Re: [Gendispatch] Re: Last IETF ever in China ?! Re: Agenda request: draft-rescorla-anonymous-network

Hi,

You missed another possible reason which was the case for me. Medical issues prevented travel.

Jim

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________________________________
From: S Moonesamy <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, April 4, 2026 5:12:33 PM
To: Ted Hardie <[email protected]>; George Michaelson <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Gendispatch] Re: Last IETF ever in China ?! Re: Agenda request: draft-rescorla-anonymous-network

Hi Ted, George,
At 05:36 AM 02-04-2026, Ted Hardie wrote:
>Permit me to gently suggest that you may want to rethink the phrase
>"'protest based reasons to avoid a venue."  Defining an objection as
>protest carries a connotation that is fundamentally political, which
>is contrary to your stated aim.
>
>I also must suggest that you should reflect a bit more on whether
>these choices can ever be truly apolitical.  The IETF has ranged
>from "unincorporated association" through "organized activity" and
>and is now a "disregarded entity"--through all of those it has kept
>a deep aversion to having a defined membership.  The IETF, in our
>common understanding, is whoever shows up and does the work.  We
>have participants, not members.

I searched for the minutes of the plenary after reading the sentence below:

>As I said at the plenary, I am willing to personally contribute to
>the shortfall.

I could not find the comment from Ted [1].  It's not that important
as Ted followed up with a message to the mailing list.

Here is what I saw at some time last week.  There were two IESG
members who were attended a working group session from other
locations instead of location where the meeting was held.  I found
that odd as, some of the subscribers to this mailing list, over the
years used to point out to me that it was important to be able to
attend the meetings to be able to "get work done" [2].

The point which Ted raised is interesting.  I thought about how it
would be if I applied it to what I saw.  Would it mean that there
were two IESG members who avoided the venue for political reasons?

It's been a tradition for the IESG members to make an appearance on
the stage.  The minutes [1] do not say whether the IESG members were
on stage or if only some of them were there.  There is an idiom (in
English) to describe a glaring issue which is avoided in
discussions.  Was the omission for political reasons?

Let's test the hypothesis that someone who was chosen by a nomination
committee cannot attend the meeting because he/she does not have the
funding to travel.  The IETF Administration LLC has a travel policy
which, among other things, enables its directors to attend
meetings.  That rules out a funding problem.

Now, what if they was a visa problem?  It is easy to find out.  There
were other attendees residing in the same country who were able to
get to the meeting.  That leave me with the option that the person
was objecting to something or else he/she shows up and does the work.

There was a remote room which was set up in Japan.  I don't recall
seeing a significant number of attendees who are usually from that
location in the room.  That location is relative close, time-wise,
with the location of the meeting.  Was attendance through the remote
room some form of protest?

Moving past the last meeting, there is another "avoid meeting"
issue.  There are decisions taken outside the standards process which
can influence how the participants do the work.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy

1.
https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdatatracker.ietf.org%2Fmeeting%2F125%2Fmaterials%2Fminutes-125-ietf-202603180830-00&data=05%7C02%7Cjames.n.guichard%40futurewei.com%7C1cfa3db0e2974a32ac5c08de92a2774a%7C0fee8ff2a3b240189c753a1d5591fedc%7C1%7C0%7C639109423672609813%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=AQ5NTkGswulwG7HNVNWEOj4ToKaFz5mD6ACeLxp3pX4%3D&reserved=0<https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/125/materials/minutes-125-ietf-202603180830-00>

2. It is aligned with one of the points documented under "core values".