well said!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Keith Moore [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, February 14, 2000 3:37 PM
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: IETF Adelaide and interim meetings for APPS WGs
>
>
> It has come to the attention of the Applications Area Directors
> that one or more Applications area working groups have elected
> to not meet in Adelaide, and instead to hold an "interim meeting"
> in the United States, presumably because of distance and/or
> cost issues.
>
> IETF is an international organization, and it is IETF's longstanding
> practice to hold its meetings in various locations around the planet.
> This serves both to encourage wider participation in IETF and also
> to more fairly distribute travel costs and inconvenience (over time)
> among all participants. The scheduleing of an interim WG meeting in
> the US in lieu of a WG meeting in Adelaide undermines this policy.
> This is insulting to non-US participants of IETF (many of whom have
> attended meetings in the US for years), embarassing to IETF as
> a whole, and a threat to IETF's international stature.
>
> Even if a working group has few participants outside the United
> States, a working group does not work in isolation from other
> working groups. Attendance at IETF meetings is an invaluable
> mechanism for cross-group collaboration.
>
> RFC 2418 states:
>
> Interim meetings are subject to the
> same rules for advance notification, reporting, open participation,
> and process, which apply to other working group meetings.
>
> Since normal working group meetings require advance notification
> via email to the entire IETF list, and the process for
> getting a meeting
> slot involves prior approval of the Area Directors, the same
> requirements apply to interim working group meetings. Part of the
> reason for prior approval being required is to ensure that the
> locations of the meetings are not being chosen to favor certain
> participants over others.
>
> There have been several violations of this policy since publication
> of RFC 2418.
>
> Therefore,
>
> - All interim meetings within the Applications Area which were not
> previously and explicitly approved by the Applications Area
> Directors,
> are hereby cancelled.
>
> - No Applications Area group will hold any interim meeting prior
> to April 15.
>
> - No Applications Area group which does not hold a meeting in
> Adelaide, will hold any interim meeting prior to July 31.
> (i.e. prior to the Pittsburg IETF meeting)
>
> - This applies to all face to face meetings held for the purpose
> of conducting working group discussion and to which the working
> group is invited, even if labelled "informal" or otherwise
> labelled to distinguish them from official working group meetings.
>
> - Exceptions to this policy may be made for recently chartered groups,
> but Area Director approval is still required for such groups to
> schedule interim meetings.
>
>
> for the Applications Area Directors,
>
> Keith Moore
>
