W3C

– DRAFT –
Positive Work Environment CG

02 June 2020

Attendees

Present
Jeff, Jory, Judy, Ralph, Tzviya
Regrets
-
Chair
Tzviya
Scribe
Ralph

Meeting minutes

previous 05-May

Translations of CEPC [2}

<tzviya> https://‌github.com/‌w3c/‌PWETF/‌issues/‌138

Tzviya: ^^ Mechanism for translations #138
… An Qi and Coralie have been working on translations
… Naomi might be working on Japanese
… there are a lot of nuances in the content and we want to be sure that anyone who volunteers can capture those nuances
… An Qi was talking with someone about Spanish
… we were thinking German and Portugese as well

Jory: Bocoup team members would probably be happy to do Spanish and Portugese

<Zakim> jeff, you wanted to comment on the nuance

Jeff: appreciate the care due to the nuances involved
… do we need a disclaimer that the English version is the normative version and the translated versions are provided for convenience?

Tzviya: interesting point

<Judy> https://‌www.w3.org/‌WAI/‌about/‌translating/

Tzviya: I'd maybe ask Wendy Seltzer

Judy: we do a lot to support translations of WAI documents
… Shawn has produced a resource ^^ to help with that, including nuances
… w.r.t. describing the English version as the normative one, that is our policy across W3C
… so I don't think we need to ask Wendy
… we could reach out in the language community to get multiple people to check a translation
… one of the things under development is to make a subset of glossary terms that may be more nuanced to translate

Tzviya: and concepts, such as Ombudsperson, that may not be present in some cultures

Training plans (Jory)

Jory: prefer to put this off to a future meeting

Ombudsperson planning

Judy: Ralph and I managed to meet briefly about this
… we went over what we want to try to get out of discussions with the MIT Ombuds program and the MIT IDHR office
… we have a bit of new information from MIT's legal counsel on what they do and do not want to be involved in
… there are instances where they will get involved where MIT staff are involved
… we have a list of things we want to discuss with them
… we'll get those emails out to those offices soon
… I'll keep this moving
… we have a lot to do to get the policy fully working
… for the safety of the people in the organization
… we have a lot of training work to do

Tzviya: is the goal to make use of the MIT Ombuds or to learn from them to establish our own program?

Judy: definitely the latter but to some extend the former
… we may not have resources to establish our own before the Legal Entity
… the main thing would be to get advice from them and be able to start our own program

Tzviya: yes; I'd expect that using MIT resources would be a stop gap
… in PWE I'd like us to build a roadmap for our program
… I liked the philosophy of the IDHR approach

Judy: +1 to a roadmap; I'd be happy to help
… one of the challenges W3C has had is indicating where to go for what, even though we've posted Ombuds contacts
… for MIT employees, it could still be that the MIT Ombuds Office is still the correct place to go

Tzviya: yes

Judy: w.r.t. IDHR, I'm getting a bit of a view on how they work
… it's bringing back some previous concerns I've had about the time cycles

Jeff: Tzviya mentioned that the current process isn't working for certain cases
… can we categorize those cases where it isn't working?
… one case is concern that all the ombuds are members of the W3C senior team
… maybe we can identify the pieces that are highest priority
… e.g. maybe get a non-Team member or a non-senior Team member
… maybe there are some big winners that we can do faster

Judy: people ask 3 questions when they look at the list of Ombuds:
… have they had vetting?
… have they had training?
… do they have procedures to work from?
… particularly in the case of harassment; has the ombuds had training in sensitive handling of the issue?

Tzviya: sometimes people are first looking for a sounding board
… to ask "will I be believed?"
… Jory's training is one small step

Jory: multiple training components
… conflict de-escalation
… training on the CEPC itself
… what it means to be an Ombudsperson

Jeff: we could build a plan for those three modules
… several years ago I required the entire Team to take sexual harassment training

<Zakim> Ralph, you wanted to ask Jory to repeat #2

Jeff: identify some low-hanging fruit that we could do quickly

Judy: Tzviya's roadmap may be the most important thing
… get the current Ombuds more training on specific issues
… we still don't have the investigational piece; we may need that as a separate resource
… training on sexual harassment is a missing piece
… I'd be eager to work with Tzviya on a roadmap

<Zakim> jeff, you wanted to ask about "the investigational piece"

Jeff: to what is "the investigational piece" referring?

Judy: there may be cases where someone needs to actually research what happened; that's a heavy lift for the Ombuds

<Zakim> jeff, you wanted to push back on outside investigations

Jeff: it's reasonable to explore that, but once W3C opens up the possibility of hiring outside investigators in a community of > 10k people
… we couldn't possibly afford that in every case
… we'd need to very carefully circumscribe those cases where we go outside and those where we don't
… that will be challenging
… and why I'm looking for low-hanging fruit, as it may take years to figure out how to afford [outside investigators]

Judy: identifying this as a resource that might be needed should not be equated with believing there will be a flood of need
… there's a way to get a range of options
… when Tzviya and I met with the IOA representative, one of the things we noted was that the Ombuds is a sounding board and doesn't necessarily do more

Tzviya: the next step is a roadmap
… Judy and I will work on that

<Zakim> jeff, you wanted to comment on "ombudspeople as a sounding board who don't necessarily do anything"

Jeff: re: ombuds as sounding board ...
… I'd be interested in those cases where the Ombuds is supposed to be only a sounding board
… teasing out when action is expected and when it is not is something that can be on our list

Tzviya: though the IOA's position is that, we do not want the W3C Ombuds to be only a sounding board

Judy: for a large institution formal ombuds role, the ombuds hears the issue, advises the individual on what their options are
… also they can look for patterns and help the organization evolve to address those better
… sometimes the ombudsperson will be a change agent for the organization as a whole
… the mediation role that some W3C Ombuds have been doing is probably an important one for W3C
… we need clear explanations of what people can expect them to do

Tzviya: I'll schedule time with Judy to talk about this roadmap

AOB

Tzviya: as of now our next call is scheduled for 16 June
… we might cancel that and wait to 30 June

Judy: I lean to keep us moving

[adjourned]

Minutes manually created (not a transcript), formatted by scribe.perl version 117 (Tue Apr 28 12:46:31 2020 UTC).