Internet Engineering Task Force

There is no membership in the IETF. Anyone can participate by signing up for a working group mailing list or registering for an IETF meeting.

The process for developing IETF standards is open and all-inclusive. Anyone can participate by joining a working group and attending meetings. Each working group normally has appointed two co-chairs (occasionally three); a charter that describes its focus, what it is expected to produce, and when. It is open to all who want to participate and holds discussions on an open mailing list. Working groups hold open sessions at IETF meetings, where the onsite registration fee in 2024 was between US$875 (early registration) and $1200 per person for the week. Significant discounts are available for students and remote participants. As working groups do not make decisions at IETF meetings, with all decisions taken later on the working group mailing list, meeting attendance is not required for contributors.RFC 3677 described IETFs role in appointing three board members to the ISOC's board of directors.

In 2018, ISOC established The IETF Administration LLC, a separate LLC to handle the administration of the IETF. In 2019, the LLC issued a call for proposals to provide secretariat services to the IETF.

The first IETF meeting was attended by 21 US federal government-funded researchers on 16 January 1986. It was a continuation of the work of the earlier GADS Task Force. Representatives from non-governmental entities (such as gateway vendors) were invited to attend starting with the fourth IETF meeting in October 1986. Since that time, all IETF meetings have been open to the public.

Initially, the IETF met quarterly, but from 1991, it has been meeting three times a year. The initial meetings were very small, with fewer than 35 people in attendance at each of the first five meetings. The maximum attendance during the first 13 meetings was only 120 attendees. This occurred at the twelfth meeting, held during January 1989. These meetings have grown in both participation and scope a great deal since the early 1990s; it had a maximum attendance of 2810 at the December 2000 IETF held in San Diego, California. Attendance declined with industry restructuring during the early 2000s, and is currently around 1200.

The locations for IETF meetings vary greatly. A list of past and future meeting locations is on the IETF meetings page. The IETF strives to hold its meetings near where most of the IETF volunteers are located. IETF meetings are held three times a year, with one meeting each in Asia, Europe and North America. An occasional exploratory meeting is held outside of those regions in place of one of the other regions.

The IETF cooperates with the W3C, ISO/IEC, ITU, and other standards bodies.

Statistics are available that show who the top contributors by RFC publication are. While the IETF only allows for participation by individuals, and not by corporations or governments, sponsorship information is available from these statistics.RFC 1208.