IAB decision taking is documented in RFC 2850:
3.5 Decision taking
The IAB attempts to reach all decisions unanimously. If unanimity
cannot be achieved, the chair may conduct informal polls to determine
consensus. The IAB may make decisions and take action if at least
seven full members concur and there are no more than two dissents.The IAB may reach decisions by face to face meeting, teleconference,
Internet communication, or any combination of the above.
Practically, in most day-to-day business, the chair will determine consensus
based on the absence of dissenting positions being put forward in a reasonable
time. However, some decisions are deemed important enough or controversial
enough to require a formal vote. This document outlines the process used by the
IAB to make such decisions.
Votes can either use open or secret ballots. The first step in the process is
for the IAB chair to determine whether it will be held open or secret.
By default, votes should be open.
Open ballots are only shared with voting members (IAB members minus
disqualified and recused members).
Open ballots can be submitted either by email to the list of voting members
or as verbal votes during an IAB teleconference.
Secret ballots are only shared with the Executive Director and Chair.
If there is no consensus among voting members on whether a vote should be
open or secret, the vote will be by secret ballot.
If a vote starts off open but two voting members then request that it be
secret, then the voting restarts with secret ballots.
The IAB chair (or executive director on the instructions of the chair) will
typically follow the following process:
If the request for a vote comes from an external source (e.g., the NomCom
provides its IESG slate for confirmation), then, as soon as possible after
receiving the request, the IAB chair adds the vote topic to the agenda of the
next IAB teleconference. If the next meeting is less than 48 hours away, the
chair should instead add the topic to the following teleconference.
The chair emails the list of voting members to announce the date of the
discussion, whether ballots are open or secret, and start an email discussion
thread on the topic.
The agenda of that meeting will include the vote discussion, and needs to be
posted at least 48 hours in advance. If the discussion will happen in an
irregularly scheduled meeting (i.e. meetings other than the weekly IAB
meeting teleconference or meetings prescheduled during IETF week) then, the
new meeting needs to be announced at least a week in advance.
Discussion and votes will continue on the voting members list, and during the
teleconference.
The vote will typically stay open until a vote has been recorded for every
single voting member, even after a majority has been reached. This ensures
every voice can be heard. Note that it is reasonable for any voting member to
request a few days to review available information before voting.
If the vote has enough affirmative votes that it would pass if all remaining
votes were dissents, and at least 7 days have elapsed since the
teleconference, then the chair can decide to declare the vote closed and
successful. This avoids deadlock if a voting member is unable or unwilling to
vote.
A vote can result as a consequence of a teleconference discussion (e.g., the
topic of an appointment was on the agenda of the teleconference without
explicitly mentioning a vote, but during the discussion there was consensus
to start a vote on the topic). In those cases, votes can be tallied in the
teleconference, and/or the email to announce the vote can be sent out without
requiring a second teleconference on this topic.
If a decision is needed within a short time frame, any IAB member (or the
executive director) can call a vote without first placing the topic on an IAB
meeting agenda. If all voting members reply and they have all voted
affirmatively or recused themselves, then the decision is considered to have
the full consensus of the IAB and does not need to follow the Normal Process
described above. If any voting member votes against the decision, has not
responded, or simply requests a discussion on the topic, then the topic is
added to the agenda of an upcoming IAB meeting and the Normal or Alternative
Process is followed as usual.
The IAB can use alternative voting processes. In order to do that, the IAB
chair must announce the alternative voting rules to the IAB at least one week
before the voting takes place. If any voting member of the IAB objects to the
alternative voting rules, the resolution of the conflict will be addressed
following usual RFC 2850 guidelines; i.e., if more than two voting members
object to the alternative voting process, the vote reverts to the Normal
Process.
Note that any alternative process still needs to follow the rules in Section
3.5 of RFC 2850.