The primary purpose of the IAB and IESG liaisons is to avoid late surprises by one body to the other.
Formal communication (used almost only for personnel confirmation decisions) is from the IAB to its IESG liaison to the IESG's IAB liaison to the IESG and similarly from the IESG to its IAB liaison to the IAB's IESG liaison and then to the IAB. It is important that these types of personnel confirmation decisions are sent to the appropriate list. For the IESG, that list is usually iesg-confirmation, unless an IESG member is a candidate. For the IAB, the default list is iab-vote;the IAB's IESG liaison is responsible for identifying and sending to the correct list.
Informal communication is part of what helps bind the IESG and IAB together. It is a good idea for the IAB liaison and IESG liaison to talk at least every 6 months about how the interactions are going. It is highly encouraged for the IAB liaison and IESG liaison to facilitate good relationships between the individual members of the IESG and IAB so that the informal communication channels are clear.
The IESG's liaison to the IAB has traditionally sent a written report updating on new WGs chartered, under chartering, WGs being rechartered, WG chair changes and such. This should be moved to an automated report (datatracker page) that will be available to the IAB and other participants. The liaisons should experiment to determine how much information is pushed from the IESG to the IAB by the IESG's liaison to the IAB or pulled by the IAB's liaison to the IESG and vice versa.
On formal document matters, it is not appropriate for the IAB's liaison to the IESG to comment as the liaison unless the IAB has requested sending a comment.
In informal discussions, the liaisons may participate informally as individuals with the clear understanding that they may be asked to be quiet while the main body discusses.
The content of this page was last updated on 2016-04-10. It was migrated from the old Trac wiki on 2023-02-17.