| Internet-Draft | The IETF Chair May Delegate | November 2026 |
| Eggert | Expires 6 May 2027 | [Page] |
This document affirms that the IETF Chair may delegate some of their responsibilities to other Area Directors, and updates RFC 3710 and RFC 9281 to allow additional General Area Directors and to remove stale text.¶
This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.¶
The latest revision of this draft can be found at https://ietf-wg-procon.github.io/ietf-chair-may-delegate/draft-ietf-procon-chair-delegate.html. Status information for this document may be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-procon-chair-delegate/.¶
Discussion of this document takes place on the procon Working Group mailing list (mailto:procon@ietf.org), which is archived at https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/procon/. Subscribe at https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/procon/.¶
Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at https://github.com/ietf-wg-procon/ietf-chair-may-delegate.¶
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.¶
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.¶
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."¶
This Internet-Draft will expire on 6 May 2027.¶
Copyright (c) 2026 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.¶
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.¶
Throughout the history of the IETF, the role of the IETF Chair has always been filled by a single person. None of the foundational documents of the organization precisely define the role, but most are written with an understanding that the role is filled by a single person who is then tasked with numerous responsibilities. The expired Internet-Draft [I-D.carpenter-ietf-chair-tasks] attempted to define the role of the IETF Chair more precisely but was not taken forward.¶
Few documents explicitly say that the IETF Chair may delegate some of these responsibilities. Over time, this has created a situation where even a full-time commitment by a single person may no longer be sufficient to fulfill all of these roles and duties. There may also be periods of high activity where not all duties can be performed due to other, higher-priority tasks, or a seated IETF Chair may need to reduce their load for a while, for example for health or family reasons. A candidate for IETF Chair may also know in advance that they will not be able to perform all duties themselves. A delegation can therefore last from a short period up to the IETF Chair's entire term. An IETF Chair who is unable to serve at all is covered by [I-D.eggert-procon-chair-standin].¶
Single bottlenecks like this have obvious scaling and fault tolerance issues. This document hence explicitly allows the IETF Chair to delegate some of their responsibilities to one or more other Area Directors. It leaves it up to each IETF Chair to determine if they would like to delegate some of their responsibilities, and if so, which ones, to whom and when.¶
This document does not require or even recommend that the IETF chair delegate any of their duties, it merely permits them to do so if they so choose. Specifically, with these changes, it should be possible for the IESG to request the selection of a General Area Director who is not at the same time also the IETF Chair, to whom the IETF Chair may then delegate some of their responsibilities.¶
There must be community transparency about which tasks the IETF Chair has delegated to which other Area Director, and for which time. This transparency can be guaranteed in several ways, such as through the IESG website or public email. Such operational details are left to the discretion of the IESG.¶
The IETF Chair may delegate specific tasks or functions of their roles to one or more other Area Directors who agree to take them on, unless a BCP specifically disallows this. Each delegation is for a specific period of time and is announced. The IETF Chair continues to hold their roles and retains ultimate responsibility for any delegated tasks or functions. This includes the IESG Chair's part in the appeals process (Section 6.5.2 of [RFC2026]): the IETF Chair may ask another Area Director to help resolve a complaint but remains responsible for the outcome.¶
Delegation is limited to Area Directors, because the NomCom selected them for the IESG and they are accountable through the NomCom and recall processes. This also preserves the separation between the IAB and the standards process, and prevents candidates for IETF Chair from campaigning as teams.¶
The NomCom may ask candidates for IETF Chair which tasks they intend to delegate.¶
If the IETF Chair is absent from an IESG meeting and has not delegated chairing it, the IESG may choose who chairs that meeting.¶
The IESG may ask the NomCom to fill one or more additional General Area Director positions, just as it has added Area Directors to other areas and created new areas. The IETF Chair remains a General Area Director. To allow this, this document makes the following updates:¶
This section collects updates to some text in existing RFCs that has become stale.¶
Section 7.1 of [RFC3710] says¶
The IETF Chair has primary responsibility for supervising the work of the IETF Secretariat, with the advice and consent of the IESG, the IAB Chair and the ISOC president.¶
With the publication of [RFC8711], this responsibility has moved to the IETF Executive Director (Section 5.1 of [RFC8711]). The document updates Section 7.1 of [RFC3710] to remove the sentence above.¶
The usual security considerations [RFC3552] do not apply to this document.¶
This document has no IANA actions.¶
These individuals suggested improvements to this document:¶
This section analyzes which RFCs imply that the IETF Chair and IESG Chair roles need to be filled by the same person.¶
[RFC2026] is surprisingly silent on the role of the IETF Chair, only mentioning it in Section 14 of [RFC2026] as part of the terminology:¶
Area Director - The manager of an IETF Area. The Area Directors along with the IETF Chair comprise the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).¶
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) - A group comprised of the IETF Area Directors and the IETF Chair. (...)¶
Similarly, the role of the IESG Chair is only briefly mentioned in Section 6.5.2 of [RFC2026] as part of how process failures are handled:¶
