IESG -- 15 September 1998 -- IETF-Announce ------------------------------------------ Protocol Action: IETF Working Group Guidelines and Procedures to BCP The IESG has approved the Internet-Draft IETF Working Group Guidelines and Procedures as a BCP. This document is the product of the Process for Organization of Internet StandardS ONgoing Working Group. The IESG contact person is Fred Baker. Technical Summary The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has responsibility for developing and reviewing specifications intended as Internet Standards. IETF activities are organized into working groups (WGs). This document describes the guidelines and procedures for formation and operation of IETF working groups. It also describes the formal relationship between IETF participants WG and the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) and the basic duties of IETF participants, including WG Chairs, WG participants, and IETF Area Directors. Working Group Summary The working group process was, as always, involved and heavily discussed, but on few points was there major disagreement. This document essentially tells us how most IETF working groups work today. Document Quality The specification was edited by Scott Bradner and reviewed by Fred Baker, IETF Chair. Note to RFC Editor: Please replace Item #3 in Section 2.2 with the following clarifying text: 3. The location of the mailing list archive. A message archive MUST be maintained in a public place which can be accessed via FTP or via the web. As a service to the community, the IETF Secretariat operates a mailing list archive for working group mailing lists. In order to take advantage of this service, working group mailing lists MUST include the address "wg_acronym-archive@lists.ietf.org" (where "wg_acronym" is the working group acronym) in the mailing list in order that a copy of all mailing list messages be recorded in the Secretariat's archive. Those archives are located at ftp://ftp.ietf.org/ietf-mail-archive. For robustness, WGs SHOULD maintain an additional archive separate from that maintained by the Secretariat.