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Draft for Comments - May 9, 20051. Preamble
The North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG) exists to
promote dialog between people concerning the creation, maintenance and
operation of Internet Protocol networks. NANOG is not itself a network
operator—rather, it is a facilitator of discussion, learning, and
technical communication between networking professionals. NANOG provides a
forum where people from the network research community, the network
operator community and the network vendor community can come together to
identify and solve the problems that arise in operating and growing the
Internet.
2. NameThe name of the activity is the North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG).3. MissionThe purpose of NANOG is to provide forums in the North American
region for education and the sharing of knowledge for the Internet
operations community.
NANOG is a small venue in which technical matters pertaining to network
operations and network technology deployment in Internet providers may be
discussed among experts. Such discussions have in the past focused on, but
are certainly not limited to, experiences with new protocols and backbone
technologies, implications of routing policies on the Internet as a whole,
measurement techniques and measurements of Internet health and
performance, areas in which inter-provider cooperation can be mutually
beneficial (such as NOC coordination or security incident response), and
maintaining a competitive and level business environment.
NANOG serves as a bridge between the technical staff of
leading Internet providers close to network operations, technical
communities such as standards bodies, and the academic community.
NANOG has consistently worked to maintain a high level of technical
content in meetings and all related activities. In striving to achieve
these goals, all tutorials and presentations, including BOF presentations,
are reviewed in advance and are limited to those entirely of a general
technical nature, explicitly prohibiting material that relates to any
specific product or service offerings. For similar reasons, equipment
exhibits are limited to specified special events at each meeting.
4. Relationship to Merit Network, Inc.
Merit Network, Inc. (hereafter referred to as Merit) is a
non-profit corporation governed by Michigan's public universities. NANOG
is an activity hosted at Merit, with Merit providing full-time staff,
logistical coordination, registration services, and financial management.
Merit is also the host of the NANOG mailing list. Merit also supports the
goals and mission of NANOG through its support of and relationship with
the Chairs of the NANOG Steering Committee and Program Committee.
From time to time, additional Merit staff members may serve ex officio
on the Steering Committee, the Program Committee, or the mailing
list administration panel (see Section 7.1.2).
5. Elections and Eligibility for VotingAnyone who has registered for a NANOG meeting in the
previous two years may vote in any matter which comes before the community
for a vote. A list of eligible voters will be posted on the NANOG
web before each election.
6. Steering CommitteeThe Steering Committee will be elected by an open
nomination and election process from among those individuals eligible to
vote in that election. The Steering Committee will
consist of six elected members who serve staggered, two-year terms, and
one member appointed by Merit. Those items on which the Steering Committee
votes will be decided by absolute majority. No procedural change may be
enacted without agreement of five members of the Steering Committee. No
individual will serve more than two consecutive terms as a member of the
Steering Committee. An individual may serve for two terms, take a single
year off, and repeat the process. Each Steering Committee member
will submit a biography to be posted on the NANOG web.
6.1 ChairpersonOne member of the Steering Committee will be selected by a
vote of the Steering Committee to serve as the Chairperson for a one-year
term. The Chairperson will be selected at the first post-election
meeting of the Steering Committee, and an announcement will be made to the
NANOG mailing list(s) within 72 hours after selection.
6.2 Responsibilities
The Steering Committee will be responsible for the
following items:
6.2.1 Program Committee Membership and Selection
To ensure continuity as this new charter is established,
the three Program Committee seats vacant as of May 2005 will be filled
through appointment by the current committee after an open nomination
process.
Going forward, a new Program Committee will be formed
during or after the October 2005 meeting. The Steering Committee will
select the Program Committee with at least half of the members being
chosen from among those current members willing to continue service, in
order to provide continuity and preserve institutional memory of the
programming process. Because a large Program
Committee will be better able to handle the heavy workload, the Program
Committee will consist of 16 members (plus one member appointed by Merit).
To help the new Committee get established, Steve Feldman will continue as
Chairperson until the spring 2006 meeting. Each member will serve a
staggered two-year term. No Program Committee member will serve more than
two consecutive terms, although additional terms may be served after a
one-year interval. One member of the Steering Committee will serve
ex officio (without a vote) on the Program Committee, in order
to facilitate communication among the two groups.
A Program Committee member may be removed before the
expiration of his or her term if at least five members of the Steering
Committee vote for the removal.
6.2.2 Mailing List Administrator Selection
The Steering Committee will select the administrators of
the NANOG mailing list (discussed further in 7.1.2).
6.2.3 Budget Advisory Role
The Steering Committee will review and provide advice on
the portion of the Merit budget that is pertinent to NANOG. Merit
will provide an update on NANOG finances and operations at each NANOG
meeting.
6.2.5 Liaison with Other Organizations
The Steering Committee will facilitate communications
between the NANOG community and other organizations with similar goals
including ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, APRICOT, AfNOG, NORDNOG, and SANOG.
6.2.6 Meeting Attendance
Steering Committee members must commit to attend two out of
every three NANOG meetings.
6.3 Meetings and QuorumThe Steering Committee will meet in person at every NANOG
meeting, and may meet via conference calls on a more regular basis. All
meetings must be announced by the Chairperson at least 30 days in advance.
No action may be taken by the committee unless at least
four members of the committee are present. A motion will be considered to
have passed if it is voted for by a majority of those present. [Ed. Note:
is this consistent with paragraph 6 above?]
6.4 ElectionsElections will occur annually, at the last meeting in a
given calendar year. To elect the first Steering Committee,
nominations will be accepted via email to nominations@nanog.org from June
1-15, 2005. Candidates will then be listed on the NANOG web site,
with biographies submitted by the candidates, from June 20-July 12, 2005.
