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IETF Secretariat continues under new approach
- Mirjam Kühne IETF Administration LLC Board Chair
- Karen Moreland AMS Partner
31 Mar 2026
As of 1 April 2026, the IETF Secretariat function will be staffed through an Employer of Record (EOR) arrangement rather than a service contract awarded through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process, as it has been until now.
The transition is being structured so as not to affect the kind or quality of support provided. IETF participants should see no difference when the changeover happens.
The IETF Secretariat provides important support for two key parts of the IETF:
- IETF meetings, and
- Community & leadership groups (IAB, IESG, LLC Board) support.
Association Management Solutions (AMS) has capably filled this role since winning the contract in 2007, serving the IETF throughout its evolution and rewinning the contract multiple times. The most recent contract with AMS was due to expire at the end of 2025. In the middle of last year, the IETF Administration LLC—which has responsibility for IETF operations, finances and fundraising—began considering options for issuing two RFPs to fill the two key functions of the IETF Secretariat.
As the IETF LLC reviewed the Secretariat support model, it determined that having both community support and meeting operations bound into one contract, with services provided by a single vendor, presented a major strategic risk to the IETF. It also concluded that staff performing community support functions—who inevitably hold critical institutional knowledge given the IETF's structure and processes—should be employed under a person-based contract rather than a service-based contract. At the same time, the IETF LLC recognized the value of the accumulated knowledge possessed by the AMS team.
After careful review, and in recognition of the integrated nature of the Secretariat team, an EOR arrangement covering the entire Secretariat staff team was determined to be the right course of action. This means AMS will be paid by the IETF LLC as the EOR for the Secretariat staff. While there will be some changes in personnel accompanying the transition, the majority of the current Secretariat team will stay together, providing continuity for the IETF community. And though this arrangement has a financial impact on AMS, it was determined to be the best option to preserve the cohesion, institutional knowledge, and operational efficiency of a team that the IETF has come to know and rely upon.
The new model more closely unites the LLC staff and Secretariat teams. It provides more clarity about and flexibility around the staffing and other resources needed to adapt to changing IETF requirements and will result in savings to the IETF LLC over the five-year term of the contract.