who have retired from formal leadership positions (and
who are trying to stay retired). At least in principle, we have
more flexible time than, e.g., an IESG member. We should be
available for mentoring -- it is probably the most important
thing we can do. But the system isn't well-organized now to
utilize us in that way and probably we should be thinking
together about how to improve that.
[MB] Yeah. Again, if we had a mentor group and mailing list that
could be helpful. [/MB]
john