Meeting on October 24th

Attendees: Meg Ford, Allan Day, Nuritzi Sanchez, Benjamin Berg, Marina Zhurakhinskaya

Agenda:

Last meeting - agreed to review codes of conduct - https://wiki.gnome.org/Diversity/CoCWorkingGroup/Resources/CoCs/Review
Scope of the meeting: This meeting goal is to start drafting new CoC? Use other CoC as basis?
- Two approaches:
  - take one as a basis and modify it,
  - go through and assemble one based on bits and pieces of others.

First structure and sections
Then particular languages and clauses
For each one, compare instances of existing Codes of Conduct, debate the pros and cons of each

This is about the opening statement - should it be a short mission statement (like the PyCon UK opening)? Some CoCs repeat a welcome to members (like DebConf and MozFest)
Allan - in favour the PyCon UK opening; sets a good tone with a mix of positive aspiratons/values,
Nuritzi - the opening is too long - could be folded into the short version
Meg - it is good to set positive tone
Ben - we could fold the "short version" into the opening. Short and long versions are too similar; you need to read the long version anyway - it's duplication
Nuritzi - GUADEC 2014's short version is essentially the introduction
Allan - we can maybe address questions of structure once we've decided on our content
ACTION: Use PyCon UK's intro
AGREEMENT: An opening/mission statement is neccessary (this might be the "short version")

Nuritzi - enjoyed clauses on cultural sensitivity from Libre Graphics, GUADEC 2016, Destkop Summit. Question of compatibility with local laws.
Ben - local laws are mostly a factor for enforcement; the CoC could often be a guideline rather than hard rule which should be generally sufficient as long as enforcement is possible on that basis
Nuritzi - also questions around photo policies
Allan - role of code of conduct is to establish a level playing field across cultures
Nuritzi - cultural sensitivity is about stating our values; it's to raise awareness that your cultural norms may cause offence
Meg - the role of the CoC is to define acceptable/unacceptable behaviors, no matter what culture they're from
Marina - agrees with Meg; the interesting question - what kind of cultural sensitivity are we addressing with a cultural sensitivity statement?
Nuritzi - it helps to generate a sense of empathy
Ben - sees Marina's position as cultural imperialism; example of kissing as something that is treated across cultures
Allan - agrees with Meg and Marina's position; OK with including as a way to raise the issue, concerned about it creating an expectation that undesirable behaviours will be accepted. eg. bigotry
Marina - need to be clear that unacceptable behaviour and not to be covered by "cultural sensitivity" - a cultural sensitivy statement would have to make this clear
Ben - "cultural sensitivity" does not enable anyone to hide behind "their" culture in particular if it is named in the CoC

Marina - would prefer not to have a statement about whether people have good intentions - CoCs need to cover cases where people don't have good intentions
Ben - there's a difference between intention and reception - "intention" might not be the right word

Code of Conduct seems to be the standard
"Attendee policy"
Allan and Meg - "code of conduct" is the established title, easy to find
Nuritzi - how to differentiate it from the community code of conduct; Ben - it'll be on the conference website
Marina and Ben - "Event Code of Conduct" (when not directly obvious at least)
Ben - might need an explanation in the document about how it relates to the wider GNOME code of conduct

Next meeting: come up with the positive behaviors we want to encourage and what we want to prohibit
Start a private wiki page with our draft in it https://wiki.gnome.org/Diversity/CoCWorkingGroup/Private/Draft
Next meeting - 7th November