Plone Foundation Board Approves New Code of Conduct

Last week, the Plone Foundation board voted to approve a code of conduct for the organization directly addressing how community members and interested parties can expect to be treated at Plone events and other gatherings/projects.

The Plone community strives to be a welcoming, diverse, and positive environment. And we know that this is not something that just magically happens, but that providing such an environment is an active process.

Now, just having a Code of Conduct alone is of course not going to be the silver bullet. But it does provide a valuable working tool for members of the community to become more aware, more active and more empowered in dealing with incidents, in thinking about how we can improve situations, and in becoming a wider, stronger community.

The approved policy is available here:

http://plone.org/foundation/materials/foundation-resolutions/code-of-conduct

Anti-Harassment and Anti-Bullying Code of Conduct

The Plone Foundation is dedicated to providing a respectful, harassment-free community for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment or bullying of any community member in any form. This does not only extend to members of the Plone Foundation, but to anyone who chooses to become involved in the larger Plone community of users, developers and integrators through events or interactions.

Harassment includes offensive verbal/electronic comments related to personal characteristics or choices, sexual images or comments in public or online spaces, deliberate intimidation, bullying, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks, IRC chats, electronic meetings, physical meetings or other events, inappropriate physical contact, or unwelcome sexual attention. Participants asked to stop any harassing or bullying behavior are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, representatives of the community may take reasonable action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender, expulsion from any Plone event, or expulsion from mailing lists, IRC chats, discussion boards and other electronic communications channels to resolve the issue. This may include expulsion from Plone Foundation membership.

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please act to intercede or ask for help from any member of the Plone Foundation, IRC chat admins, website admins, or organizers/representatives of any physical events put on under the auspices of the Plone Foundation.

Many members of the Foundation will remember this being debated in the membership list last summer. In that debate many elements of the originally proposed policy were removed, recast, and ultimately returned to the statement as a direct result of the input of foundation members. It is, ultimately, a good example of how foundation members can disagree, debate their disagreements, and in the end come up with something which was overwhelmingly endorsed by the community.

The original policy was proposed by Mark Corum and incorporated ideas from Joel Burton and Elizabeth Leddy. The policy that went to the membership for review was modified based on input from last year's Foundation Board of Directors, and the final version was heavily influenced by individuals who participated in the online debate. Particular appreciation needs to be given to Jan Ulrich Hasecke, Tom Lazar, Steve McMahon, Joanna Springsteen, Jon Stahl, Armin Stroß-Radschinski, Helge Tesdal, Ken Watesis, Matthew Wilkes, Veda Williams, and many others whose participation was meaningful, civil and productive - and resulted in a worthwhile statement.