Thanks Jane!
This will be my first Evergreen conference, though, so I know you may
be looking for folks who are more seasoned members of the community.
Let me know either way. :-)
In this case, I don't think we need volunteers with a long history in
the Evergreen community, and I, for one, would love to see new faces
helping out in this role.
I've received emails from several people interested in helping out, but
I haven't had a chance to respond to anyone directly. I hope to be in
touch with everyone by the end of the week.
Many thanks to everyone who volunteered!
Kathy
On 01/14/2015 07:01 PM, Jane Sandberg wrote:
Hi Kathy,
Thanks for sending this out -- it is great to see the eg community
taking this seriously. I'd be happy to help out with this. I don't
have a counseling background, but I do feel pretty well equipped to
de-escalate situations and support folks who are experiencing crises.
I have taken a lot of workshops on active listening and have a Mental
Health First Aid certification, and would be really looking forward to
this training as well.
This will be my first Evergreen conference, though, so I know you may
be looking for folks who are more seasoned members of the community.
Let me know either way. :-)
Best,
-Jane
On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 3:45 PM, Kathy Lussier <kluss...@masslnc.org> wrote:
Hi all,
Last March, the Evergreen Oversight Board approved a Code of Conduct for
Evergreen events - http://evergreen-ils.org/code-of-conduct/.
Since that time, the Board has been working on developing procedures for
handling potential Code of Conduct reports if they should occur. These
procedures are still a work in progress, but the procedures do call for
trained safety staffers to be available at conferences to handle incident
reports.
The role of the safety staffers is to meet with the reporter of the incident
to gather all relevant details, meet with the alleged harasser, work with a
team that includes somebody from the conference planning team as well as a
rep from the Board to determine what action should be taken, and to
communicate those final actions to the people involved in the incident.
The Oversight Board is committed to providing training to volunteers, to
developing a clear set of procedures on how such incidents should be
handled, and to assisting these volunteers in any way they can.
The qualities we are looking for in volunteers are people who listen well,
are approachable and are non-judgmental. Discretion is also an important
quality for any volunteer. We would be particularly interested in finding
people who have a background in counseling or something similar. It also is
important that volunteers are people who are regular Evergreen conference
attendees.
If you are interested in helping out or just have questions about the role,
feel free to contact me. Also, if you know somebody in the community who
possesses the above qualities, please encourage them to get in touch with
me. Sometimes, it's easier to see those qualities in others than it is to
see them in yourself. :)
I think the Code of Conduct is important for creating a welcoming
environment for all people in the community, regardless of gender, sexual
orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion.
However, if we don't have strong procedures for Code of Conduct complaints
and volunteers dedicated to ensuring that complaints are handled fairly and
quickly, the Code of Conduct will have no meaning. My hope is that we never
have an incident that warrants putting the procedures into action, but if
there is an incident, we want trained people to respond to it appropriately.
I know we have a great community out there, so I hope to hear from some of
you that you are interested in helping to maintain a safe and welcoming
community.
Thank you!
Kathy
--
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
kluss...@masslnc.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
--
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
kluss...@masslnc.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