Elections will be held via electronic voting on the NANOG web site between
July 15-22, 2005, and the new committee will be named by August 1. In
future elections, candidates will have the opportunity to make a short
presentation during the regular community meeting.
6.4.2 Affiliation of Candidates
Each candidate must declare any and all affiliation(s)
relevant to NANOG, which will include his or her main employer, as well
as any other major relationships (for instance, if a candidate's primary
employer is a nonprofit entity which is sponsored by a vendor, the
candidate would declare both the nonprofit and the vendor as
affiliations).
6.4.3 Voting Process for Steering Committee Selection
Each year, three seats will be open due to the expiration
of terms, while others may be open due to resignations or other departures
of Committee members. Voters will be permitted to cast one vote per open
Committee seat. The top three vote-getters will be elected to the open two
year terms, while fourth and subsequent vote-getters will fill any other
open seats for the remaining portion of those seats' terms.
6.5 Merit RepresentationOne member of the Steering Committee will be appointed by
Merit to serve as its liaison. The representative of Merit will not have a
fixed term, but instead serves at the pleasure of Merit.
6.6 VacanciesIf a Steering Committee member resigns or a Steering
Committee seat otherwise becomes vacant more than two months before the
next election, the remaining members of the Steering Committee will
appoint a replacement to serve until the next election, at which point if
there is any additional time remaining in the term a member will be
elected to fill the vacancy. If a vacancy occurs less than two months
before an election, the seat will remain vacant until the election.
For every two vacancies on the committee, the quorum
requirement will be reduced by one.
6.7 Removal of Steering Committee MembersAn elected Steering Committee member who misses three or
more meetings in a row and who does not attend any Steering Committee
meetings for three months may be removed. A Steering Committee member who
meets these conditions may be removed if at least four of the elected
members of the Steering Committee vote to remove the person. If multiple
Steering Committee members qualify for removal, the removal may take place
if supported by all but one of the Steering Committee members not meeting
these removal criteria.
The Merit representative on the Steering Committee may be
removed at any time by Merit, and is not subject to removal by the elected
Steering Committee members.
7. Mailing ListOne of the primary functions of NANOG is the maintenance of
a mailing list (the NANOG list).
7.1 EligibilityThe NANOG list will be open to anyone to subscribe, with an
Acceptable Use Policy determined by the Steering Committee.
7.1.1 AUP
The NANOG List Acceptable Use Policy will be publicly
available on the NANOG web site. Any changes to the Acceptable Use Policy
must be approved by the Steering Committee.
7.1.2 Mailing List Administration
The NANOG list will be administered and minimally moderated
by a panel selected by the Steering Committee. There will be no fewer than
three members on the list administration committee, who will not serve as
members of either the Program Committee or the Steering Committee during
their time as mailing list administrators. Merit will provide a fourth
member of the panel.
7.1.3 Other Mailing Lists
The NANOG organization may also run other
Internet-operations-focused mailing lists and/or bulletin boards, at the
discretion of the Steering Committee and Merit.
8. ConferencesOne of the primary functions of NANOG is the administration
of multiple conferences per year.
8.1 LocationThe location of each conference will be determined by
Merit, in consultation with the Steering Committee and meeting host.
All meetings will be held in North America. Conferences will be
held at locations that can accommodate both the number of attendees and
the connectivity requirements of the attendees.
8.2 NumberThere are currently three conferences per year. This number
can be changed at the discretion of Merit and the Steering Committee after
a presentation to the membership at a conference.
8.3 ProgramThe conference program will be determined by the Program
Committee (see section 6.2.1, Program Committee Membership and
Selection. )
8.3.1 Program Committee Eligibility/Chairperson
To be eligible to be appointed as a member of the Program
Committee, an individual must have attended one NANOG meeting within the
prior calendar year (12 months). The Program Committee will elect a
new Chairperson during each spring NANOG meeting. The Chairperson
will serve for one year and will moderate NANOG meetings.
8.3.2 Program Committee Responsibilities
The Program Committee is responsible for
motivating/soliciting people to submit interesting talks, selecting the
submissions which seem most appropriate (with some attention to
presentation skills), and following up with speakers after acceptances to
ensure that presentations are completed in time, with ample warning of
potential problems with the presentation.
The Chair of the Program Committee will serve ex
officio (without a vote) on the Steering Committee, in order to
facilitate communication among the two groups.
Each member of the Program Committee must review all
presentations submitted for each meeting. The Chair may excuse a
member from one meeting's review cycle due to extenuating circumstances,
but if a member misses two meetings in a row, he or she may be removed
from the committee. Any resulting vacancies will be filled by the
Chairs of the Program Committee and Steering Committee.
8.4 Meeting HostIn consultation with the Steering Committee, Merit will
name a host organization for each conference and where possible use
different hosts and vary their industry sector.
NANOG meetings are hosted by local sponsoring organizations
known as "local hosts." NANOG hosts receive Internet-wide recognition for
their contribution to the ISP community. The host's name will be
prominently displayed on all printed and online material about the NANOG
meeting, and will be widely circulated on the member NANOG email list.
Staff from the hosting organization who are actively
involved in setting up meeting facilities or on-site equipment are invited
to attend the conference at no cost.
8.5 Community MeetingsAs determined by the Steering Committee, NANOG meetings
will include a community meeting for open discussion of the continuing
evolution of NANOG.
9. AmendmentsAmendments to this charter may be recommended by a majority
vote of eligible voters during an annual election. An amendment may be put
on the ballot by the Steering Committee, or by a petition signed by at
least 30 eligible voters, or 1% of eligible voters, whichever is greater.
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