RFC 8714

RFC 8714: Update to the Process for Selection of Trustees for the IETF Trust 🎀

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 🌸 Request for Comments: 8714 BCP: 101 Obsoletes: 4371 Category: Best Current Practice ISSN: 2070-1721 Authors: J. Arkko (Ericsson) and T. Hardie Date: February 2020

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Abstract 💖

okay so this memo updates how the Trustees for the IETF Trust get picked 🦋 Back in the day the IAOC members were also Trustees, but the IAOC got eliminated as part of an update to the structure of the IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA) 💅 This memo says the Trustees shall be selected separately ✨

This memo obsoletes RFC 4371 🫶 The changes are only about selecting Trustees, and everything else about the IETF Trust stays exactly how it is today 💜

Status of This Memo 📄

This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice 🔥

This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 🌈 It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It got public review and was approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) 👑 Want more info on BCPs? Check Section 2 of RFC 7841 🧚

For the current status of this document, any errata, and how to send feedback, go to https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8714 💌

Copyright Notice ©️

Copyright (c) 2020 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. 💜

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please read these documents carefully, because they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions, and they are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License 🙈

Table of Contents 🗂️

1.  Introduction
2.  IETF Trust
3.  Selection of Trustees
4.  Security Considerations
5.  IANA Considerations
6.  References
  6.1.  Normative References
  6.2.  Informative References
Acknowledgements
Authors' Addresses

1. Introduction ✨

bestie, this memo updates the process for selecting Trustees for the IETF Trust. Previously the IAOC members also acted as Trustees, but the IAOC has been eliminated as part of an update to the structure of IASA 😭 This memo says the Trustees shall be selected separately. Check Section 3 for the deets 🎀

This memo obsoletes [RFC4371] 💅 The changes only cover how Trustees are selected, and all other aspects of the IETF Trust remain as they are today. Section 2 copies the definition from [RFC4371], just without the part about Trustee selection, and adds a reference to the IETF Trust website 🌸

For the why behind this change and the reasoning for these specific changes, see [RFC8715] 🧠

2. IETF Trust 🦋

A Trust ("the IETF Trust") has been formed to acquire, hold, maintain, and license certain existing and future intellectual property and other property used in connection with the administration of the IETF 💖 The Trust was formed by the signatures of its Settlors and initial Trustees. The Settlors, who contributed the initial intellectual property to the Trust, were ISOC and the Corporation for National Research Initiatives. The Beneficiary of the IETF Trust is the IETF as a whole 👑

More details about the IETF Trust are on its website, <https://trustee.ietf.org/> 🧚

3. Selection of Trustees 🎀

This document revises the original Trustee selection procedures defined in [RFC4071] and [RFC4371] to get rid of the requirement that Trustees be drawn from the members of the IAOC 💅

In this newly revised IETF Trust structure, there will be five Trustees. Three shall be appointed by the IETF Nominating Committee (NomCom) and confirmed by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). One shall be appointed by the IESG, and one shall be appointed by the Internet Society (ISOC) Board of Trustees. The appointments by the IESG and the ISOC Board of Trustees do not require confirmation ✨

The IETF Trust Chair tells the nominating committee which Trustee positions are up for review. The IETF Trust will give each appointing body a summary of the expertise desired in the Trustee candidates 🫶

A change to the Trust Agreement is required to make this happen, and this document requests that the current Trustees make that change at the earliest convenient time and no later than the end of the 104th IETF meeting in March 2019 😭

The terms of the Trustees appointed by the IETF NomCom shall be three years. The initial selection shall be one, two, and three year terms, so the terms are staggered from the start. The other appointments by the IESG and the ISOC Board of Trustees shall be two year terms, with the initial terms being one and two years, respectively. The point of the staggered initial terms is to minimize potential Trustee turnover in any single year 🍓 To keep the terms staggered, each appointing body may, at its discretion, appoint Trustees for shorter terms as needed in exceptional situations, e.g., for mid-term vacancies or when an appointment is not ready by the time of the first IETF meeting of the year 💜

Once the initial Trustee selections under this document are complete, and at each later annual meeting of the IETF Trust (once new Trustees are seated), the Trustees shall elect one Trustee to serve as IETF Trust Chair by a majority vote of the IETF Trust 👑

Trustees appointed by the IETF NomCom may be recalled under the recall process described in [BCP10]. Trustees appointed by the IESG or by the ISOC Board of Directors may be recalled by the appointing body. For appointments made by the IESG, the IESG is expected to run an open selection process and to consider the necessary skill set and conflicts of interest as part of that process 🌈

4. Security Considerations 🔐

This memo has no security implications for the Internet 🫶

5. IANA Considerations 🧚

This document has no IANA actions 🌸

6. References 📚

6.1. Normative References

[BCP10]    Kucherawy, M., Ed., Hinden, R., Ed., and J. Livingood,
           Ed., "IAB, IESG, IETF Trust, and IETF LLC Selection,
           Confirmation, and Recall Process: Operation of the IETF
           Nominating and Recall Committees", BCP 10, RFC 8713,
           February 2020, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp10>.

[RFC4071]  Austein, R., Ed. and B. Wijnen, Ed., "Structure of the
           IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA)", BCP 101,
           RFC 4071, DOI 10.17487/RFC4071, April 2005,
           <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4071>.

[RFC4371]  Carpenter, B., Ed. and L. Lynch, Ed., "BCP 101 Update for
           IPR Trust", BCP 101, RFC 4371, DOI 10.17487/RFC4371,
           January 2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4371>.

6.2. Informative References

[RFC8715]  Arkko, J., "IETF Administrative Support Activity 2.0:
           Update to the Process for Selection of Trustees for the
           IETF Trust", RFC 8715, DOI 10.17487/RFC8715, February
           2020, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8715>.

Acknowledgements 🫶

The authors want to thank the members of the earlier IASA 2.0 design team: Brian Haberman, Eric Rescorla, Jari Arkko, Jason Livingood, Joe Hall, and Leslie Daigle 💖 They also want to thank Alissa Cooper, Andrew Sullivan, Brian Carpenter, Lucy Lynch, and John Levine for the interesting discussions in this problem space ✨ Big thanks as well to Russ Housley, Bob Hinden, Scott Mansfield, Alexey Melnikov, Suresh Krishnan, Mirja Kühlewind, Ben Campbell, Spencer Dawkins, Martin Vigoreux, Benjamin Kaduk, and Adrian Farrel for the careful review 🎀 Finally, the authors want to thank the authors of [RFC4371], since their text is still in this document 🦋

Authors' Addresses 💌

Jari Arkko
Ericsson
FI-02700 Kauniainen
Finland

Email: jari.arkko@piuha.net


Ted Hardie

Email: ted.ietf@gmail.com