In reference to this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/MarcDrummond/status/1021510982277980168 (there's more there if you click into individual replies; sorry, I can't figure out how to link to the whole thing.)

There's concern being voiced there that the wording of the current Values & Principles Committee Charter is a bit lop-sided in the importance given to various marginalized groups.

Specifically, this section:

Members should collectively be diverse
○ By geography
○ By underrepresented group
○ By job role (coder, business, etc.)

"Geography" is explicitly called out as a place where we need more diversity (which is totally valid, since we tend to heavily skew North American + European-centric); however, the rest of what would be considered "underrepresented groups" is just kinda put there as a collective blob. So if I'm from the Southern Hemisphere, I read this and I feel represented here, but if I'm LGBTQIA2S+ or I'm a person of colour... not so much. It's not clear whether we are explicitly the type of diversity that's sought to be part of the membership of this group, or whether the term "underrepresented groups" is more of a "Cover Your Ass" move. ;)

The suggestion from @MarcDrummond in the thread was to re-use some of the language from the DrupalCon Code Of Conduct, which does explicitly enumerate at least some of these groups.

So in other words, change the second bullet to something like:

○ By underrepresented group (including those marginalized based on gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion and any other protected status)

I would file a patch, but I'm not seeing a copy of this document at https://cgit.drupalcode.org/governance/tree/charters, so I'm not sure how best to do that. So for now, starting here. :)

Comments

webchick created an issue. See original summary.

bertboerland’s picture

why not just simpel delete the first misleading "geographical" and not define again what underrepresented is but refer to the doc in general?

webchick’s picture

I guess we could, but...

1) IMO it's worth pointing out geographical diversity explicitly, since we as a community tend to lean heavily U.S.-centric, with occasional nods to Europe.
2) Most would not associate geographical diversity being an "underrepresented" group, since (for example) India and China are very well represented world population-wise, but definitely not Drupal leadership-wise.
3) Why not take an opportunity to explicitly help women, queer people, etc. feel more welcome? It's not like we have a character limit here. :)

slsonnier’s picture

Thank you WebChick for seeing Marc's exchange and working to add more inclusive/welcoming language. And thank you Marc for raising your hand re: this issue.

rachel_norfolk’s picture

Status: Needs review » Reviewed & tested by the community

Taking the already-mentioned “Underrepresented group” bullet point and expanding it to “By underrepresented group (including those marginalized based on gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion and any other protected status)” seems a simple change to make.

I’ve updated the document on the blog post. Just needs a maintainer of this project to assign credit to this issue and close.

When the committee actually has some members, I’ll submit an issue & patch with the final wording (like, adding the members!) for inclusion in the repo.

Thanks.

webchick’s picture

To maintainers: please add @MarcDrummond and @sugaroverflow to the credit list. I'm not sure of who else might've contributed to the suggestions "behind the scenes," but they both participated publicly in the Twitter dialogue, anyway.

rachel_norfolk’s picture

rachel_norfolk’s picture

Just been offered non-git rights to add credits for people so making the most of it

rachel_norfolk’s picture

Status: Reviewed & tested by the community » Fixed

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed - issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.