When operating in the “committee model”, the full IAB meets only once a month, with technical and administrative efforts actively being driven by sub-groups of IAB members between formal board meetings. This operational model is in contrast to the practice of scheduling full board meetings every week.
The committee model is intended to reduce the shared overhead of weekly meetings and focus the IAB’s time on making progress on technical and administrative efforts.
All IAB members are expected to attend formal board meetings and also continue to work on their delegated responsibilities in between meetings.
This model is a matter of how the IAB meets and operates and does not change or update any part of its function or charter (RFC 2850).
All IAB members are still expected to spend, on average, at least an hour per week engaging with IAB work.
All IAB members are expected to be present at formal board meetings. Between formal board meetings, each IAB member is expected to take on at least one delegated responsibility.
Formal board meetings include all board members, the secretariat, liaisons, and observers. They are minuted and can contain both public portions and executive sessions.
In general, votes are held during formal board meetings. When e-votes occur outside formal board meetings, their results are minuted at full board meetings.
Reports from liaisons are received and minuted at formal board meetings.
IAB members provide reports based on their delegated responsibilities ahead of formal board meetings.
Agenda items for discussion or decision at formal board meetings should have pre-read materials (e.g., background material, rationale, supporting information, alternatives considered) available at least a week in advance, and preferably longer.
During the formal board meeting, the delegated responsibilities of board members in the upcoming cycle are confirmed.
Formal board meetings should be scheduled in advance, at the start of a yearly cycle for the IAB (such as at or before the March IETF meeting); however, the schedule may be adjusted as needed.
In-person meetings during IETF weeks and retreats count as formal board meetings.
Virtual formal board meetings should be scheduled to be 2 hours in order to ensure that all topics or decision-making can be completed.
Virtual formal board meetings may be convened outside of the regular schedule if the IAB chair determines they are necessary. These should only be convened for extraordinary cases in response to time-sensitive deadlines, such as voting on how to respond to an appeal or a sudden vacancy, etc. In such cases, the meetings must be scheduled at least a week in advance (longer is preferable), there must be a clear agenda, and some of the IAB members should have prepared written proposals or reports to the IAB beforehand. In general, responding to time-sensitive issues should be primarily handled over email or messaging.
Informal meetings are scheduled for the weeks when there is not a formal meeting. They are used for ad hoc discussions and to progress work in between formal meetings.
It is not expected that every IAB Member will attend every informal meeting. Informal meetings rotate between different times to accommodate the geographical spread of IAB Members, with the goal that every IAB member will have 2/3 of the informal meetings at time when it is feasible for them to attend.
If there is nothing on the agenda for an informal meeting by the Friday before it is scheduled, that meeting will be cancelled.
Informal meetings are not open to observers.
Invited technical talks may be included in the agenda of formal or informal board meetings, but can also occur independently. For example, a technical program or focus area can schedule a technical presentation from a particular set of speakers. That presentation should be scheduled to accommodate the speaker, and does not necessarily require mandatory participation of all IAB members (although all IAB members would be welcomed and encouraged to join). Invited technical talks are also appropriate for IAB Open meetings during IETF meeting weeks. IRTF research group reviews should usually occur during IETF meeting weeks.
Delegated responsibilities are the ways that individual IAB members work in subgroups or with other bodies between full board meetings. These responsibilities are where IAB members are expected to make most of their contributions; full board meetings reflect decision-making and record-keeping based on the output of these responsibilities.
Some of these activities take place in groups that involve external community participation; some are purely internal to the IAB.
Meetings for an area of responsibility should be scheduled to accommodate that particular group, but also be placed on the shared IAB calendar and be open to participation of other IAB members. IAB members can request secretariat participation to aid in scheduling, taking minutes, and general assistance.
Each area of responsibility is expected to provide written minutes or reports back to the whole IAB over email, at least one week before the full board meeting. These reports should contain a list of IAB members who contributed to the activity (such meeting attendance or providing technical contributions).
Each area of responsibility is encouraged to have a dedicated Slack channel or email group for discussion.
Between meetings, each IAB member should be assigned to at least one delegated responsibility. There is no strict limit to the number of responsibilities an IAB member can take on, but distributing the responsibilities is encouraged. The list below is not exhaustive, but represents the most common activities. Not all of the responsibilities below are expected to be covered in every cycle.
Technical Program Lead / Participant
Leading or participating in an IAB Technical Program. Technical programs need not meet during every cycle; not every program needs to be on the list of responsibilities between every meeting. However, when a technical program is chosen as a responsibility, it should have at least one active meeting and make some progress that can be reported back to the IAB.
Workshop Planning and Program Committee
Planning, organizing, and running an IAB workshop. This also includes working on workshop reports after a workshop is held.
IAB Stream Document Authoring
Authoring an IAB stream document, either technical or administrative. If chosen as a responsibility, the IAB member(s) should make meaningful updates to documents, either before adoption by the IAB, or as part of preparing a document for publishing as an RFC.
Technical Focus Area
For technical topics that are not yet programs or workshops or documents, IAB members can work on focus areas to determine if there is technical work for the IAB to do on a topic. This can involve researching, working with other IAB members, interviewing external experts, and inviting discussions from the community or external sources.
BoF Shepherding
Guiding and advising new work in the IETF, particularly proposed Birds of Feather meetings.
Executive Committee / Meeting Planning
Planning the agenda for upcoming IETF meetings and retreats, including IABOPEN sessions. At a minimum, the IAB chair and whoever is the current IABOPEN co-chair are expected to participate. This committee also includes any early discussion of procedural proposals, which are later taken to the full IAB.
Part of the responsibilities here are ensuring that emails and communications to the IAB as a whole are appropriately handled or dispatched.
Administrative Support Group Lead / Participant
Leading or participating in an Administrative Support Group, such as the IAB-ISOC group. In that case, involves meeting with ISOC members on current topics in Internet governance, policies, etc.
Administrative support groups generally should meet at least once or twice between full board meetings.
Each active administrative support group should have activity between each full board meeting.
Liaison Coordination
Acting as a Liaison Coordinator and working with the Liaison Managers who handle the relationships with other SDOs. While the Liaison Coordinator positions will always be filled, the level of expected activity will vary from cycle to cycle. Part of the responsibilities here are ensuring that responses to liaison statements are handled appropriately.
IESG Liaison
Acting as the IAB’s liaison to the IESG; attending IESG meetings and providing reports and summaries to the full IAB.
NomCom Liaison
Acting as the IAB’s liaison to the IETF Nominating Committee. When the NomCom is active, this is expected to be a very active and involved role. Reporting back to the full IAB will be constrained by confidentiality requirements.
Appointment Committees
Interviewing candidates for appointments, recruiting candidates for appointments, reviewing community feedback, and providing recommendations for the full IAB. These responsibilities will be active based on the schedule of appointments the IAB is required to make.
Outreach and Events Coordination and Participation
Coordinating IAB engagement in outreach beyond the IETF community, particularly planning and participating in external events such as IGF meetings.