[RZERC] [Ext] Re: RZERC Membership Appointment & Chair Election Update

[Steve Sheng]

Thanks Jim, see my reply inline: 

On 10/24/19, 10:58 AM, "Jim Reid" <jim at rfc1035.com> wrote:

    
    
    > On 24 Oct 2019, at 14:59, Steve Sheng <steve.sheng at icann.org> wrote:
    > 
    > - You are correct that IETF does not need to reappoint, as your term ends in 2020. 
    
    That’s not quite right Steve. Though my term does end next year. Every summer the IAB asks if I want to continue for another year or not. If I say yes, they tell you I’m still their stuckee. If not, they’d issue a call for volunteers and appoint somebody else. ie Whoever the IAB selects isn’t automatically serving a 4 year term.

>> SS: I get your appointment information from IAB website, which states your term is from 2016 - 2020. https://www.iab.org/activities/iab-appointments-and-confirmations/. The last response staff got from IAB is in 2018. 

[SNIP]
    
    > - Acknowledge your points about the timing of the appointment and the timing of selection of chair. This is something we can see how to improve in the future. For this chair election, we think  confirmed memberships are needed because we need to know those who stand for chair elections will have at least two years left in their terms.
    
    So why not get those confirmations and do it soon? That seems a much more pragmatic way to proceed instead of moving the goalposts for everything when that isn’t really needed.

>> SS: Yes, that's what we are trying to achieve through the appointment and confirmation process. But we need to give the appointing organizations enough time to run their own processes for appointment and confirmation.  
    
    > - Regarding the timing of the chair selection, the operational procedure specify we need to have one month for the nomination period, which would not allow us enough time to make this decision at the RZERC meeting at ICANN66.  That's why we send the email for a special meeting in November.
    
    That’s all very well Steve. But Danielle’s email is proposing we select a new chairman at the end of February. Can somebody please explain what’s going on? Are we to replace Duane next month or next year? Does the call for nominations end this week (or theresabouts) or some time in January 2020?

>>SS: Ah, got it. The original timeline for chair election is November. But if we are doing appointments / confirmations first, we are pushing the chair election till January 2020. This is because we need to give the organizations ample time to run their processes, we are also adding time because the holidays are coming up and things can be very slow. 

[SNIP]