Subject: [codesprints] Fixing the IRTF for good!

From: "Glen Barney (AMS)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:29:02 -0700

[Blind-copying many people at AMS - the secretariat - so they can comment if
they wish and yet not be burdened by ongoing discussion if they do not wish.]

All -

As you all probably know, the existing tools and tool sets are totally broken
with respect to the IRTF.  We have trouble scheduling meeting sessions.  We
cannot add RG chairs except via massive surgery.  The upload tools don't work.
And all of this is because the IRTF was "hacked in" as a "special exception"
into the database.

This is, of course, totally ridiculous.

Henrik is currently redesigining the database, and I mention this to him in 
the hope that, under the new database, the IRTF is no longer special, but
instead simply standard.

It seems to me, for example, that, FOR TOOLS PURPOSES AT LEAST, the IRTF 
should be treated as an AREA, and the research groups treated as working
groups.

>From our point of view, we spend a great amount of time hacking database
entries simply to achieve this end result.  There is no reason I can think of
that this should be the case.

So presented for your consideration and discussion:  Can we please PLEASE find
a way to make the IRTF "normal" once again - hopefully with the AREA/WG model -
so that we don't ever have to feel this pain again!

Thanks!
Glen

---

From: Henrik Levkowetz <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:54:58 -0700

Hi Glen,

> the hope that, under the new database, the IRTF is no longer special, but

Confirming: This is indeed the case for the new database schema.

That said, even in the old horribly convoluted database it's more about
having the tools support the IRTF case than anything else -- if I don't
misremember totally, the tables support the IRTF case all right, without
much special-casing; it's more a matter of the schema being so convoluted
that it's hard to do anything without special tool support ...

Best,

	Henrik

---

From: "Glen Barney (AMS)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:10:38 -0700

This is fantastic news.  Thank you Henrik for making this easy!

We will address these in the tools rewrites we are undertaking.

Thank you!

Glen