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HomeAbout the SIP ForumAnnual Meetings and Reports2009 Annual General Meeting Notice

2009 Annual General Meeting Notice

Meeting date: 03 November 2009

1 – Announcement: Annual General Meeting

Section 12 of the By Laws of the SIP Forum (the “Forum”) provides that the Forum hold an annual general meeting that is open to all members.  In accordance with the By Laws, this document shall serve as official notice for the Annual Meeting of the SIP Forum to be held as follows:

1.1 – Date / time of meeting

The general meeting will be held:

Tuesday, 03 November 2009
5:30 – 7:00 pm
821-823 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA, 94117 USA

NOTE: The meeting will be held during the VoiceCon San Francisco 2009 tradeshow but not at the tradeshow venue. Please contact the SIP Forum Managing Director for details.

2 – Subject matter for the meeting

In the meeting, a review of the financial operations, including a review of the audit for fiscal year 2009, will be provided, as well as a review of the operational activities that have occurred over the past 12 months since the last General meeting.

In addition, Full Members will be asked to vote on three items.

2.1 – Voting items

Three official voting items are on the agenda:

Please note:

If you are not planning on attending the general meeting, it is imperative that you complete and return a proxy vote.

If you are planning on attending the general meeting, we still encourage you to complete and return a proxy vote.

Votes must be received from > 50% of Full Members in order to have a valid election.

The deadline described below for returning ballots is just prior to the General Meeting for Web-based ballots (the preferred voting method), 02 November 2009 for ballots sent via email or fax and 30 October 2009 for ballots sent via surface mail.

3 – Board member elections

Members of the Board of Directors serve for two-year terms, with terms expiring at the general meeting that takes place at the end of this term. Elections for new board members will take place at this general meeting.

There are three (3) Board seats expiring this year. They are the seats currently held by Eric Burger, Mark Enstrom, and Richard Shockey. The seats held by Chris Gatch, Steve Johnson, Glenn Russell, Robert Sparks, and Rene Sotola are not expiring.

3.1 – Voting limits

You will be voting by expressing a preference order for candidates. This preference order will be used to tally the Directors who are elected.

3.2 – Who can vote

Each Full (paying) Member is entitled to a single vote on the matters being presented for a vote. Each Full Member has the right to vote either in person, electronically, or by an agent authorized by a proxy validly executed by the Full Member. A proxy shall be executed by written authorizations signed by the Full Member, giving the proxy holder the right to vote the vote.

Full Members not planning on attending the meeting in person can utilize a proxy form provided with this general meeting announcement package.  The proxy provides a method to vote for the Director candidates, and grants to the Managing Director of the SIP Forum the right to cast the vote on behalf of the Full Member giving the proxy. Alternately, a Full Member can cast a vote electronically, as described in Section 5 of this notice.

The Board strongly urges you to submit a vote by proxy, even if you plan on attending the general meeting.

3.3 – Candidates for election

3.4 – Candidate statements and biographies

The statements by the candidates about their desire to serve on the board, along with their biographies, are shown here as provided by each candidate. The Board strongly recommends you read these, as we seek Directors who will add substantial value, so it is crucial your vote is well informed.

Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name.  Please do not allow this order to influence your voting.

The Board has not endorsed any slate of candidates.

3.4.1 – Bernard Aboba – Microsoft

3.4.1.1 – Statement of candidacy

During my career I have worked to bring a number of networking technologies through their formative stages to widespread interoperability and deployment. As part of that process, industry forums have a very important role to play in addressing deployment barriers and promoting interoperability testing and certification programs that enable customers to purchase products and services with confidence.

Today the SIP Forum is the foremost organization promoting the potential of SIP. In the year I’ve been participating in the SIPconnect 1.1 effort, I have come to appreciate the tremendous impact that SIP Forum can have in enabling the growth of SIP trunking, as well as the challenges we face in providing timely and relevant recommendations that can garner widespread support among operators, vendors and customers.

