[TriLUG] Code of Conduct

Mark Fowle mfowle at adeliesystems.com
Mon Aug 13 13:48:45 EDT 2007


IMHO - this long over due and will make this group stronger and better
in the long run. It should help to remind us of what this group IS.



On 8/13/07, Cristóbal Palmer <cristobalpalmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 8/13/07, Warren Myers <volcimaster at gmail.com> wrote:
> > What was the main reason this was brought about?
>
> You're right to ask for this information, and those of us behind this
> idea (chiefly myself and Matt Frye) have been remiss in not
> preëmptively answering this.
>
> My motivations and Matt's aren't identical, but let me take a stab at
> a short list:
>
> (1) We both attended a session on Community-building at BarCampRDU in
> which some principles of healthy groups were articulated. The main
> elements are like this:
>
>   * Purpose
>   * People in Roles
>   * Policy
>
> TriLUG has had the first two fairly clearly articulated for a long
> while. For much of its life it really hasn't needed the last one. It
> was a small enough and tightly-knit-enough Community that coöperation
> without any formalisms was natural. We've grown. We can and should
> continue to grow and evolve. Growth will require some Policy, and I
> humbly submit that we can have flexible, sensible policies that will
> aid in healthy growth.
>
> http://www.metafilter.com/63737/Evolution-and-Cooperation
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/science/31prof.html?ex=1343534400&en=3f231ad9bb2f226c&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
> (nytimes tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/28clvs )
>
> As groups grow, there need to be additional incentives towards
> coöperation. Don't take my word for it. Take it from Martin Nowak
> (article above).
>
> (2) We (Matt, Andy, me, and others who may or may not wish to remain
> anonymous) have been embarrassed to point people to the mailing list.
> When a new person asks me about TriLUG, the easiest way to bring that
> person into the group (the lowest barrier to entry) is the mailing
> list. The mailing list is how I got my introduction to the group. If
> not for the encouragement of my good friend Nathan Conrad I would have
> dropped my subscription shortly after I joined. That's a problem. It
> means that we're turning away a lot of good people.
>
> (3) Additionally, it means we're losing funding. I know we'd love to
> have activities and events that are higher-profile, but these cost
> more money, and to pull them off we need sponsors. If TriLUG has a
> reputation for being immature and unhelpful, I'm going to have a lot
> of trouble convincing potential donors that it's worth their time and
> money to help out TriLUG. This is a serious issue that cuts to the
> future relevance of TriLUG.
>
> We can argue all day about whether or not the CoC will help to resolve
> the list problem, but honestly it doesn't have to. The CoC is meant as
> a foundation. I personally think that, in conjunction with the
> Leadership Code of Conduct that we'll consider next, this CoC will
> help us have a better Community. Even if it does not, I have yet to
> hear a cogent argument for how the CoC could be damaging.
>
> > I haven't personally seen any reason to be *adding* things like this to the
> > org, but would be happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.
>
> I don't think all of us need a CoC to be coöperative, but we need to
> agree that positive coöperation is the goal and that this CoC
> articulates principles we agree with. This CoC can't and shouldn't be
> used to "fix" TriLUG.
>
> > In fact, I have found that it is precisely
> > the divergent opinions represented on the list that makes for lively
> > chatter.
>
> Stifling differences of opinion is NOT what the CoC is about. The CoC
> is (to my mind) about gently reminding people what we value and how we
> can constructively coöperate. This is called positive priming, and it
> works. Here's the top google hit:
>
> http://pos-psych.com/news/elizabeth-peterson/20070226130
>
> Again, I hope the above is helpful.
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Cristóbal M. Palmer
> celebrating 15 years of sunsite/metalab/ibiblio:
> http://tinyurl.com/2o8hj4
> --
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> TriLUG Organizational FAQ  : http://trilug.org/faq/
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