Hi, Martin, Top-posting - I'd add two more items under "what's great about being an AD", which would be
- watching new working groups become productive and new chairs learn their roles successfully, and - I was told that past ADs have a lifetime invitation to the transport chairs/TSVART dinners - again, when we meet again :-) But this is a great summary! Best, Spencer On Thu, Aug 6, 2020 at 6:35 PM Martin Duke <martin.h.d...@gmail.com> wrote: > As so often happens, Transport AD candidates are thin on the ground. I'll > share some thoughts as someone who stepped into the role role with very > little idea of IETF beyond the 2 or 3 working groups I was active in at the > time. > > *TL;DR* being an AD is a professionally enriching and socially > rewarding experience. It takes time but it usually doesn't hurt to ask your > employer for that time. The procedural stuff is not hard at all. The most > challenging thing is getting up to speed on unfamiliar subjects, which also > probably has the biggest benefits. > > Others can judge if I've been successful, but at no point have I been > overwhelmed or left without great advice and exceptional documentation on > how to do things. > > Nominations happen here: > https://datatracker.ietf.org/nomcom/2020/nominate/. > > *What's great about being an AD*: > - Having an important say in shaping the area and the IETF as a whole, > particularly by chartering groups and participating in IESG initiatives > that interest you > - Everyone has their examples of nonsense at the IETF but ADs are in a > position to do something about it. > - Working with some great WG chairs, and building our TSV community > - Learning much more about what's going on in other areas, to become a > more complete internet professional > - There's a lot of freedom to focus on what you find most interesting > - Meeting people from every corner of IETF - unfortunately I haven't > gotten the full in-person version of this, but it remains true. > > *Time commitment*: This the biggest reason not to pursue the position. > Like many things it depends on what you want to put into it, but it's not > like a chair position that can be done in the margins of your day job.. I > would definitely arrange with your employer to lose no less than 1/4, and > probably half, of your current responsibilities. > > This is a huge mental obstacle for many people, but if your boss can be > persuaded of the advantages for your organization, and that it will help > you be a satisfied employee, you may be able to jettison the less appealing > bits of your current work. That's how it turned out for me. > > *What's the work*? There's an official job description here: > https://trac.ietf.org/trac/iesg/wiki/TransportExpertise > > In roughly declining order of time commitment: > > 1. IESG review: you should review a healthy majority of documents that > pass IETF Last Call. This can take a long time if you provide detailed > reviews of everything, or not as much if you focus on the transport aspects > of documents that have transport implications and lean on the area review > team to do their usual good job. > > 2. Weekly meetings: No more than 3 hours unless you volunteer for more. > Obviously, ramps up around IETF week. > > 3. AD Review: you really should take a close look at the document output > of your WGLCs. > > 4. WG management: Chairs don't need to be micromanaged, but they'll > sometimes ask your opinion.. You're also deeply involved in chartering, > finding chairs, and BOFs in your area but these are not terribly frequent > events. > > 5. IESG projects. This is purely optional, but you can take on a special > project. For example, I was deeply involved in figuring out the remote > meeting plan, and, well, you saw the result. > > 6. Miscellaneous: you will get random email about RFC errata, etc, and > have to deal with it. It's not a huge time sink. > > I hope some of you will overcome the concern that you're "not ready" for > this position, and/or the hesitation to ask your employer to explore an > interesting opportunity. > > I happy to discuss further with interested people, either via email or > using the chat or meeting technology of your choice. > > Thanks > Martin > _______________________________________________ > Tsv-art mailing list > tsv-...@ietf.org > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/tsv-art >
