Code of Conduct Violation Process + Escalation

[VictoriaODell]

After a recent incident, it's become clear we need a process for what happens when someone violates the COC online or in person. I can think of at least one other event in the past where a member came to us with an in-person violation and it was also unclear for how we should handle it then.

Steps to take here:

• Review current Code of Conduct
• Check in with brigade network to see if there's anything they have in place
• Draft up our own process + make it open for membership input / Membership team
• Finalize with leadership
• Place on our website // Comms team
• Slack annoucment // Comms team
• Send out in Open Austin newsletter // Comms team

[VictoriaODell]

CFA also is looking into this: codeforamerica/codeofconduct#15

[VictoriaODell]

Asked the CFA slack in #general for help. Documenting some helpful resources and conversation.

jszwedko [6:22 PM]
we don't have an official process, but that is something that we are also interested in developing

georgia [6:24 PM]
my experience with CoCs comes from involvement with women who code, but I have some links.

[6:25]
this one I found really helpful for defining the post-violation process: https://the-orbit.net/almostdiamonds/2014/04/10/so-youve-got-yourself-a-policy-now-what/
Almost Diamonds
So You've Got Yourself a Policy. Now What? - Almost Diamonds
So you really, really want to get this right the first time, but all you have to go on is one ambiguous incident. This is not a fun place to be.
Apr 10th, 2014 at 11:55 PM

new messages
[6:26]
this might be 101 in some places and more focused on conferences CoC than community, but a massive resource: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_anti-harassment/Policy_resources
Geek Feminism Wiki
Conference anti-harassment/Policy resources | Geek Feminism Wiki ...
This is a list of resources for conference organizers considering adopting an anti-harassment policy for their conference. The example policy itself is located here: Conference anti-harassment/Policy

[6:27]
wealljs, an online community, also clearly documents their process for responding to violations: https://wealljs.org/code-of-conduct

tdooner [6:29 PM]
+1 for wealljs, it seems like a great online community. The one thing I’d add is that the Contributor Covenant sample CoC has some links to other projects’ enforcement policies: https://www.contributor-covenant.org/#enforcing-the-contributor-covenant

[6:30]
OpenOakland :openoakland: is working on developing an enforcement policy right now by appointing two non-leadership “Ombudspeople” to handle incidents… but we might have to iterate on it depending on how it works

[6:32]
happy to chat about what we were thinking, or send over the relevant bylaws

[VictoriaODell]

@seandellis is this something you can take responsibility of as membership lead? Some of our CFA friends provided great resources + the opportunity to chat. Getting some community input would be great also. Having some sort of decision tree in place would make stuff easier and have us better prepared for any future event.

Draw.io might be a good tool to do this in.

[mateoclarke]

I love the idea of a decision tree. Here are some breakpoints or steps I think could help as a starting point.

1. Any member has the opportunity to flag a Code of Conduct violation for investigation. We have several documented ways to do this.
2. Dedicated CoC group designates one spokesperson to message offender directly to say something like, "There has been a CoC violation reported regarding this action/statement you made. What did you mean when you said/did X?"
3. Ask offender to state that they have read and understand our community's CoC and ask them to reaffirm their commitment to behave within the CoC's guidelines.
4. CoC group gives clear warning to offender stating that they will be kicked out if the behavior persists.
5. If further obvious immediate action is required beyond a clear warning, steps 3 & 4 can be skipped, up to the determination of the CoC group.

I think the definition for CoC group needs to be flexible so we can react quickly based on who is available. It should ideally include a brigade co-captain, membership lead, at least one more leadership team member. I like the idea that other brigades have proposed with the "ombudsman" role. Having a bench of 2-3 people with this special role outside the core leadership team would be really valuable.

[seandellis]

@VictoriaODell I can take care of this.

@mateoclarke Thank you! These are great ideas. I'll use them to build this out.

[VictoriaODell]

Just posting another resource shared in the CFA slack by Luigi from Code for Atlanta

Late to the conversation, but: https://www.slideshare.net/aeschright/enforcing-your-code-of-conduct-effective-incident-response

[VictoriaODell]

@sortizsh has experience doing this sort of work and said she can work to push this forward. I'd like us to start the new year with this process in place. :)

[seandellis]

@sortizsh @VictoriaODell

The Rands Leadership Slack created a good code of conduct that could be use as the basis for Open Austin.

Code of Conduct

Handling Incidents

[VictoriaODell]

Hey @sortizsh can we close this soon? Maybe take some time to review what we need to do to complete this at our next meeting?

[thebestmensch]

@VictoriaODell what's the status of this?

[VictoriaODell]

@jmensch we lost the leads on this. Not much movement on our side for implementation. I went through this exercise for Austin Design Week as an advisory board member though and I'm sure I can transfer some of the notes and takeaways from that work over but would need support.

There were about 6 people working to get the ADW updated though and then there was training on enforcement for volunteers. In our case, that would be leadership and any other volunteers that we start to onboard.

[mateoclarke]

Just raising the flag on this give some incidents raised recently. Proposing we add this to the next leadership agenda discussion next week...

[mateoclarke]

Notes from 2019-3-19 Leadership Meeting:

Harassment & Grievance Process:

• Difference process for slack and meetup?
  • If someone is banned from slack, are they banned from the meetups?
• Now:
  • Be aware of potential problems and involvement in projects
• Future:
  • Develop process here, @mateo @Vickie
    • How might we document grievances once they are reported (from various channels)?
    • How might we document a general process for response to grievances so all parties know what to expect?

[mateoclarke]

I've reviewed this thread and created this Google Doc which tries to capture the valuable recommended resources and includes some recommendations for how we change our processes and documentation:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ro1xiMiyxqmuT2S_El-7VSYNFeukWU5BZQGbnL_13UY/edit?usp=sharing

The checkbox TODOS at the top of this issues are still accurate reflections of next steps. After discussion of recommendations at the next possible leadership sync, we can draft some changes to the current CoC.