While achieving widespread interoperability is a major challenge given the size and complexity of the SIP specifications, no organization is better prepared to take on this challenge than the SIP Forum, and no organization has done more to promote SIP interoperability thus far. In order to build the SIP Forum’s credibility and influence, it is important for us to walk a fine line between leading the industry toward the future and promoting the potential and interoperability of existing technologies. It’s also important for us to streamline our processes so that we can improve the efficiency of the SIP Forum’s working groups. If I am elected to serve on the SIP Forum Board of Directors, I will work to strengthen the feedback loop between the SIP Forum membership and the Board, so as to ensure that we are keeping in touch with all segments of the industry including operators, vendors and customers, and that we are delivering tangible benefits to all of our members.

Serving on the Board of Directors of an organization such as the SIP Forum is a great privilege. Thanks for considering me.

3.4.1.2 – Biography

Bernard Aboba is a Principal Architect at Microsoft in the Office Voice Communications Group (OVCG) which includes TellMe Networks, Live Meeting and Office Communications Server (OCS). In this role, his time is split between network operations and management responsibilities for the group’s online services offerings, and interoperability and standards work for the group’s unified communications products. In his current role, Bernard is exposed to the realities of SIP interoperability on a daily basis.

Before joining Microsoft in 1994 as Internet Services Program Manager for MSN, Bernard spent a decade as a network administrator at Stanford University and UC Berkeley. From 1994 – 1996, Bernard served as manager of network operations for MSN, leading the deployment of Microsoft’s worldwide TCP/IP network, including the launch of MSN’s Internet access, mail and news services. From 1996 – 2008, Bernard held a variety of positions within the Windows Networking team, managing the development of network access, real-time communications and network management features of Windows and consulting with Microsoft IT on the deployment of networking technology within the corporate network. This included work on the implementation and deployment of multicast conferencing (TAPI 3.0), the design and deployment of the enterprise WiFi network including support for mobile devices, and involvement in the specification and development of initial drafts of the SIMPLE specification. During his time in Windows Networking, Bernard was active in the development of the WiFi security standards within IEEE 802, as well as the development of logo, testing and certification programs to promote interoperability between implementations of those standards. Bernard has also been active in optimization of voice performance in WiFi devices, including the development of DNAv4 (RFC 4436), Optimistic PMK caching and IEEE 802.11k.

Over the years, Bernard has served in several leadership positions within the IETF, including chair of the nomcom (2000) and several WGs, member of the Internet Architecture Board (2003-2007), liaison from IETF to IEEE 802 (2002-2009), and member of the Transport, Security and Operations and Management directorates. In addition to his standards work, Bernard has served on the Board of Directors and Finance Committees of non-profit organizations such as the Berkeley Macintosh User Group (BMUG) and the Palo Alto Co-op. From 1994-1996 he served as a member of the Technical Committee of UUNET Technologies.

Bernard has a BA degree in Engineering and Applied Physics from Harvard College, and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

3.4.2 – Eric Burger – NeuStar

3.4.2.1 – Statement of candidacy

The SIP Forum has successfully navigated the needs of industry, academia, and individual users and researchers by promoting SIP and SIP interoperability. We have done a good job of improving the interoperability, scalability, reliability, and deployments of the protocol. The SIP Forum should remain agnostic to topologies, favoring neither entirely peer-to-peer nor entirely centralized and restricted networks. Likewise, the SIP Forum should be agnostic to business models. We should favor neither free services and free software, nor paid services and bespoke hardware. However, the SIP Forum should endeavor to keep the SIP protocol within the bounds of an Internet Protocol. Namely, this means protecting the end-to-end principal, user privacy and security, network operator security, and the capability for user choice in communications and devices.

Following the precedent of other Chairmen of the Board, it is my intention to not stand for a third term as Chairman. However, I would appreciate your support in voting for me to remain on the board so I can provide important continuity to the board, the programs of the SIP Forum, and to advise the new leadership.

3.4.2.2 – Biography

Eric is Chief Technology Officer at NeuStar, where he is responsible for setting NeuStar’s forward-looking technology and service strategy, and devising the architecture to help strengthen the company’s position by developing new services and solutions. He also oversees the early stages of new technology development, and works closely with NeuStar’s Operations team to drive the successful launch and commercialization of future IP services.

