[diversity-talk] NYC local disagreement

[Serge Wroclawski]

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 11:26 AM, Darrell Fuhriman <darrell at garnix.org> wrote:

> I totally understand the foundation not wanting to get involved in individual disagreements, that doesn't absolve the foundation (or the community generally) from their responsibility to ensure that the community is as inclusive as possible.

Darrell,

When we founded the US chapter, one of my first agenda items was the
creation of a Community Code of Conduct, one that would serve not only
the US, but we could use as a boilerplate for the Foundation.

At the time, this wasn't a popular idea and while I had several
drafts, they were never voted on, either by the US Chapter, nor the
OSMF. There were also several serious concerned raised about having
such a process, ones that I never had a good answer to (such as where
to draw the relationship line, who would be voting on these issues,
what the process for voting would be, what to do about amendments or
changes, and if having a formal document might actually harm the
community by creating a series of rules.

While I was the person who wanted a Code of Conduct, I did not have a
good answer to these questions, and we had other, more immediate
concerns.

If someone would like to work on this I believe my drafts were either
on the OSM wiki, or on Google Docs, and I can dig them out if they'd
be of interest.

As for the relationship between local groups and either the OSMF or
the national chapters, that's a bit unclear. When we founded the US
Chapter, we discussed creating a formalized relationship between the
Chapter and the local groups, but those discussions did not result in
any formal proposal.

I'm certainly encouraged that this issue is being brought up again, I
think that having a Community Code of Conduct is important, and I'd be
happy to participate in re-engaging that process either as part of the
US Chapter, or OSMF.

- Serge