[diversity] Notes from the RIPE Diversity Task Force on-line meeting, 27.6.2017

RIPE Diversity Task Force (on-line meeting, 27.6. 10:30 CEST)

1. Introduction of (new) members/volunteers
===============

Participants were asked what brought them to this Task Force, what is
there background and how do they want to contribute.

Denesh Bhabuta (UKNOF / DNS-OARC): wants to learn from the RIPE
Community; could possibly bring efforts back into other communities /
conferences; also has a personal interest, as a father of a daughter.

Donal Cunningham (HEAnet): notices that at most technical
conferences he is surrounded by white males, and is interested in fixing
that problem.

Malcolm Hutty (LINX): background in Internet Governance and community
organisations; was prompted by the the feedback at RIPE74, which was 
mostly welcoming the efforts to increase breadth of participation, but 
the comment was repeatedly made from the floor that RIPE participants 
"do not support diversity for diversity's sake", and he would like to 
address the concerns that underlie such a comment.

Gergana Petrova (RIPE NCC / RACI): finds diversity an important issue;
it's challenging to work on it without offending anyone; wants to work
on improving the current situation.

Brian Nisbet (HEAnet): is active in working on the issues of increasing
diversity, and wants to contribute to it in RIPE Community (also PC
"representative" and WG co-chair)

Amanda Gowland (RIPE NCC): non-techie, helping organise these technical
conferences; can help with writing (working as Technical Writer)

Vesna Manojlovic (RIPE NCC): used to be an engineer, then trainer & now
Community Builder; exposed to lack of diversity in hackers community,
and helped addressing the issues there; wants to exchange experiences
between them & RIPE community.

Shane Kerr: interested in the topic of  increasing diversity; did the
measuring to find out what the actual situation is. (also WG co-chair)

2. Discussing the draft charter
===============
A suggested draft charter was on the Etherpad.  Malcolm Hutty made the
most substantial recommendations on how to modify it and was asked to
clarify his suggestions:
http://etherpad.tools.ietf.org:9000/p/ripe-diversity-tf-2017

Malcolm said he thinks we should be careful not to be too political, but
remain practical, and focus on the concrete actions. He added that we
should strive towards increasing accessibility for everyone, instead of
singling out specific groups and that we should be welcoming to
everyone, regardless of differences.

Gergana said she suggests to be more than just "welcoming”. Instead we
should be "inviting" and "encouraging".

Denesh noted that with the introduction of the RIPE Meeting Code of
Contact, the RIPE NCC has already started the overall inclusion
programme; now are are moving to the next steps.

Shane was wondering why Malcolm also objected to using metrics.

Malcolm responded that we should focus on individuals, and not divide
people based on demographics or other grouping methods.

Brian commented that no matter what, there are clear differences that
place all people into certain groups.

Malcolm said that he thinks we should not explicitly exclude anyone, and
not do any active discrimination, but instead we should remove the
reasons for individuals not taking part.

Amanda asked Malcolm what he thinks the reasons are that RIPE's
representation of women within the community is 5%, while the "tech
industry" female participation rate is 15%?

Malcolm thinks that we should investigate whether there are systemic 
reasons in RIPE's own practices and approaches that inhibit women from
participating, and if so seek to address them. But we also need to be
open to individual agency, and so setting any particular target for
gender balance is inappropriate.

Brian asked for clarification and wondered if Malcom means that "they
are just not interested in taking part"? He thinks that we have passed
that stage of discussing *if* there is a lack of diversity within RIPE
Community - we are now working under the agreement that there *is* a
need for increasing diversity.

Donal added that it has been shown that companies with more diverse
boards have greater "return on investment". Also, for our focus group,
since we have limited resources (such as time and attention) , we need
to choose which actions will be helpful to most people; therefore, we
should focus on _groups_ rather than on individuals.

Malcolm asked what is the meant by "under-represented groups" - and what
would be the goal of balancing the "over-represented" and
"under-represented"?

Vesna: (long story...) 50%

Malcolm said that he doesn’t think this is an acceptable goal, it is
artificial and numerical; our goal should be for everyone to feel
welcome and respected enough to take part, as individuals, and not as
part of a grouping.

Donal suggested that the RIPE community could commit to, at first, have
at least *the same* ratio of female participation as the technical
industry; and later, maybe, to even go for 50%.

Vesna closed this agenda topic and suggested to continue to wordsmith
the charter on the list.

3. Actions & milestones
===============

Amanda reported that one of the suggested actions was to get more
metrics. The registration for RIPE 75 will open soon, and there will be
an opt-in question added at the end of the registration form. The text
was shared on the diversity list and on RIPE Labs. The data collection
was made as anonymous as possible (opt-in, collected by the 3rd party,
no personal info requested, IP-tracking disabled) in order to minimise
the danger for the participants.

The goal is to collect at least some data about gender ratios of
participation, in order to measure, over time, if our actions have
improved the situation.

Vesna added that furthermore, we can always repeat the analysis Shane
did before RIPE 74 (based on  public registration data  and
participant’s names.

Shane confirmed that he would be willing to runt his again..

Action on Shane to repeat the analysis for RIPE 73 and RIPE74
participants, and share the results with the list.

Amanda said that a new idea is to invite one of the women who lead the
diversity workshop before RIPE 74 to submit a talk proposal for RIPE 75,
on why diversity is important (this has been done in the meantime).

Amanda also said that the RIPE NCC is investigating on-site child-care
options for RIPE 76.

Denesh noted that as a conferences organiser, he has been asked by
female participants about policies for the breastfeeding in public.
Since they want  to be as inclusive as possible, they said that this is
not a problem.

Vesna asked if they have been looking into providing a separate room,
for those women who prefer the privacy & comfort (for nursing), rather
then accessibility & inclusion? But having a separate room might be a
logistical challenge.

Denesh responded that they always have a separate space available, for
various purposes, so that can also be used for nursing in private.

Donal volunteered to take on the suggestion of contacting Aaron Hughes,
to work on the "mentoring" programme for newcomers.

4. Scheduling next meeting:
===============

Next meeting: sometime in August.

Here is the poll for dates & times:
https://dudle.inf.tu-dresden.de/RIPE_Diversity_TF_August_2017/


5. New actions:
===============

Shane: re-run metrics
Donal: contact Aaron Hughes
All: work further on the charter
Someone? : come up with the numbers of "tech industry gender ratio"
Vesna: admin: send notes; schedule next meeting