The IETF Adminstrative Support Activity was defined by BCP101]. It has its own web site. The IASA has its own oversight committee, the IAOC, and includes the IETF Administrative Director(IAD). Many matters that the IESG or its Chair used to have to worry about, such as long range meeting planning, and contractual oversight of the Secretariat, are now IASA jobs.
When the IESG, or an IESG member, has a concern about operational performance by the Secretariat, the IANA, or the RFC Editor, the normal first step is to make an enquiry to the service provider concerned. For the Secretariat, there is a page of contact addresses most of which generate numbered tickets. If the problem doesn't get resolved satisfactorily, it may be reasonable to contact the IAD who oversees the performance of the service providers. Similarly, minor problems with Secretariat tools can be raised by generating tickets, but major problems and enhancements should go via the IAD who will run a systematic process for prioritizing tool requests.
IASA issues that can't be solved this way will have to be taken up with the IAOC. Since the IETF Chair is automatically a member of the IAOC, he or she would be the normal channel for raising such issues, although of course the IAOC is open to input from any IETF participant, including the ADs.
IASA will sometimes need input from the IESG. The most common case is when the IASA is preparing a request for proposals for one of its service provider contracts. The statement of work for an RFP in particular will need detailed review by the IESG.
IASA also includes the IETF Trust, as described in RFC4371, set up to manage the IETF's intellectual property. On occasion, the IESG may need to interact with the Trust, whose Trustees are the same people as the IAOC members.
Every two years, the IESG gets to appoint a member of the IAOC; see IesgNominating.
The content of this page was last updated on 2007-02-26. It was migrated from the old Trac wiki on 2023-02-17.