I've already said this to you privately; but count us in. Andrew
On Tue, 12 Apr 2022 at 14:44, <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Andrew, > > Thanks for your email. It's such an important topic and hopefully this > conversation can be the first step towards a solution. > > I totally agree. With 20 / 20 hindsight and some prep time I could have > worded the comments I made at the conference much better. I had only just > been informed of the incident and was as surprised as I was disappointed. > It's hard to fathom why we are still facing issues like this in 2022. > > AusNOG strives to provide a safe and inclusive environment within the > confines of our events, and I honestly believe we do that. We have never > had an issue of this nature at an event that is part of an AusNOG > conference. We have protocols in place with our events team and the venue > staff regarding unacceptable behaviour of attendees. We encourage and > value the participation of everyone from our industry and have > zero-tolerance for those who wish to impact upon that. > > We cannot control what occurs when people leave the environment we > provide, but it's certainly an area of concern for the whole industry. We > must all have expectations of the behaviour of our peers. I know so many > wonderful people in our industry yet we keep talking about the behaviour of > the absolute minority. How do we fix that? > > To attend an AusNOG event you must agree to behave in accordance with the > Code of Conduct. If you don't, you'll be removed from the event and you > won't be welcome back. But that only covers the time people are at the > actual event. Once you leave the conference venue our CoC cannot be > applied to your behaviour. However, attendees at the conference are > employees of companies, and those companies should have expectations for > the behaviour of their employees. Do companies have a Code of Conduct for > their staff? Do companies remind staff of their expectations before they > attend an event? If not, perhaps we can work together to define a code of > conduct any company can sign up to, for employees attending not just AusNOG > but all industry events? > > As you say, this is an Industry-wide problem so I'm asking the whole > industry to work to address it. I'd like to see an industry wide > expectation on how people behave when attending all industry social > events. I'm more than happy to take the lead and coordinate this through > AusNOG. If you are an employer who sends staff to industry events and are > interested in helping with this or signing up to a shared Code of Conduct > please get in touch? > > > Regards, > > David > ... > > > On 11 Apr 2022, at 2:15 pm, Andrew Yager <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hello! > > > > Following the recent AusNOG event, I made a comment on LinkedIn > expressing disappointment about the fact that we had another sexual > harrassment incident, and that the conference organisers didn't take a > stronger approach from the platform to condemn it. > > > > To clarify, David did publicly say that this type of behaviour was > unacceptable. David did seek to distance the conference itself from the > behaviour. I personally felt that the way this happened effectively > downplayed the incident. I feel like he could have done better. > > > > I stand by those comments; and firmly believe we need to do more as an > industry to combat these. > > > > Since these comments have been made, there has been an increase in calls > for a new alternate conference. I know that Bevan mooted this idea on > LinkedIn today; and there have been similar calls on my original post and > in other conversational forums. > > > > I will note that at the time the Code of Conduct for the conference was > not available online; but this has been restored after David was alerted to > this issue. I should have done this myself and asked David directly, and I > did not. > > > > I want to reiterate that: > > > > The AusNOG community is a great community. Sure we cycle through phases, > but the networks and community that have been built within this group works > to support and grow the Australian Telecommunications Industry, encourage > development, and support those within our sphere. > > > > I support the AusNOG conference. I think more work can be done to > address incidents of harassment and assault; but this isn't a uniquely > AusNOG problem. This is as much an industry problem. Other conferences have > and continue to have these issues. As AusNOG transitions to a member-led > organisation under the new constitution, I want to see us collectively > learn from what we haven't done well as a community in the past and grow > and change. If there is another conference, I'll encourage my team to > attend; but I will continue to support AusNOG for as long as we can. > > > > We need to find ways and places to talk about this problem. The AusNOG > mailing list is likely not this; and I'm not sure where it is. But we need > to find ways to change thoughts, attitudes and perceptions; and to provide > ways to create safe and supportive work, social and educational > environments for all people in our industry. > > > > I don't have the answers on how we as an industry change. The statistics > of assault and harassment within our ranks are discouraging; but the > overwhelming feedback I've had over the last few days is that people want > change, and want to be part of it. > > > > I don't know exactly how AusNOG 2.0 will work. I don't know how the new > membership system will impact the decision making processes, or encourage > engagement, or provide enhanced ways to make this change. > > > > But I want to publicly thank David, Joe and the rest of the board for > taking the first steps to make this happen. > > > > And lastly; thanks for organising a great conference. It was fun, > informative and educational. There was new content, content that sparked > discussion and thinking, and encouraged and challenged our practice - which > is exactly what we wanted. > > > > I don't really want or need replies to this email. I'm happy to leave it > as it is; but I do think that something needs to be said in the AusNOG > mailing list context given the wide discussion happening in other places. > > > > Thanks, > > Andrew > > _______________________________________________ > > AusNOG mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog > >
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