[FOSDEM] It's time for a Code of Conduct

[Pieter Hintjens]

Excellent, count me in. Can we fix a meeting on Friday evening?
On 30 Oct 2015 15:48, <jurgen.gaeremyn at telenet.be> wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> <tldr;>Summary, idea for action at the end</tldr;>
>
> I'm seeing two explicit camps here. On the one hand, we've got existing
> volunteers (including staff) that are swamped by loads of work, and when
> making the cost/benefit (un)conscious analysis end up feeling that they
> can't take up yet another task.
> On the other hand, there's a group of people that needs to be split up
> into 2 groups: (1) people who were a victim of (un)intentional harassment
> and (2) people who step up to protect the people who are in the first
> group. Both see the need for clarity.
>
> The clarity is twofold:
> (1) Victims of harassment need to know where they can find help or means
> to report
> (2) Clarity as to what isn't acceptable in our group.
>
> So there's the obvious: illegal stuff is not acceptable. And immediately
> taking legal actions is the way to go if so... (so now we're all gonna call
> the cops if we see someone smoking pot?)
>
> First thing a victim needs, is a safe haven, a place to sound their nasty
> experience and hear someone who acknowledges this story. This does not
> imply numbly believing all that a person says (as also a victim always
> starts from a subjective experience and his/her impression is not always in
> line with the intent of the called offenders).
> What are typical expectations:
> - solve my problem, take corrective actions (eg. thievery)
> - report an issue so this can be fixed (isn't this in the open source
> spirit?) (eg. non-accessible spaces)
> - report an issue so this won't happen to others in the future
>
> Typically this kind of psycho-social skillset is something not as present
> with many developers (just as not that many social workers are great devs,
> it's a skill too).
> I consider myself skilled in this matter, and would be glad to volunteer
> to man a help-point for harassment reporting or minority issues (in FOSDEM,
> females are a minority as are people with a handicap, even more than the
> traditional ethnical minorities).
>
> I can imagine there are more (potential) volunteers that would be glad to
> step up to man this place for time slots during FOSDEM. Possibly in this
> team not all volunteers will be as skilled (but the same goes for the
> network team), but I'm convinced that this is a team that can actually grow
> through the years.
>
> This volunteer team should have direct access to key staff, and will only
> do this if they judge this as important/acute.
> Complaints should be stored (anonymized), these volunteers can take notes.
> Staff can evaluate these statistics after the event (and no longer be
> surprised about this, now the third year)
>
> A place where you can talk (and cry) discretely is a good idea. I hope
> that is something that could be arranged with the ULB. I'd be glad to
> contact the conseiller en prévention to talk about this topic. Psychosocial
> concerns is an import topic on corporate safety nowadays...
>
> The key staff isn't the team that should work on working out procedures -
> this isn't their skill set + they already work 25 hours per day to have a
> great FOSDEM...
>
> Putting my money where my mouth is... I'm willing to help on this.
>
> Grtz,
> Jurgen.
>
> >>>>>>> SUMMARY - PROPOSAL FOR ACTION <<<<<<<<
> - Have a room (and phone number?) where someone can report issues.
> - Have a new TASK in the volunteers application.
> - Have an (anonymized) register of complaints.
> - Have a follow-up and procedures.
>
> ------------------------------
> *Van: *"Emanuil Tolev" <emanuil.tolev at gmail.com>
> *Aan: *"Pieter Hintjens" <ph at imatix.com>
> *Cc: *"FOSDEM visitors" <fosdem at lists.fosdem.org>
> *Verzonden: *Vrijdag 30 oktober 2015 15:25:35
> *Onderwerp: *Re: [FOSDEM] It's time for a Code of Conduct
>
> On 30 October 2015 at 14:20, Emanuil Tolev <emanuil.tolev at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On 30 October 2015 at 14:03, Pieter Hintjens <ph at imatix.com> wrote:
>>
>> It would be useful to put down a central meeting point for volunteers
>> interested in this, so that there's a central place reports can come to,
>> and so the volunteer group can organise each day. I'm inclined to suggest
>> the desk at K, the only problem with that being that it can be quite
>> crowded. But it does have a supply room in the back if immediate private
>> conversation is required, and it's close to the staff room for serious
>> reports.
>>
>
> Actually apparently there already is a staff member who coordinates this
> aspect (see other thread by Johan). Now he's mentioned it I do recall being
> told there was one when I last volunteered. Perhaps we can form a more
> organised group this year while reporting any incidents to that person, and
> working on producing simple and short briefs on what to do in
> after-the-fact situations. A conduct hack!
>
>
>>
>> Greetings,
>> Emanuil
>>
>>>
>>> -Pieter
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 2:41 PM, Daniel Pocock <daniel at pocock.pro>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On 30/10/15 14:10, Andreia Gaita wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 1:47 PM, Daniel Pocock <daniel at pocock.pro
>>> >> <mailto:daniel at pocock.pro>> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >>     On 30/10/15 13:06, Andreia Gaita wrote:
>>> >>     > This is not a question of "Why". It's a question of "When". If
>>> you're
>>> >>     > asking why, especially in shocked, appaled or sarcastic tones,
>>> you
>>> >>     > seriously should take it upon yourselves to rethink your
>>> attitude
>>> >>     > towards other people and maybe realize that being an
>>> unempathetic
>>> >>     > asshole might work well when you're chugging beers with your
>>> >>     mates, but
>>> >>     > doesn't really help towards making the tech environment a place
>>> where
>>> >>     > everybody can feel safe and supported.
>>> >>     >
>>> >>     > You want to know why a code of conduct is needed? Because of
>>> you,
>>> >>     that's
>>> >>     > why.
>>> >>
>>> >>     You have written about people being unempathetic but I feel this
>>> >>     conclusion fails to show empathy with the people you are trying to
>>> >>     convince.  You literally conclude with an "us-and-them" posture.
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> Why would I be empathetic towards people that are being sarcastic and
>>> >> dismissive of something that has been clearly shown to be important
>>> >> through countless examples and conversations over the years? Why am I
>>> >> the one required to be empathetic towards people who apparently don't
>>> >> think that this is important because it doesn't happen to them?
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> > Because you obviously care about this and that is the effort that
>>> > leaders sometimes have to make when they want to change something.
>>> >
>>> > Also, because it will show how you would negotiate with people in a
>>> > real-life conflict situation, listening to both sides and gaining their
>>> > trust, no matter how you feel about it personally.
>>> >
>>> > At no point was I trying to defend any of the more ridiculous things
>>> > that have been said in this discussion.  It is not about showing
>>> empathy
>>> > with such comments but looking behind them to try and work out how to
>>> > reach the people who made them.
>>> >
>>> > Regards,
>>> >
>>> > Daniel
>>> > _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>
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