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Re: Updating BCP 10 -- NomCom

2015-02-18 22:56:36
On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 2:07 PM, Allison Mankin 
<allison(_dot_)mankin(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com>
wrote:


The Nomcom is and always has been a "search committee" and as such it
gathers and winnows candidates before proposing them for confirmation.
Indeed, there is no bar to the Nomcom proposing multiple candidates for a
position and allowing the CB to choose its preference - that hasn't
actually been done, but its not barred.

​AJM:  Mike, I have always wanted the Nomcom to be like a search
committee, but on the other hand, search committees do produce short lists
as you say, and every time I've suggested this as a way to offset some of
the problems with the unevenness of the Nomcom participants' skills, in
every hallway chat I've ever had, I've received massive pushback.  So while
the confirming bodies approve the selection, the selection is made by the
Nomcom.  When confirming bodies request an alternative selection, this is
not something that can be seen by us outside the process, but the hallways
tell me also that Nomcoms who have experienced this are frustrated and
angry.  Therefore, we should perhaps add something to clarify that the
selection/the hire as it were, is really made by the confirming body, and
see how that fares in discussion.

Actually as I read Section 5.14, a NomCom can't present the confirming
body with a short list.  It specifically says "a single candidate for each
open position" and then goes on to include what backing materials have to
be provided.

AJM:  Also, hiring manager in my part of the world does not imply that the
person becomes a supervisor of the selectee - the term is used for the
person who makes the hire happen.

I think that's a fair point.  I've adjusted her suggested text accordingly.
​AJM: What do you think about explaining what a search committee is, in
that case, and noting the option to send short lists rather than single
selections.  ​

It appears to be moot in the face of what 5.14 says.  Are we looking to
open discussion of changing that?



The digression to "thinking slow" is interesting, but somewhat trendy.
Next year there will be another interview and decision method that will be
trendy and its unclear why this "thinking slow" would be a better choice
than next year's flavor and why it should be immortalized in the next
version of 3777.  I would instead focus on the virtues of clarity,
completeness and fairness and leave the rest of it to the best abilities of
the chosen Nomcom.  In any event, attempting to "program" the Nomcom
members to a specific behavior pattern will be unsuccessful.


I tend to agree with this, though since we do have an appendix that talks
about "oral tradition", there's probably little harm in including this
stuff in a similar appendix.  We could even label it clearly as something
that worked well for NomCom 2013.

​AJM:   I disagree with the idea that advising people to be deliberative
in their review of candidates is trendy and could easily be superseded by a
next trend.  I don't care if the text needs to not reference a social
science expert on this, which I did in part because IETFers are rather
contrarian, and can be hard to make a plain and simple human resources
point.   I also think that the previous nomcom, where I was Past Chair,
practiced slow thinking and/or deliberative, thorough review, though
sometimes I found I had to help out.  My observation: the candidates who
are not famous enough to be recognized by most of the voting members what
their varied usually were summarized incompletely in the initial review
discussions - relevant accomplishments were omitted from discussion until
the thorough process (and some reminders) got those back onto the table.
Maybe text that says this more directly rather than by means of a social
science reference could be included.  I feel strongly that it is not a
given that Nomcoms will take their time and give enough diligence, given
the other pressures on them, especially time pressures.


I think removing the specific references to "slow thinking" and doing some
text massaging still captures the point you're trying to make.  I'll
include something in -03, which I'll post shortly.

-MSK
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