Making Decisions in the IETF

Hi Mark, Pete,

I read the draft about "Making Decisions in the IETF".

Section 1 of the draft states that the guidance in RFC 2418 has 
served the IETF well for more than thirty years.  It then goes on to 
argue that the IETF has grown and the decisions made are more than 
ever relevant to society.

   (a) It's not often that one finds guidance which has served a 
group well for over
       thirty years.  Why is the guidance no longer working as it did 
thirty years ago?

   (b) What changed in the group as it grew?

   (c) What is the difference in the decisions made thirty years ago 
and those taken
       nowadays?

Section 1.1 has the following: "decision making by voting is 
inappropriate -- it would make our processes vulnerable to rule by 
majority and vote stuffing."  I followed a few working groups 
today.  There was voting in a few of those working groups.  If I read 
the text from the draft literally, I would conclude that there was 
something inappropriate going on.

Section 2 of the draft has the following: "groups SHOULD maintain a 
record of decisions".   Are there cases where a group does not have 
to record a decision?

Section 3 of the draft states that adoption does not consensus.  I 
thought that little gem was fairly well-known.  That is not reflected 
in the various mailing list discussions which I have seen.

Section 3 ends with a statement that lack of consensus is not a valid 
basis for an appeal.   I could guess at what one of the authors is 
getting at and I would not disagree on that.  I would not take the 
same position if I had to apply that as a rule.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy