I think we have been around this loop before. (once or twice :-) The community continues to perceive that document review is the thing that takes up most AD time. This is probably because of document delays/backlog and because this is the way most of us interact with the IESG. However, the IESG members repeatedly state that while document review is a significant chunk of their time, it is not the biggest drain. It *is* a pain for a couple of days every two weeks, but then there is everything else (I could make a long list). What I have singularly failed to find out is what the ADs actually spend their time on. This despite asking and begging to find out. Warren, who really hated doing it, was good enough to attempt to track his time over a few months. I’d say that the biggest draw he reported was “handling emails” and that is, of course, a bit on the vague side. I *think* a lot of those emails were following up on Discusses or Comments, so perhaps you can put that in the “document review” pot. But then there is all the work of oversight of the Area and the WGs. It was also apparent that the components of the load varied drastically from week to week, even if the load generally remained steady. If we assume, for a moment, that the ADs work for us (the community) then it might seem reasonable (to me) that we know how they are spending their time. It would certainly be odd for an employer to have 14 senior staff tasked with “do stuff” without any detailed understanding of what exactly they do. And (slight switch of direction) while the IESG is responsible for writing a job description that is both detailed and vague, and while the NomCom uses that description as the main input for recruitment/selection. All we do is perpetuate. What to do? Cheers, Adrian From: Joel Halpern <jmh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> I would put it differently. Whether work load has increased or not, whether available IESG member work has decreased or not, the work load issues are the one that the IESG has demonstrably tried to address. So if we as a community want to address problems that are preventing us from getting enough capable volunteers with enough time and support to do the job of AD, it seems to me that we should look at other aspects. (Unfortunately, at that point I run out of suggestions. This has been a problem for a long time.) Yours, Joel On 3/25/2025 5:44 PM, Salz, Rich wrote: |
