On the question of sharing a site before signing a contract — since
the Buenos Aires plenary, the IAOC has asked for input before inking
contracts. That is what prompted the creation of the venue-selection
maildrop address, and one (I expect, soon to be two) solicitations for
input on particular places.[0]
There are always challenges of finding the right timing to ask for
input, and going forward we are going to have to refine how and when we
do that. Getting input before signing is obviously better than after,
but getting input when you are otherwise ready to sign is still late.
Asking for input while things are still completely hypothetical is
potentially too soon (can get people spun up about things that won’t
work out for practical reasons).
But, yes, this is a good idea, it would have saved everyone a lot of
grief if we’d done it before, and we’re working on it now.
Leslie.
[0] We had a contract ready for signature for a site we had every reason
to believe was acceptable. Having just had it explained to us in short
words that the community has more perspectives :-) , we sought them.
Thanks to everyone who contributed.
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Leslie Daigle
Principal, ThinkingCat Enterprises LLC
ldaigle(_at_)thinkingcat(_dot_)com
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On 26 May 2016, at 16:28, Melinda Shore wrote:
On 5/26/16 12:21 PM, Margaret Cullen wrote:
What about the IAOC writing to the IETF list and/or recent attendees
when they are considering going to a new country, asking if anyone
has any feedback on the idea? And then considering that feedback
_before_ making a final decision, signing a contract, etc?
I think that's reasonable. I also think a greater diversity
of IAOC and meeting committee members would help, although
it's clearly not possible to be comprehensive. But, one of
the interesting things that happened as this began to unfold
is that a bunch of people responded to the announcement with
an immediate "Uh-oh," while the IAOC clearly had had no idea
that there was an issue. It was known within the community
that there was a problem, and if there had been a way to provide
feedback prior to the announcement things may have gone quite
differently.
So:
It seems to me that if this issue had been raised before the IAOC had
made a non-refundable $80K deposit and had negotiated $150K in
benefits from the Singapore government, there would have been a lot
more latitude for choosing a different location.
Yes.
Melinda