Prior to NeuStar, Eric was Deputy Chief Technology Officer and General Manager of the Communications Products Division at BEA Systems, primarily focusing on real-time multimedia communications and the telecommunications industry vertical.

Eric has made numerous contributions on protocols to the IETF (SIP, SIPPING, SIMPLE, LEMONADE, SPEECHSC, VPIM) and markup to the W3C (VoiceXML, CCXML, and MSCML). He is the inventor of the Applications and Services Infrastructure concept, bringing the web development paradigm to telephony applications. Service providers, application developers, and equipment manufacturers have since adopted SIP+XML as one of the motivations to moving to a SIP-based real-time communications infrastructure.

Eric sits on the advisory boards of Sigma Systems, Dexrex, PC-NG, Kanga Networks, Mobera Systems, and AGNITY. He is currently Vice Chair of the IEEE-USA Committee on Communications Policy as well as Vice Chair of the IEEE New Hampshire Section. He is also Chair of the mobile e-mail, speech services control, and media control work groups in the IETF. Prior to BEA Systems, Eric was a Founder and CTO at SnowShore Networks; CTO at Brooktrout Technology; and CTO of Cantata Technology. He has held various positions with ADC/Centigram, The Telephone Connection, MCI, Cable & Wireless, Texas Instruments, and Valid Logic Systems.

Eric has published 11 RFCs, 12 patents, journal papers, and a book on SIP signaling entitled Ubiquitous Reach and Remote Control of Devices: Introducing KPML. He is a Senior Member of the ACM and IEEE, a Patron of the AAAS, and a Benefactor of the Internet Society. Eric holds SBEE, MBA, and Ph.D. Computer Science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Catholic University of Leuven, and Illinois Institute of Technology. He was a Lecturer at George Washington University and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at George Mason University.

3.4.3 – Alan Johnston – Avaya

3.4.3.1 – Statement of candidacy

I have been actively involved in the SIP Forum since its inception, serving on the Board of Directors from 2004 until 2006 when I resigned my position due to a change in affiliation which resulted in having two members from the same company on the board.

Recently I have also been heavily involved in the technical work on SIPconnect, contributing to both versions 1.0 and version 1.1 currently under development. I see the SIP Forum becoming increasingly relevant to the industry over the years, as efforts such as SIPconnect have a significant impact in the market. I see the next steps by the organization as being critical, in the finalization of SIPconnect 1.1, the development of the certification process, and the development of SIPconnect 2.0.

I have considerable experience in SIP standards, and with interoperability and conformance testing of SIP which I believe will be valuable in charting the course for this organization. In addition, I plan to work towards closer collaboration with the IETF in terms of identifying and fixing interoperability issues. Finally, I look forward to working with my colleagues on the board to further the interests of SIP and our industry.

3.4.3.2 – Biography

Dr. Alan Johnston, Consulting Member of Technical Staff in Avaya’s Unified Communications division, has been involved with SIP and VoIP since the mid 1990s. While a Distinguished Technical Member at MCI, he served as an architect of the first enterprise SIP VoIP product in the United States. He is also an adjunct assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. He is a co-author of the SIP protocol specification RFC 3261, and editor of the Basic and PSTN call flows BCP (Best Current Practices) documents, RFC 3665 and RFC 3666 and several other RFCs.

His recent areas of work include the SIP Service Examples, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) SIP and security, where he has co-authored the ZRTP protocol. Dr. Johnston has authored or co-authored four books on SIP including the best selling “SIP: Understanding the Session Initiation Protocol”, “Understanding Voice over IP Security” “SIP Beyond VoIP” and “Internet Communications Using SIP”. He also wrote the Foreword for Avaya’s “SIP Communications for Dummies”. He is also co-chair of the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) Centralized Conferencing Working Group.

He holds a Bachelor’s of Engineering degree with Honours from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA.

3.4.4 – Richard Shockey

3.4.4.1 – Statement of candidacy

The “Islands of SIP” are a continuing reminder that SIP forum still has much work to do. As the current SIP Forum technical working group co-chair I believe we have made significant progress on advancing SIPconnect1.1 to a fuller and richer specification. These discussions on have had full participation from key elements of the industry and though the discussions have been long , we are rapidly approaching consensus. I believe this effort will continue to demonstrate the relevance and effectiveness of the SIP Forum in developing consensus solutions for the ongoing issues confronting SIP deployments in the field.

