New year, new century, new millennium.  New ideas?

When it was agreed to transfer the work of ETSI TC SMG to 3GPP, and to
create TSG GERAN, there was an undertaking to review the structure and
operation of 3GPP after six months to verify that the project was being run
in an optimal way.  

SMG closed at the end of July 2000, so the six months will have elapsed at
the end of January 2001.  It is thus now timely to instigate the review:
details are to be found in the report of the PCG meeting of 14 November
2000, section 4.5.  Dr Chuck Bailey was appointed to chair the review
process.  (You will recall that Dr Bailey chaired the original ad hoc group
on the transfer of GSM work from SMG to 3GPP.)

Whilst the review was originally intended simply to check that the transfer
from SMG and the creation of GERAN had been accomplished in as efficient a
way as possible, it seems appropriate that the task be broadened a little to
cover other aspects of 3GPP's operations.  The PCG (see annex F of the above
meeting report) set the terms of reference of the review as follows:

	<<
	Background:
	The report of the 3GPP Ad Hoc Group on Movement of the GSM Radio
Activities into 3GPP (dated March 30, 2000) recommended that the PCG:
			"Plan for a 6-month review period, and for an
organizational review to report back to the OP's during the first quarter of
2001."
	The report was accepted at the July, 2000 PCG meeting.
	Agreement:
	In accordance with this, the PCG agrees that an ad hoc group should be formed with the following terms of reference.
*	Review the current organizational structure of the 3GPP technical groups working on GSM, GERAN and related technologies.
*	Examine whether the current organization of work in 3GPP is most effective, or if it needs re-alignment.
*	Examine whether any needed work is not being accomplished, and whether 3GPP TSG's should be requested to take on such work items.
	It is requested that the ad hoc group complete its report to the PCG no later than March 31, 2001.
	Dr. C.C. Bailey of Committee T1 was requested to chair the ad hoc group.
	>>

An e-mail exploder has been set up called
3GPP-review@list.etsi.fr
to which you may freely subscribe by sending a
message to listserv@list.etsi.fr bearing the text "subscribe 3GPP-review".
(The list is pre-populated with the members of the original 3GPP_GSMTRANS
list: if you were on that list, you are assumed to be interested in the
review process.  One or two others who have explicitly asked to be involved
are also included.)  This list - and this list only - will be used to
circulate views and proposals relating to the six-month review.

The review should be conducted in a positive way: for every area in which
you can identify a problem - actual or potential - you should propose a
solution, and air it on the exploder.  Of course, you are also encouraged to
identify where you consider matters are currently optimum so we do not
attempt to fix something what ain't broke.

On behalf of Dr Bailey, we propose to allow an exchange of e-mails via the
above exploder until the end of February, at which time we shall collate all
the points and, if necessary, hold a meeting (in a mutually convenient
location towards the end of March) at which contributing representatives of all Organizational
Partners and Individual Members of 3GPP can discuss and resolve any
identified problems.  Recommendations resulting from the review can then be
presented to the PCG meeting in April 2001 for decision.

I wish you a happy New Year, and may the fates smile upon the 3rd Generation
Partnership Project as it enters its third year of existence.  The proof of
the pudding is in the eating, and 2001 will see the first live
implementation of our 3GPP specifications in real, commercial, network
services.  Let's work together to ensure that 3GPP operates in a fast and
cost-efficient way to the mutual benefit of us all.

John M Meredith
ETSI-MCC