ISOC (The Internet Society) is often described as the IETF's legal umbrella. ISOC's Board of Directors has to formally accept (not 'approve') IETF process documents, and then IETF office-holders are covered by ISOC's Directors and Officers liability insurance. Also, the ISOC Board is the final step in the IETF appeals process, and the ISOC President appoints the Chair of the IETF Nominating Committee.
In 2005, ISOC became the corporate home of the IETF Administrative Support Activity (IASA) and is now clearly identified as the IETF's external funding agency, providing about 40% of the budget (the rest comes from meeting fees and meeting sponsors).
However, the IESG doesn't need to interact directly with ISOC in normal circumstances. The IAB has an advisory role to ISOC, but not the IESG.
The IESG has the role of confirming body for ISOC Board Members appointed by the IAB (IesgNominating).
IESG members are sometimes asked to speak or write for ISOC audiences, for example by contributing to the IETF Journal published by ISOC, or by giving talks to ISOC chapters while on travel. These are definitely volunteer activities.
ISOC is involved in global policy discussions affecting the Internet, such as the new Internet Governance Forum. IESG members may get solicited to help ISOC provide high quality technical input to such discussions (although the IAB is ISOC's first port of call for this).
The content of this page was last updated on 2006-01-31. It was migrated from the old Trac wiki on 2023-02-17.