Operationalizing the Welcoming Policy wrt Apereo projects

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Andrew Petro

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Apr 24, 2018, 10:44:11 AM4/24/18
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In July 2013 Apereo adopted a Welcoming Policy that by its plain language applies to Apereo projects

> This policy prohibits harassment of any kind within the projects, events, and working groups affiliated with or sponsored by Apereo

(not just events. projects and working groups too.)

and that committed the Foundation to designate contacts whereby a community participant might actuate the policy.

> Apereo will designate two Board members to receive complaints. At Apereo Foundation events, two members of the Board or the event committee will be designated to receive complaints. Designated individuals are called "Duty Officers".

(events as an exceptional situation in which someone other than Board members might serve as Duty Officers, not as the only context in which there might be Duty Officers.)

As far as I know, Apereo didn't designate these Duty Officers. (This is somewhat akin to the phenomena of formally adopting a Code of Conduct but not operationalizing it and so adopting a posture that's arguably worse than admitting that you just don't have a Code of Conduct.)

This was brought to the Board's attention in June 2017

> I am following up with the Board about this

when uPortal tried to rely upon the Apereo Welcoming Policy as a code of conduct (and thereby reduce the cost of code of conduct operationalization within the uPortal project itself. Deriving value from the Apereo organizational context.)

In October 2017 the Foundation undertook a formal policy review.

This question of whether the Policy might apply to projects and working groups, and not just events, was particularly called out in this review process:

> The Apereo Welcoming Policy was originally developed for Apereo events. It has been suggested that the policy might have broader and general applicability. Feedback and perspectives on the policy would be particularly valuable in this respect.

The Apereo website has been updated to reflect the conclusion of the policy review period in November 2017, and setting an expected timeline for next steps:

> The Apereo Foundation Board of Directors is reviewing contributions, and will enact any policy and bylaw changes at the Board AGM on February 20 2017.

It is now two months after that February 20 date.

Is the Foundation now ready to designate Duty Officers and to otherwise operationalize the Welcoming Policy adopted in 2013? Or is there a new timeline on which the Foundation might make progress on this?

As I see it, while there may be opportunities for further improvement, the most immediate next step here is to do what Apereo said it would do in June 2013, that is name the two Duty Officers, and thereby the status quo Welcoming Policy becomes minimally viable. Can we at least take that small step?

-Andrew

Andrew Petro

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Apr 24, 2018, 11:05:23 AM4/24/18
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> The Apereo Foundation Board of Directors is reviewing contributions, and will enact any policy and bylaw changes at the Board AGM on February 20 2018.

2018, not 2017, of course. Two months ago, not 14 months go.

-Andrew

Laura Gekeler

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Apr 24, 2018, 11:24:50 AM4/24/18
to Andrew Petro, Open
​Hey Andrew,

You'd think you've undertaken a new full time job dogging us board members on getting things done! We're working as fast as we can, you know. But thanks for lighting a fire under us anyway. I would've thought you could rally a few people with pitchforks and firebrands to also engage but nevermind. Let us continue therefore and hope others are reading even if they are silent, shall we?

Let's see... what do you want to talk about first? The Welcoming Policy?​ We do have a new version, thought it's not here yet. We want to come up with a process that works whether someone has a complaint at a virtual gathering, on an apereo list, or at a face to face meet up. We think we've got that part buttoned down. We haven't set ourselves another due date by which to hold our feet to the fire because we're making progress.

Speaking of fires, is there one you need to put out with the updated Welcoming Policy? If you were to set a new due date, what would it be?

Have you thought of being part of the Apereo Foundation Board? I would nominate you in a heartbeat. 

Peace.

Laura



Laura Gekeler
LMS Administrator
Learning Platforms
Apereo Foundation Board '14-2020
University of Notre Dame


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Andrew Petro

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Apr 24, 2018, 1:12:10 PM4/24/18
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> If you were to set a new due date, what would it be?

Today.

