Subject: New roles for Angelos and Tero

From: Barbara Fraser <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 14:49:16 -0700

Hi,

We're approaching the last mile in the working group (unbelievable, 
right?). To help us successfully meet the remaining objectives, we're going 
to take advantage of a couple of roles described in RFC 2418 and add both a 
secretary and a facilitator to our working group.  When I think of all the 
issues and decisions that Ted and I have tried to manage over the past 
couple of years (and for the working group as a whole over many years), I 
wish we'd used these roles more. Well, better late than never :-)

Secretary: Angelos Keromytis

RFC 2418 says: "Taking minutes and editing working group documents often is 
performed by a specifically-designated participant or set of 
participants.  In this role, the Secretary's job is to record WG decisions, 
rather than to perform basic specification."

Angelos is going to run a ticket system that will keep track of wg 
decisions that we make going forward. Each issue with each document becomes 
a trouble ticket in the system.  The system is used to track the issues and 
document their resolution.  This system will provide a publicly visible 
record so it should prevent flip-flopping such as what happened with suites 
vs a la carte.  As we progress IKEv2, it will get broader visibility from 
the IETF community and this tracking will be very important. We also have 
another piece of work, the update to RFC 2401, that we want to move through 
the process as smoothly as possible. And, of course, there are documents 
still in the pipeline for which issues might still be raised.

Facilitator: Tero Kivinen

RFC 2418 says: "When meetings tend to become distracted or divisive, it 
often is helpful to assign the task of "process management" to one 
participant.  Their job is to oversee the nature, rather than the content, 
of participant interactions.  That is, they attend to the style of the 
discussion and to the schedule of the agenda, rather than making direct 
technical contributions themselves."

We don't intend to take this so literally that Tero is now unable to make 
technical contributions to the discussion. That would be a terrible mistake 
and loss for the working group. Rather, he will make additional postings 
with a facilitator hat on to keep the discussion on track. Tero's job will 
be to keep each thread on track, spawning new issues on separate threads as 
appropriate.  Ted and I have, in the past, allowed discussions to continue 
on various topics in the spirit of free speech. But we recognize that 
sometimes these discussions are confusing to working group members, 
especially when they continue to focus on an issue for which a decision has 
been made.  Assuming the mantel of facilitator, Tero will be more assertive 
in moving this sort of discussion to other venues. :-)

Please join Ted and I in thanking Angelos and Tero for their willingness to 
take on these roles.

Thanks,
Barb and Ted