[STDS-802-16] scheduling Session #33 and scheduling TGe progress
At Session #33, we agreed to accept a proposal from Samsung to host
Session #33. However, we did not pin down the dates. Since then, I
have been thinking about the schedule and believe that the best
period is August 30 - September 2. Since this is earlier than our
usual September session, I have consulted with Ken Stanwood and Brian
Kiernan on this issue. They agree.
This decision is driven by the TGe schedule, since TGe will certainly
be the main topic at Session #33. We don't have a committed schedule
at this point, but the draft is currently in WG Letter Ballot #14.
Eventually, it will go to Sponsor Ballot (SB). As you recall from the
TGd case, the toughest scheduling problem is getting from WG Ballot
to SB. That's because, after the session at which we complete WG
Ballot comment resolution, we need to do the following:
(1) Prepare a new draft (~1 week)
(2) Run a final WG Ballot recirc (~2 weeks) {and, in parallel,
request EC approval for SB}
(3) Open Sponsor Ballot (~1 week)
(4) Run Sponsor Ballot (~4 weeks)
(5) Collect Reply Comments (~1 week)
(6) Spare time in case of trouble or for reading reply comments (~1 week)
This amounts to 10 weeks. We can do it in a little less, but we take
some risks, we stress everyone out, and/or we lose some important
review time.
If we thought we'd reach this point after Session #32 in July, I
would be advocating that #33 take place 10 weeks later, late in
September.
However, I think it would be very risky to assume that we will be
ready for SB in July. If we plan #33 on that basis, we would face a
big problem if we failed to wrap up WG Ballot on time. Instead, a
safer approach is to assume that we will NOT be ready for SB in July.
Instead, we can open a WG Ballot recirc after #32 and resolve final
WG Ballot comments at #33 in Seoul.
In that case, we need to schedule #33 early, so that we have the 10
week interval available between #33 and #34. It's exactly that
requirement that suggests the week of August 30. If we tried to
squeeze the 10 weeks down to 9, which is a risk I'd rather not take,
we could meet the week of September 6. However, that would also mean
meeting on a significant holiday (Labor Day) that would affect many
of our members (main in the U.S. and Canada).
On the whole, I don't think that planning for SB after #33 is going
to be much of a delay as compared to having it before #33. That's
because the additional recirc before SB is not going to be wasted;
it's just going to mean that we'll send a better (and, I hope, fully
refined) draft to SB. Given that extra recirc, and given the extra SB
reply-comment review before Session #34, I think that this schedule
will provide a good opportunity for us to finish the job at Session
#34 in November and get EC approval (conditional approval, perhaps)
to submit the draft to RevCom.
With this in mind, I have asked our host, Panyuh Joo, to investigate
hotel availability the week of August 30. He is looking into it.
Regards,
Roger