If an individual should disagree with an action taken by the IESG in this process, that person should first discuss the issue with the IESG Chair. If the IESG Chair is unable to satisfy the complainant then (...)¶
[RFC2026] does not require the IETF Chair to also fulfill the role of IESG Chair. Section 1.2 of [RFC1602], the earlier revision of the standards process that [RFC2026] obsoletes, is an Informational RFC and does include text to that effect, however:¶
The IESG is composed of the IETF Area Directors and the chairperson of the IETF, who also serves as the chairperson of the IESG.¶
Section 1.2 of [RFC1602] is likely the basis for [RFC2028], a BCP that includes similar text:¶
The IESG is composed of the IETF Area Directors and the chair of the IETF, who also serves as the chair of the IESG.¶
Section 3.3 of [RFC9281], a BCP that obsoletes [RFC2028], retains that text and also states that the IETF Chair is the Area Director for the General Area:¶
The IESG is composed of the ADs and the IETF Chair. The IETF Chair also chairs the IESG and is the AD for the General Area.¶
Section 4 of [RFC4949], an Informational RFC containing an Internet Security Glossary, contains this text under the "Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG)" glossary item:¶
The part of the ISOC responsible for technical management of IETF activities and administration of the Internet Standards Process according to procedures approved by the ISOC Trustees. Directly responsible for actions along the "standards track", including final approval of specifications as Internet Standards. Composed of IETF Area Directors and the IETF chairperson, who also chairs the IESG. (RFC 2026)¶
These texts are consistent with Section 2: the IETF Chair chairs the IESG and only delegates specific tasks.¶
This section analyzes which RFCs contain text about the full IAB membership of the IETF Chair.¶
Section 1 of [RFC2850] requires the IETF Chair to be a full member of the IAB:¶
The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) shall consist of thirteen full members, composed of the chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and of twelve sitting members.¶
Appendix C of [RFC8713] contains a similar statement as part of the second item in a list of "oral traditions" recorded for "consideration by future NomComs":¶
No person should serve both on the IAB and as an Area Director, except the IETF Chair whose roles as an IAB member and Area Director of the General Area are set out elsewhere.¶
Section 3.4 of [RFC9281] says:¶
The IETF Chair is also a member of the IAB, and the Chair of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is an ex officio member.¶
The IETF Chair remains a full voting member of the IAB and may choose to participate less in IAB activities when needed. [RFC2850] is an IAB-stream BCP, so any change to the IETF Chair's IAB membership is for the IAB to make.¶
This section analyzes which RFCs contain text about the responsibility of the IETF Chair to also serve as Area Director of the General Area.¶
Section 2 of [RFC3710] states that the IETF Chair is the General Area Director:¶
The IETF Chair, who also functions as the General Area Director when this area is active¶
Section 3.3 of [RFC9281] also makes a similar statement:¶
The IETF Chair also chairs the IESG and is the AD for the General Area.¶
Both texts imply a single General Area Director. Section 3 updates them so that the IESG may ask the NomCom to fill additional General Area Director positions.¶
This section briefly summarizes other roles the IETF Chair has, but which require no updates, usually because delegation is already permitted.¶
Section 3.1 of [RFC4691] says¶
Liaison statements are only sent on the initiative of the IETF chair, the IAB chair, IETF Area Directors, or IETF working group chairs.¶
For a liaison statement generated on behalf of the IETF as a whole, the IETF Chair must have generated or must agree with the sending of the liaison statement. If the liaison statement is not sent by the IETF Chair, then his or her agreement must be obtained in advance and confirmed by copying the IETF Chair on the message.¶
The combination of these two statements already allows another Area Director to send a liaison statement on behalf of the IETF with IETF Chair approval.¶
Appendix A of [RFC7154] says "An individual can report transgressions of the guidelines for conduct to the IETF Chair or the IESG."¶
[RFC7154] does not define any actions specific to the IETF Chair for such reports, so receiving them can be delegated like other tasks (Section 2).¶
The IETF Chair is tasked with managing the constituency of the ombudsteam [RFC7776] and the moderator team of the IETF discussion list [RFC9245]. They also select moderators for the Last-Call mailing list, and other lists with an organizational scope encompassing the entire IETF.¶
The IETF Chair may delegate the work of soliciting and vetting candidates (Section 2), but makes these appointments themselves, as [RFC7776] makes the ombudsteam appointment "solely the responsibility of the IETF Chair". No changes are made here.¶
[RFC8711] suggests that the IETF Chair, or a delegate selected by the IESG, will serve on the Board of Directors of the IETF Administration LLC. Because delegation of that role is already explicitly allowed, no changes are made here.¶
Section 3.1.2.2 of [RFC9280] makes the IETF stream representative on the RFC Series Approval Board "either an IESG member or someone appointed by the IESG". Because this already allows someone other than the IETF Chair to serve, no changes are made here.¶
Allow delegating specific tasks instead of whole roles, with the IETF Chair retaining ultimate responsibility.¶
Keep the IESG Chair role and the IAB membership with the IETF Chair, and drop the corresponding updates to RFC 2850, RFC 4949 and RFC 8713.¶
Address the IESG Chair's part in the appeals process.¶
Let the IESG choose who chairs a meeting when the IETF Chair is absent.¶
Allow additional General Area Directors, updating RFC 3710 and RFC 9281.¶
Describe the situations in which delegation may be needed.¶
Let the NomCom ask IETF Chair candidates about their delegation plans.¶
Explain why delegation is limited to Area Directors.¶
Cover the RSAB seat, conduct reports and team appointments.¶
Move the analysis of existing RFCs into appendices.¶
Editorial fixes.¶