----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Farrell" <stephen(_dot_)farrell(_at_)cs(_dot_)tcd(_dot_)ie>
To: "IETF Discuss" <ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 11:20 PM
On 10/17/2013 10:16 PM, Jari Arkko wrote:
Shrinking the IESG might make us think harder about what tasks
really
are absolutely necessary :-)
FWIW, having thought a bit about this my conclusion was that
shrinking the IESG to the point where its not actually feasible
to do all that's asked/expected by ADs/the-IETF-generally
is the only way to get the AD role down to ~1 day a week
between IETF meetings. I also have no clue how we mght get
there from here;-)
And as a factoid, for me, it was very much near full time
at first, but after a year was closer to 50-60% of my time
when nothing much special is going on, which is mostly, but
not always. However my hours-per-week are noticeably higher
than before being an AD, so it is more than 50-60% of my
pre-AD working week. So I do agree that changes that reduce
the load are very desirable if we could find a way to do
that. OTOH, I know a lot of other people who's hours per
week are growing thanks to be able to work outside of the
office so maybe that's a factor too.
I like to solve a problem by first knowing what the problem is. Yes,
ADs have too much to do, and I regularly include comments to the effect
that ADs are the most valuable resource in the IETF, but where does the
time go? To suggest what could be done, by myself and others, requires
first an understanding of that.
I recall a Canadian initiative of some 30 years ago, when I was given an
egg timer and a sheet of paper (it's probably in the App store nowadays)
and every time the timer went off, I reset it and wrote down what I was
doing. At the end of a week, I had 70 samples of my activities and
could build up a picture of what I was doing to benefit my employer (or
myself), where I was frittering time away, where technology could
improve my productivity and so on. So simple so effective.
So where does an AD's time go? I need some concrete data, from whatever
means is appropriate. Then I might be able to help.
Tom Petch
S.