Liaisons
The IETF has a limited number of liaison relationships with other organizations. Liaisons are appointed by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) when the IAB feels that conditions warrant appointing a specific person to such a task.
Establishing a liaison relationship can provide the framework for ongoing communications to:
- Prevent inadvertent duplication of effort, without obstructing either organization from pursuing its own mandate
- Provide authoritative information of one organization’s dependence on the other’s work
Note that such appointments are rare as the best way for organizations to work with the IETF is to do so within the working groups. The primary contact on liaison negotiation is the IAB. You can send email to the IAB liaison coordinators at liaison-coordination@iab.org. The current liaison coordinators are Deborah Brungard, Wes Hardaker, and Tommy Pauly.
For more information about the procedures that govern IETF liaisons, please see RFC 4052 “IAB Liaison Management” and RFC 4053 (BCP 103) “Procedures for Handling Liaison Statements to and from the IETF.”
A list of liaison statements is available on the IETF Datatracker.
To submit a liaison statement:
- Outgoing: If you are a Liaison Manager, you can submit an outgoing liaison here after logging into the datatracker
- Incoming: If you are a Liaison Manager, you can submit an incoming liaison here after logging into the datatracker
- Submit a liaison statement via email to statements@ietf.org if you prefer not to use the tool
The list of current liaisons appears below: