IETF LLC Board Retreat 2026

Board operations

We had a good discussion about how we communicate as a Board, how we can streamline our meetings, and how best to document decisions. It is important that we, as a Board, effectively instruct, guide, and manage the IETF Executive Director without micromanaging.

Financial Controls and planning

Those of you who attended the April 2026 LLC Board meeting, heard the auditors report of a clean audit for the 2025 financial year. There are no substantial flaws in our accounting practices or financial reporting. We chose to hold our annual meeting with the auditor at the board retreat this year, to provide us with the opportunity to discuss their recommendations. Based on that, we discussed some follow-up steps, especially related to a clear documentation of roles so that the IETF Executive Director and staff can do their day-to-day work and the Board can fulfill its oversight responsibilities.

We also looked at IETF LLC costs over time. While over the last few years, the budget has remained stable (or even decreased), it has increased in 2026, mostly due to an increase in overall costs. As an example, there were no site visits for IETF meetings in 2025, but site visits will be necessary in 2026. The 2026 budget also reflects the transition to the new approach to the IETF Secretariat.

We further looked at our long-term financial strategy and discussed questions such as: What level of reserves does the IETF LLC need? Do we need to increase them and, if so, how fast? As a next step we will look at various scenarios. This will also inform our investment strategy.

Strategy

On the second day, we focused on strategy. As a first step, we took a close look at our risk register and mitigation strategies. While we did not  identify any major additional risks, we went through the wording and will publish an updated version later this year.

The bulk of the day was dedicated to a review of our strategy which will be reflected in our next strategy document that will guide us for the coming 3-5 years. We discussed the overall structure of the document as well as the wording and the priorities of the overall strategic goals. Related to that, we also looked at the resource implications for implementing our strategy.

Community Communications

At the end of the retreat, we discussed the level of our communications to the community and what more we could do. We decided to reinstate our office hours at IETF meetings and to modify our plenary presentations. We also considered a regular newsletter that would combine all relevant IETF LLC related information and reports.

Summary

We had a very useful and productive retreat which resulted in a number of action points and follow-up activities for the rest of 2026. Following up from the retreat, the Board together with the Executive Director is developing a clearer governance model and policies for the LLC Administration. If you have questions or comments, we encourage you to join our next Board meeting on 10 June, or to stop by during office hours at IETF 126, the details of which will be set when the meeting agenda is finalized.

Finally, I would like to thank the RIPE NCC for hosting us in their offices and for the excellent support.