Community Team - where we want to go

[Steve McIntyre <93sam@debian.org>]

Hi folks,

We've had a lot of conversations this year about where the
Anti-Harassment (now *Community*) Team should be going: what we're
trying to do, and the relationship we'd like to have with the rest of
the project and the wider community.

Within the team, we've brainstormed about this and come up with the
following to describe our role and responsibilities. We'd like to
discuss it now with the rest of the project. Feedback welcome please!

Name: Community Team
====================

Role
====

The goal of the Community Team (CT) is to help Debian be a welcoming
place, focusing on response to difficult or contentious
communications, as well as other negative experiences and Code of
Conduct violations. It aims to encourage and foster a respectful,
productive, and inclusive atmosphere throughout the Debian community.

The team itself has no direct powers to enforce any decision, and
merely acts as an advisory body. It will aim to respond in a timely
matter when consulted, and to do so in a consistent way. The (CT) is
the team responsible for interpreting the Code of Conduct (CoC) when
necessary.

The team will respond to concerns raised by members of the project or
people interacting with them, working with individuals to help
them. The team recognises that technical development can lead to
arguments and passionate discussions. Where desired, the team will
work with contributors to help them express disagreement without
violating the CoC. When people do breach the CoC, the team will give
guidance on better ways to interact in the future. We will attempt to
consult with those on all sides of issues when possible. Nevertheless,
protection of the vulnerable and the community as a whole is the
ultimate goal of the team.

If things do not work out, and in cases with a pattern of repeating
problems, the team will raise concerns with other teams as
appropriate.

Members of the community should feel empowered to seek counsel when
they have doubts about the CoC, or when they feel it is being
violated. The team normally acts reactively, but might also try to
intervene when individual members witness a problematic situation.

Finally, the CT will also work in combination with event organisers to
deploy incident response teams on the ground and ensure that the CoC
is observed for Debian events.

We break this down in more concrete terms:

Responsibilities include
========================

 * Interpreting the Code of Conduct;

 * Responding in a timely manner to incidents reported by members of
   the Debian community and those interacting with the Debian project;

 * Contacting individual contributors about their behavior when it is
   considered to be in violation of the Debian Code of Conduct;

 * Providing support and guidance for event incident response teams;

 * Offering advice and guidance for policies and implementation around
   community standards and guidelines;

 * Being available as a resource for those looking for content review
   of communications or who have questions about how possible actions
   may fit with the Code of Conduct;

 * In extreme incidents or after repeated harmful behaviour or Code of
   Conduct violations, writing reports for relevant teams (e.g. Planet
   admins, listmasters, DAM), to summarise relevant incidents along
   with analysis and suggested possible courses of action; and

 * Where there might be a Conflict of Interest, individual members of
   the team will be expected to inform the rest of the team, about it
   and recuse themselves from relevant discussion.

Examples of team activities
===========================

 * Releasing regular reports on incidents reported and the responses
   of the team;

 * Providing recommendations on communications when recommendations
   are sought by members of the community;

 * Quick response time alerting reporters that action might be taken;

 * Holding regular meetings (and emergency meetings, when relevant),
   to discuss incidents reported and actions to be taken;

 * Writing and providing reports to other teams concerning incidents
   or habitual behaviors; and

 * Proactively writing emails to those who habitually make the
   community a hostile place, informing them that their behavior is
   harmful to the community, that action may be taken in the future,
   and that the Community team is a resource to provide explanation or
   guidance.

Examples of things the team does *not* do
=========================================

 * Remove blogs from community forums like Planet Debian

 * Ban users and contributors from email lists or other communication
   channels;

 * Take preventative action on mailing lists when an incident report
   does not come in, excluding general reminders to email lists about
   the Code of Conduct;

 * Mediate communications or conversations between individuals; or

 * Take punitive measures or actions against members of the Community.

Members of the Community Team may of course participate in discussions
as individual contributors to the Debian Project, and will not always
be expressing the views of the Community Team.

-- 
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK.                                steve@einval.com
"When C++ is your hammer, everything looks like a thumb." -- Steven M. Haflich