Name two Board members as Duty Officers, fulfilling the policy Apereo adopted in 2013 that said Apereo would do this designating. That's it. That's the next step. Draw the names out of a hat if you have to. Come into compliance with the Foundation's own status quo policy. Do that much, and then do more.

The formal process involving commenting via OAE, formal periods of review, etc., is overwrought vs making incremental progress and learning from it. Apereo's inertia, formality of process, and friction of tooling is out of pace with organizational size. I don't think Apereo can afford for progress of this size to take 10 months to realize. There's just not enough calories available for that.

The ideal reaction to "the Welcoming Policy said it would name contacts but there's no contacts listed" is, that very day, "Oh wow! Good catch! This was an unfortunate oversight. Page is updated with contacts, and the next newsletter will include an article reminding of Apereo's stance on this. Of course Apereo has a policy against harassment in all contexts, and of course we want it to be clear how a participant would make contact about this, signal to everyone that we're serious about this and believe deeply in this." Thinking that maybe Apereo doesn't prohibit harassment in contexts other than events and not doing the Duty Officer designating thing that the policy says Apereo will do and studying the matter for months is not an ideal reaction.

For an organization with a "100% open" tagline, things are impressively opaque.

The July 2017 Board minutes include, wrt Code of Conduct and Welcoming Policy, "pull a couple board members into this review as well as soliciting volunteers from the community".

How did that soliciting go? I don't see anything on the open@ email list about "Code of Conduct"/"Welcoming Policy" until October, nor on projects@. I'm having trouble finding newsletters from 2017 after April and before November. I don't see anything about CodeOfConduct/WelcomingPolicy in the November 2017-March/April 2018 newsletters. Maybe there's untapped opportunity to solicit volunteers from beyond the Board to accelerate progress?

It's kind of you to support nominating me for the Board, but I think it's really important for community participants who are not on the Board to be able to understand what's going on and participate. I don't get the idea that Apache works the way Apereo is trying to work. The Apache Board isn't *doing* things so much as it's reviewing and where necessary adopting progress made by open, participant-driven projects and working groups. (Apache's 990 asserts that Board officers are working around 2 hours a week.)

Maybe I should be on the Apereo board. But I definitely shouldn't have to be on the board to have transparent access to understand almost all aspects of Apereo. It doesn't scale. We can't all be on the board.

And I think the Apereo board more needs some of the people I suggest than it needs me. (The Board is empowered under bylaws V.2.f. to appoint up to three members out of band of the election process, so don't let the closed nomination period stop pursuing board directors along these lines :) .)


> Speaking of fires, is there one you need to put out with the updated Welcoming Policy?

Only the principle that if Apereo is going to set the expectation that it has an operationalized code of conduct / welcoming policy (by saying right in the policy that it applies to projects and working groups, and not just events), then Apereo should have a viable contact mechanism to execute the policy. uPortal e.g. is referencing this as if it's a real thing, not least because the policy says it's a real thing, so it should be a real thing.

Think of this as somewhat of a canary in the mine. If this is what it takes to fulfill a modest commitment Apereo made in 2013 (write down the names of two board members on a web page) in support of something that should be entirely uncontroversial (prohibiting harassment), well, we're in real trouble here.

Kind regards,

-Andrew

Andrew Petro

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May 1, 2018, 2:37:52 PM5/1/18
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Checking in on this after 1 week has elapsed.

Here's what the Ada Initiative had to say about this:

"Codes of conduct [...] include detailed instructions for reporting violations [...]. Without these elements, a code of conduct isn't worth the electrons used to display it on your computer screen. [...] it sends the message that the values in the code of conduct aren't actually important or respected in your community."

Clarifying who the contacts are to whom one would report a Welcoming Policy violation seems an essential element of detailed instructions for reporting violations.

Laura, you asked what timeline I'd set. My answer is still that I'd resolve the unspecified Duty Officers issue immediately, even if more updates also are in the works.

