[ripe-list] RIPE WG Chairs Selection and Terms

> On 12 Feb 2021, at 11:26, Martin Winter <mwinter at netdef.org> wrote:
> 
> I'm prefer to find a solution without limits on terms.

IMO, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to this issue. It’s unwise (and probably impossible) to try to create one.

WGs should be left to decide for themselves what works best for them. Sometimes, that’ll mean term limits. Sometimes it won’t.

Not all WGs are the same. And for a few of them, continuity will be far more important than other considerations.

There should of course be a healthy replacement of WG leadership: enough to ensure things don’t get stale but not so much that continuity or institutional memory gets lost. That balance and those trade-offs will be different in each WG. Which is why each WG should get to decide how they handle this.

Term limits in some WGs like DNS or IoT are fine IMO. For WGs like Coop or AA (say) who interact more with the authorities, not so much.

We should also think very, very carefully before imposing policies top-down. RIPE, like most Internet institutions, has always used bottom-up policy development. It should stick with that model because it produces the best outcomes.