W3C

– DRAFT –
Positive Work Environment CG

04 January 2022

Attendees

Present
Chaals, Léonie (tink), Ralph, Tzviya, WendyReid, WSeltzer
Regrets
JBrewer
Chair
Tzviya
Scribe
WendyReid

Meeting minutes

<Ralph> previous 14 December

tzviya: Picking up on the agenda from last time
… we have changed the schedule to alternating tuesdays due to some confusion
… and Liz and I were getting some conflicts
… hopefully this doesn't get into anyone's way, please be in touch if there is a problem
… first item is a general call for training materials
… for chairs and members
… Jory had a pilot going for chairs training

Training materials for chairs and general membership

tzviya: Wendy R took a stab at a training outline
… this should probably be for everyone
… I wanted to know if anyone is aware of publicly available materials

chaals: I'm not sure where the stuff we have is
… but if someone could point

tzviya: Jory's material belongs to her
… Wendy's material is a draft

Ralph: Have we categorized the kinds of training we would like?

tzviya: In my opinion, conflict deescalation training
… a lot of people receive anti-harassment training at work

<Ralph> CEPC Training Plan [last edited Oct 2020]

tzviya: the Microsoft anti-harassment training is apparently good
… there might be something there

WendyR: I can share my materials after this meeting
… the topics I focused on for Chairs were:how to run a good meeting
… good communication practices: how to run an inclusive meeting
… CEPC overview: how to apply CEPC in a chair's context, which we could modify to "how to use CEPC as a group members"
… i.e. focused on how to be a good chair

chaals: One of the specific things I'd like to do is to give chairs advice on when and how to stop a discussion

WendyR: I had that on my list
… how to moderate or redirect a conversation
… how to step in as a chair

tzviya: At the heart of that is deescalation
… chairs can get steamrolled
… I do think conflict deescalation is key, and not just putting everything in the hands of the chair

chaals: Recognizing a chair could be a problem too

tzviya: Next steps?

chaals: What form do we expect to deliver this in?

tzviya: Good question

WendyR: I was thinking, at least for the Chairs' training, to have a live session
… one goal is to foster discussion among the chairs about what is working well for them
… the tricky part is that it would have to be live and we would not be able to record it to allow people to share specific details
… we could do a separate recorded session
… it would also be good to do small-ish groups to get more engagement

tink: We could create a recording without an audience, then run peer group sessions
… run at convenient times
… watch then ask questions or participate

<Ralph> +1 to Léonie

chaals: We expect chairs to be competent to manage a conversation, so they could interact with one another

Ralph: They do still appreciate instruction
… +1 to something recorded

tzviya: Link above to Wendy's document
… iterate on this as a starting point

<tzviya> https://rak.box.com/s/vcseu0mw5s7bqi2h0q9rj9ybjeqxyf0c

chaals: We should repeat this more often than the current cyle

tzviya: And not just limited to chairs, but maybe start with them

Ralph: Looking at our performance, the reality is that it's easier to point to recordings

tzviya: What are our next steps?

WendyR: I'm happy to take feedback on this outline and turn it into a skeleton presentation

chaals: I will commit to going through the thing

tzviya: And while Jory's presentation is hers, I will check to see if we can use some of it

chaals: Could we use it as hers?

tzviya: I'll see what I can do

chaals: One of the key next steps is finding someone to run and schedule the training

Ralph: Let's get Wendy the feedback and see what the material is and schedule
… on Jory's material, she has presented it to the team, there was sufficient feedback on it that we would have wanted a revision of it before more widely sharing
… I think there was some followup
… it might also be appropriate to wait for Jory
… I think what we've done is say that chair's training

tzviya: Ombuds training is separate, I don't think we can do it ourselves
… Liz will have some feedback
… we can figure out presenters when we have more of a plan
… next item is about ombuds training and the program

Ombuds update and ombuds training

tzviya: Shiela is back, and she has done much of the work
… we have a document on hiring and recruiting, and are ready to move forward there
… but we don't have training
… we don't have the internal capacity for training them
… W3C ombuds are not unique to other orgs, so we need a case and reasoning and costs
… Shiela has to follow on that
… we need to come up with a formal training plan
… we're fairly ready to go forward aside from training
… would like feedback though

<tzviya> Ombuds job description https://github.com/w3c/PWETF/blob/main/DraftOmbudsJobDescription.md

tzviya: Role of the ombuds is to be a sounding board and advise on action
… also on the table is a revision to disciplinary actions

<Ralph> "suggest options for addressing member concerns through existing processes and pathways." -- from the draft job description

<tzviya> https://github.com/w3c/PWETF/blob/main/CEPCdisciplinary-process.md

tzviya: Liz has also been working on a revision including actions in CEPC
… there's a lot of room between violation and ejection
… this is an attempt to define some of this
… we've received requests that other CoCs have consequences in the same docuement, ours are in several, that would involve a revision of CEPC
… we'll find better terminology
… disciplinary process is needed in conjunction with ombuds

chaals: We should IMHO consider providing some clear examples of what happens in practice - how to know you're giving or getting a warning, …
… understanding where someone is in the process
… here is what someone should expect
… chairs should have language or process for communicating that

tzviya: Have to give it some thought

WendyR: I want to steer away from examples
… but we do have to have some clear language "this is now a disciplinary process"
… to make it clear that this is now serious
… and not just a suggestion for a course correction
… we've seen instances where people use CEPC-adjacent language but not explicitly a warning
… giving chairs a way to communicate that will be important for the process

wseltzer: I've been working with Liz on this
… being clear enough to give people guidance without the appearance of bright lines constraining behaviour
… we need a flexible process that allows for judgement
… it has to be flexible to protect the community

tzviya: Flexible but clear
… working on the ombuds program goes hand in hand with this
… we'll have updates soon hopefully

Issue triage

tzviya: Issue triage
… we have a ton of open issues

open issues

tzviya: one thing I would like to do at some point

<tzviya> https://github.com/w3c/IDCG/issues

tzviya: we have IDCG issues that we should likely address or close
… there are 25 open issues
… some of these are related to things like the diversity fund
… establish an ERB (equity review board)
… it's hard to manage two repositories
… there are some that just need to be closed
… any thoughts?

Ralph: Just thinking about the mechanics, some group use labelling instead of closing
… it could help with coordination

tzviya: That's a possibility
… maybe we can wait until we have a larger group

wseltzer: Most things haven't been touched in over a year
… might use activity metrics as a measure

tzviya: Let's leave this for next meeting
… AOB?
… see you all in two weeks!

Minutes manually created (not a transcript), formatted by scribe.perl version 185 (Thu Dec 2 18:51:55 2021 UTC).