[DSNC] Online Discussions Update

[Davis Square Neighborhood Council]

Hello DSNC members,

This week, the DSNC board met and discussed matters related to our Google Group online forum. We voted on several matters regarding the administration of this group. There will not be any changes until DSNC's whole membership meets later this month, but I want to provide an update.

Code of Conduct:

Based on requests from several DSNC members, and the more heated nature of some conversations, we will begin work on a code of conduct for DSNC online discussions. The goal will be to improve the quality and civility of interactions. It was decided that the code of conduct should be based on an existing code of conduct as a template. 

The code of conduct draft will be voted on by the whole membership. If you are interested in shaping this process, please let me know. In the meantime, we ask that everyone contributes conscientiously to the group. Please consider the nature of messages that you send.

Announcements Channel:

While many of our members enjoy having online discussions using the DSNC Google Group, the amount and nature of the discussions can be quite overwhelming. The board decided to work towards creating two separate DSNC channels for communication. 

- We propose a channel for members to receive important updates (meeting announcements, official communications, and other approved communications) via email without clutter. 

- A new, separate, forum for discussion is also proposed. This will allow members to opt out, or reduce the quantity of notifications from the discussions channel and ensure that important updates about DSNC do not get buried under conversation.

This change requires further decisions, such as whether to use Google Groups or another platform for the discussion channel, whether the new discussion channel should be opt-in or opt-out, and what types of emails should be in the announcements channel. There will be an agenda item at the upcoming DSNC meeting to discuss this further. If you have any ideas regarding this, please let me know.

Possibility for in-person meet-ups:

Having a regular opportunity for people to meet and socialize in-person may create more opportunities to take conversations offline. The board discussed the possibility of scheduling some times at which people who are interested can meet and 

Best,

Zev

Zev Pogrebin (he/him)
+1 (646) 326-1081
Secretary
Davis Square Neighborhood Council

P.S: For now, I would like to provide instructions to people who would like fewer emails from the DSNC email group.

1. You can change your notification settings by going to This Link, or going to groups.google.com, selecting the "Davis Square Neighborhood Council" group, and the selecting "My membership settings" on the left sidebar.
2. Ensure that you are logged in with the email that you receive DSNC emails from.
3. Under "Subscription", click the drop down menu.
4. You can select "Each Email", "Digest" (sends you emails in blocks of 25), "Abridged" (sends you emails in blocks of 150), or "No Email"

I can also change it for you. Just send me an email at zpogre...@gmail.com, letting me know your desired subscription settings.