I gotta admit I'm really struggling with being okay with this situation going unresolved. Which no doubt has already been evident. I've tried to take the past week to introspect a bit about why this is so very upsetting to me. I think it's this: that allowing this situation to remain unresolved is inconsistent with what I believe Apereo to be about. Enough time has elapsed without Apereo doing this designating and after attention being drawn to this that one can interpret this situation as signalling what Ada Initiative says it signals: that operationalizing the Welcoming Policy isn't respected in Apereo. I don't want to believe that about Apereo.

The Apereo website continues to set the expectation that Apereo would "enact any policy and bylaw changes at the Board AGM on February 20th 2018".

Could that website page be updated to clarify that the timeline for enacting policy and bylaw changes based on the policy review that concluded November 10th is indefinite, or is some new timeline? I get that the Board doesn't have to adopt the timeline I suggest, or even set itself a new due date, if it doesn't think doing so is prudent. But could Apereo at least update its website to stop setting the unmet Feb 20 expectation?

Kind regards,

Andrew


On Tuesday, April 24, 2018 at 12:12:10 PM UTC-5, Andrew Petro wrote:
> If you were to set a new due date, what would it be?

Today.

Name two Board members as Duty Officers, fulfilling the policy Apereo adopted in 2013 that said Apereo would do this designating. That's it. That's the next step. Draw the names out of a hat if you have to. Come into compliance with the Foundation's own status quo policy. Do that much, and then do more.

[...]


> Speaking of fires, is there one you need to put out with the updated Welcoming Policy?

Only the principle that if Apereo is going to set the expectation that it has an operationalized code of conduct / welcoming policy (by saying right in the policy that it applies to projects and working groups, and not just events), then Apereo should have a viable contact mechanism to execute the policy. [...]

[...]

Kind regards,

-Andrew


On Tuesday, April 24, 2018 at 10:24:50 AM UTC-5, Laura Gekeler wrote:
​Hey Andrew,

You'd think you've undertaken a new full time job dogging us board members on getting things done! We're working as fast as we can, you know. But thanks for lighting a fire under us anyway. I would've thought you could rally a few people with pitchforks and firebrands to also engage but nevermind. Let us continue therefore and hope others are reading even if they are silent, shall we?

Let's see... what do you want to talk about first? The Welcoming Policy?​ We do have a new version, thought it's not here yet. We want to come up with a process that works whether someone has a complaint at a virtual gathering, on an apereo list, or at a face to face meet up. We think we've got that part buttoned down. We haven't set ourselves another due date by which to hold our feet to the fire because we're making progress.

Speaking of fires, is there one you need to put out with the updated Welcoming Policy? If you were to set a new due date, what would it be?

Have you thought of being part of the Apereo Foundation Board? I would nominate you in a heartbeat. 

Peace.

Laura



Laura Gekeler
LMS Administrator
Learning Platforms
Apereo Foundation Board '14-2020
University of Notre Dame


On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 10:44 AM, Andrew Petro <ape...@wisc.edu> wrote:
In July 2013 Apereo adopted a Welcoming Policy that by its plain language applies to Apereo projects

[...]


Is the Foundation now ready to designate Duty Officers and to otherwise operationalize the Welcoming Policy adopted in 2013? Or is there a new timeline on which the Foundation might make progress on this?

As I see it, while there may be opportunities for further improvement, the most immediate next step here is to do what Apereo said it would do in June 2013, that is name the two Duty Officers, and thereby the status quo Welcoming Policy becomes minimally viable. Can we at least take that small step?

-Andrew

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Ian Dolphin (apereo)

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May 2, 2018, 4:16:55 AM5/2/18
to Open
Picking this up.

At it’s meeting on April 17th the board appointed David Ackerman, Doug Johnson, Lucy Appert and myself Duty Officers. The email address duty.o...@apereo.org is now active, and will be promoted before the Apereo Africa event next week, and via the Apereo web site. A further appeal for duty officers for Open Apereo 2018 has been made to the conference planning group. In the past we’ve appointed duty officers for events - from this point we have permanent duty officers plus those for events (where possible).

Best

Ian
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Ian Dolphin
Apereo Foundation
ian.d...@apereo.org

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