The IETF Chair has seven major roles: overseeing the work of the IETF as a whole, representing the IETF to the outside world, overseeing the work of the IESG in particular, serving as the General AD, serving as a voting member of the IAB, (if appointed by the IESG) serving as an IETF Administration LLC Board member, and serving as the IETF RFC Stream representative on the RFC Series Approval Board (RSAB).
Serving as IETF Chair requires a full-time or near-full-time commitment. A candidate for this position needs to be willing to put aside his or her own technical work and other major professional roles for the duration of the term.
Chairing the IETF requires excellent communications skills, strong leadership skills, the ability and willingness to keep the community informed of all issues that are important to the IETF as a whole, the ability to establish community consensus on issues important to the IETF as a whole, and the ability to speak and act in accordance with that consensus. Among other things, this involves planning plenary sessions and leadership retreats and effectively running meetings with over 1000 attendees.
In the IESG Chair role, the IETF Chair is responsible for coordinating the activities of the other ADs and providing top-level management for the IETF standards process. The IETF Chair must be capable of intervening when difficulties arise between ADs or between an AD and a WG Chair. The IETF Chair also oversees the handling of appeals sent to the IESG, the mechanisms for IESG internal process change, and the production of any statements issued by the IESG.
The General Area consists of very few WGs and other activities focused on supporting, updating and maintaining the IETF standards development process. As General AD, the IETF Chair should meet the generic requirements for an IESG member listed above, and is expected to play a full role in IESG document review and approval. The General AD must also have a strong understanding of the IETF standards process and a commitment to maintain and improve that process. The General AD manages the General Area Review Team (Gen-ART); the Education, Mentoring, and Outreach (EMO) Directorate; and the Tools Team.
The IETF Chair is a voting member of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). The IAB has a long history, but the IAB is currently viewed as the senior committee working with the IETF to provide both architectural and oversight functions for the development of the Internet. The IETF Chair brings important perspective to the oversight of the IANA functions and the liaison process with other SDOs.
The IESG may choose to appoint the IETF Chair to the IETF Administration LLC Board. As a board member, the IETF Chair would have fiduciary responsibility to the LLC and would be involved in strategic planning, budget approval, and fundraising on behalf of the IETF LLC. Although day-to-day management of administrative matters is handled by the LLC staff and IETF secretariat, the IETF Chair will spend some time each week on administrative business, particularly in the context of ensuring the IETF is properly supported by its staff and contractors.
The IETF Chair is asked to speak at numerous conferences and to represent the IETF to government officials, representatives of other standards bodies and the press. While the IETF Chair has control over which of these invitations he or she accepts, any candidate for this position should be willing and able to represent the IETF effectively in these fora, in consultation with the IAB Chair as appropriate.
The IETF Chair needs to be able to lead and work with others on communications related to the IETF and its visions, values, work activities, and successes. This includes being able to lead the community through difficult, contentious discussions. It also includes answering requests to explain the IETF to people who are not familiar with it or its work. To do this, the IETF Chair uses different communication styles and methods than those needed to effectively lead and work with others within the IETF. For example, the IETF Chair may be asked to communicate with news media, help develop approaches for and use channels such as social media, and speak with non-technical audiences beyond the immediate IETF community.
The content of this page was last updated on 2022-07-08. It was migrated from the old Trac wiki on 2023-02-17.