We should all take special note of the excellent work now being done by the FoIP Task Group. This effort is of particular importance to SIP service providers. Fax is still a significant communications service and carriers have encountered numerous problems in incorporating classic T.30 devices in their SIP networks. The recommendations this group make will hopefully guide the relevant Standards Development organizations to produce solutions to these issues.

I continue to believe there are significant issues in SIP device configuration, especially between the PBX and SIP service provider that need to be addressed and I hope the SIP Forum can provide a forum in for ongoing discussions. We are not a Standards Development Organization but our structure and commitment can permit the SIP community to develop requirements and practical use cases that the IETF can use to develop solutions.

I’m also excited by the potential of SIP in areas beyond traditional telecom. I hope to see a SIP for SmartGrid research group be launched shortly to investigate how SIP can be used in this emerging environment.

Of course, our most important commitment as the SIP Forum is to continue the work of SIPit. No other forum has been devised that advances the interoperability of SIP more that SIPit and I believe the role of SIPit(s) may expand into separate interoperability test environments as carrier to carrier SIP interconnection projects begin to deploy.

I look forward to the opportunity to continue to serve.

3.4.4.2 – Biography

Richard Shockey is an internationally recognized expert on Voice Over IP Technology, Numbering and Communications Signaling. Mr. Shockey has spoken countless times at industry events on SIP, ENUM and Next Generation Networks and led the architecture and design of several commercial products based on ENUM. ENUM [RFC3761] has been frequently mentioned in the media as a key enabler in the convergence of the PSTN and VoIP and the principal technology service provider’s are considering for VoIP Network to Network Interconnection, Peering and SS7 avoidance.

Mr. Shockey is a founder and has been Co Chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force ENUM Work Group for since 2002 and is an author of several IETF RFC’s Active in IETF affairs since 1998 he also participated in numerous other WG including FAX, SIP, SIPPING, SPEERMINT, SIMPLE and its management nominating committee NOMCOM. He is also the co-chair of the IETF working group DRINKS on the provisioning of data for VoIP Peering Federations.

Recently Mr Shockey was invited to participate in several United States government workshops on how Internet Protocol technologies can be used in the SmartGrid environment for Electric Utilities.

Mr Shockey was formerly Director & Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at NeuStar, Inc. [www.neustar.biz] based in Suburban Washington DC.

4 – Discharge of liability for Board Members and Managing Director

The By Laws of the SIP Forum require that, at each general meeting, the members vote on whether to discharge the Board Members and the Managing Director from liability for actions or inactions resulting from their service to the SIP Forum over the prior year. This discharge is a normal practice for non-profit organizations based in Sweden. In all annual general meetings to date, this has been presented, and the Board Members have been accordingly discharged. At this time, the Board represents that the Directors and Managing Director have collectively performed all required responsibilities for this past year, and requests discharge from liability. Full Members shall vote Yes or No on their ballots to so discharge the Board and Managing Director.

The Board recommends a YES vote on this item.

5 – Adoption of SIP Forum IPR and Copyright Policy Documents

The SIP Forum Board of Directors has proposed full membership approval of the current draft versions of IPR and Copyright policy documents. These documents have been reviewed by SIP Forum legal counsel, have been through a 30-day Full Member comment and review period, and are endorsed by the SIP Forum Board of Directors.

Please review the current draft versions of the IPR and Copyright Policy documents, which are available here:

https://www.sipforum.org/component/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,48/Itemid,261/

The Board recommends a YES vote on this item.

6 – Procedure for voting

The By Laws permit voting in person at the general meeting. Voting can also be done by proxy, using paper ballots or electronically submitted ballots that are returned using a method that the Board deems sufficient to establish the authenticity of the ballot.

6.1 – Written proxy

Included in the bundle distributed to the Full Members with this general meeting notice is a ballot document entitled “Voting Form.” If a Full Member intends to submit a ballot to vote by written proxy (instead of in person), each Full Member should do the following.

