Dealing with situations¶

The following processes describe how the HAEQS awareness team wants to work.
Note: These are guidelines, not strict rules. They are necessarily going to be interpreted by members of the awareness team, depending on the situation at hand.

Addressing violations of the Code of Conduct¶

• Call out the behavior and ask the offending person to stop
• Have a call-in with the offending person and explain why the behavior is unacceptable
• After an intervention, the incident should be discussed with the entire awareness team to evaluate the response

Note: The awareness team currently has NO authority to exclude people from an event. Exclusion, if it seems necessary, should be a decision of the present group.

What constitutes unacceptable behavior is based on the CoC, but the exact assessment and course of action is necessarily left to the judgment of the awareness team member present, unless a haeqs member asks for intervention. We will discuss these things when evaluating the response after the incident and, in case of concerns, also with the group at large (e.g. at the plenum).

Addressing online communication¶

• Active responsibility for the mailing list and Signal group (meaning the awareness team should read them and intervene if something happens)
• Passive responsibility for HAEQS-specific platforms such as pad, wiki… (meaning the awareness team will not continuously monitor them but should intervene if somebody notifies them of an issue)
• If there is an incident, e.g., a problematic thing being said, it should not stay unchallenged
• The goal is to avoid harm and flamewars
• The awareness team can talk/write to the involved person/people directly (e.g., do a Call-In)
• The awarenessteam can do a Call-Out on the public channel, but this should maybe not be the first thing to do
• If the Call-Out already happened by someone else, the awareness team can react, e.g. support them
• There is an internal awareness team Signal group for quick communication and to coordinate interventions

General interpersonal conflicts¶

• Clarify if the involved person/people want the awareness team to intervene
• Talk directly to the person/people involved (What is the problem? What is a desired solution?)
• Clarify if informing and discussing with the rest of the awareness team is okay (confidentiality)
• The awareness team can suggest solutions that it deems appropriate for the conflict at hand. Here there’s many possibilities and a wide discretion for the awareness team.
• The awareness team can offer a mediated conversation with the involved people.

Check-Ins¶

• If a person appears to be unwell and/or left out, the awareness team can ask them if it can help.
• If the person communicates that everything is okay, the awareness team will not impose on them

Meta¶

How does one become part of the awareness team?¶

• People who are interested can talk to the existing awareness team, and the awareness team can talk to them.
• The interested person can also come to the awareness team meeting to introduce themselves / talk about it (in the non-confidential part the meeting).
• In this case, the awareness team is responsible for bringing up at the next orga meeting that there is a person wanting to join the awareness team. The awareness team can state its own opinion on the issue.
• It is decided at the orga meeting if the person actually joins the awareness team.
• A person can also ask to join the awareness team directly at the orga meeting. However, it makes sense for an interested person to talk to the awareness team first.

We think it makes sense if people with different perspectives and identities are part of the awareness team, and it is worth the friction that this may cause.

Optimization¶

• The awareness team will have regular meetings to discuss and develop these tasks and processes.
• Continuous improvement: Regular awareness team meeting to reflect on past incidents
• Tendency: Every two months meeting in person, the month between do an audio conference