[cabfpub] Review of Forum governance changes after July 3

Kirk Hall Kirk.Hall at entrustdatacard.com
Wed Jun 13 15:58:17 UTC 2018


The Governance Change Working Group met by teleconference on Tuesday to talk about the steps needed once we transition to the new governance structure on July 3.  Here are some preliminary plans, which we can discuss on Thursday's Forum teleconference.  The new governance documents adopted in Ballot 206 are attached.

1.  Who can participate in the Forum or the Server Certificate Working Group (SCWG) after July 3?

In order to maintain your current participation rights, you must sign and return the IPR Agreement v1.3 (IPRA).


*       Any current Member who fails to sign the IPRA is downgraded to Associate Member status for 90 days and can't vote on ballots during that period.

*       Any current Associate Member who fails to sign the IPRA loses its Associate Member status and its right to participate until the IPRA is signed.

*       Any current Member who is downgraded to Associate Member status and still fails to sign the IPRA over the following 90 days (by October 1, by my count) loses its Associate Member status and its right to participate until the IPRA is signed.

*       Any Interested Party who fails to sign the IPRA loses the right to participate.

2.  How does the new Server Certificate Working Group get started?

The SCWG Charter was approved by Ballot 206, but the Ballot's creation of the SCWG is not effective until July 3.

The SCWG Charter says this:

Initial chairs and contacts: Chair, Kirk Hall, kirk.hall at entrustdatacard.com; Vice Chair, Ben Wilson, ben.wilson at digicert.com; terms to run concurrently with their terms as Chair and Vice Chair of the Forum, respectively, unless otherwise voted upon by the Working Group.

Bylaws v1.9 Sec. 5.3.1(c) says this:

(c) After the charter is approved, the CWG MAY elect a new Chair by majority vote of the CWG's members, or as otherwise specified in the charter. The CWG Chair will send an invitation to the Public Mail List for an initial CWG meeting and will solicit eligible Members, Associate Members and Interested Parties (as specified in the charter) with expertise and interest in the CWG's subject matter to participate in the CWG. In order to participate in a Working Group, a party must have agreed to the IPR Policy Agreement and formally declared participation. Each CWG Chair shall be responsible for ensuring that all parties attending the respective CWG meetings have signed the IPR Policy Agreement and have formally declared their participation in the CWG via the mechanism designated by the Forum prior to attending.

We think these provisions mean the following:


*       Under the SCWG Charter, Kirk is Chair and Ben is Vice-Chair until the WG elects new officers.  Our terms as Forum officers expire on October 21, but the Charter does not limit our terms as initial officers of the SCWG so presumably we would continue until new officers are elected.  However, the SCWG can elect a new Chair prior to October 21, once it has established who the members of the WG are, establishes a voting procedure by Ballot, and elects a new Chair by Ballot following those procedures.



*       We think the new WG should initially meet during the same time slot as the Forum does for the first few meetings.  The first such meeting date according to our calendar would be Thursday, July 12.



Accordingly, on July 3rd (the date the new Bylaws become effective) I will send the official "invitation to the Public Mail List for an initial CWG meeting and will solicit eligible Members, Associate Members and Interested Parties (as specified in the charter) with expertise and interest in the CWG's subject matter to participate in the CWG".  The invitation will indicate the first meeting will be on July 12 at 11:00 am Eastern, right after the adjournment of a brief Forum meeting starting at the same time (our regular time).  As with our current calls, only Members and Associate Members can be on the SCWG teleconference - subject to the rules on signing the IPR Agreement described above.



We have created a page on the wiki under Working Groups - Server Certificate Working Group.  Members and Associate Members who want to indicate their interest in becoming members of the SCWG can sign up there, either before or after July 3, to help us establish a roster of participants and create a new SCWG email list.

3.  What will be on the SCWG's Agenda for its first meeting on July 12?

We think the SCWG's Agendas will over time be similar to the Forum's Agendas.  However, there are two preliminary things to work on:


*       Approve a process for electing officers by ballot, then hold elections by ballot.  As quoted above, the Charter says Kirk and Ben are the Chair and Vice-Chair "unless otherwise voted upon by the Working Group".  The Bylaws say (for any new Working Group) "After the charter is approved, the CWG MAY elect a new Chair by majority vote of the CWG's members, or as otherwise specified in the charter."  The SCWG will have to decide what officers it wants to elect, create a process, accept nominations, and hold election ballots for new SCWG officers.



*       Approve Subcommittees for the SCWG.

The updated Bylaws say: "CWGs [Chartered Working Groups, like the SCWG] may establish any number of subcommittees within its own Working Group to address any of such CWG's business (each, a "Subcommittee"). A CWG-created Subcommittee needs to be approved by the CWG itself according to the approval process set forth in the CWG charter, but approval of the Forum is not necessary. Subcommittees must exist under an approved CWG."

The Forum currently has four Working Groups:


1.       Validation

2.       Network Security

3.       Policy Review

4.       Governance Change

We assume the SCWG will want to establish the first three as Subcommittees, but not the fourth one (not the Governance Change Working Group), as governance change issues will be addressed at the full Forum level.

4.  How will we establish new mail lists for the Server Certificate Working Group?

We think it's best to keep the current Public@ and Management@ list for Forum communications after July 3, so are likely to establish new mailing  lists (one Public, one Management) for the SCWG once formed.

However, we may also use the existing Public@ and Management@ Forum email addresses for both the Forum communications and the SCWG communications for some weeks after July 3, until we are satisfied that the new, separate SCWG mail lists are properly set up.  (Remember, there are probably hundreds of members of the public currently subscribed to the Public@ list - we have to figure out a way they can subscribe to the SCWG Public list as well, or else they will be cut off.)

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