6.1.1 – Minimal procedure for proxy voting

The Full Member shall mark the ballot (either by modifying the document to indicate the mark, or by printing the document and marking it in ink) as follows:

  • Rank your votes for Director’s candidates. Mark your first preference “1”, your second preference “2”, and so on.  You may vote for as many candidates as you wish, but we recommend you vote for at least 3.
  • Approve or reject the discharge of Directors’ liability.
  • Approve or reject the SIP Forum IPR and Copyright Policy Documents.
  • Deliver the paper ballot by hand to the SIP Forum Managing Director prior to the date of the general meeting. Or, send the ballot via surface mail to the address listed on the ballot, or send a facsimile to the fax number listed on the first page of the ballot form.

6.2 Electronic voting

The Board has concluded that two methods are acceptable for electronic voting:

  • Full Members may cast their vote on an Internet web page supplied by the SIP Forum for this purpose. The web page voting method must (a) assure only one vote per Full Member, and (b) permit only one, Member-designated representative of the Full Member to cast the vote, and (c) the voting interface must be password-protected. The SIP Forum has implemented a web interface that meets these requirements, and which will be used for the voting for this year. A URL for this Web-based ballot is listed below in section 6.2.1.
  • Alternately, it is sufficient for Full Members to mark a paper ballot, and return it to the Managing Director via electronic mail. The Managing Director shall use reasonable efforts to assure that the received email has been sent from a domain name that appears to be from a Full Member organization. Download the 2009 Voting Ballot.

6.2.1 Web ballots

Full Members wishing to vote by electronic ballot shall vote at the following URL:

https://www.sipforum.org/vote

Because this URL is actually login-protected, the actual procedure to vote is as follows:

  1. Log in. Login to the SIP Forum website using the username of your designated voting representative.
    (Please contact the SIP Forum Managing Director to confirm, or change, the name of this representative and to obtain the voting username if necessary.)
  2. Find the ballot. When logged in, a menu entry entitled “2009 Gen’l Meeting vote” will appear in the User Menu in the upper left corner. Click this entry. A ballot form will appear.
  3. Board candidate question. Please rank your vote for Board Member candidates. Note that the candidate list will be dynamically rearranged to show your ranking as you rank each candidate. Please do NOT rank two candidates equally.
  4. Discharge question. Vote Yes or No on the discharge question.
  5. IPR and Copyright Policy documents question. Vote Yes or No on the IPR and Copyright policies question.
  6. Vote. Click Submit Vote to complete your vote.

You may then log out of the website.

6.2.2 Email ballots

Follow this procedure to vote by email:

  • Mark the ballot (as above)
  • Print, and sign a paper copy of the marked ballot document
  • Scan the marked ballot document, and email the scanned, signed document to the address above. (PDF, JPG, TIFF, or GIF are all acceptable electronic formats)

You may NOT simply send an email with your voting choices in the email body.

6.3 – Deadline for ballot return for proxy voting

Ballots sent to the Managing Director via surface mail to be handled by proxy must be received ON OR BEFORE 30 OCTOBER 2009.

Ballots sent to the Managing Director via fax or email to be handled by proxy must be received ON OR BEFORE 02 NOVEMBER 2009 (one day before the general meeting) in order to be counted.

Ballots cast via the web page method may be cast at any time up until the Managing Director calls for the voting time to be closed at the general meeting. (This will permit electronic votes to be cast after Board candidates have answered questions from members at the general meeting.)

6.4 – Casting ballots in person

If a ballot is not received in email or by fax by the above deadline, the ballot can still be cast by the voting Full Member by appearing in person at the general meeting, and providing the signed, marked ballot when the vote is called.

6.5 – Ballot counting

Ballots, including those received in email, via fax, those cast on the web interface, and those cast in person, will be counted when the vote is called in the general meeting.  Results will be announced at the meeting (assuming the tally method results in clear winners), and official minutes taken to reflect the voting.

– END –

SIP Forum 2009 General Meeting Notice
October 2, 2009

Document number: GA-15-0

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