Dear all,
Right now I am feeling much hurt after a conversation I just had.
What has happened?
- People say I have been talking to loud, however I do not know where that
was, but for those who complained about that: I am very sorry, not my
intention. Please be aware I have a hearing problem and I do hear myself
much less, as well as I have periodically tinnitus
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus>.
I would appreciate it very much if anyone who notices I speak to loud, to
tell me, I do not want to disturb or invasive or ...
- People have said that with some people I have been standing to close to
them or I may have touched a shoulder. I am very very sorry if that gave
anyone a bad feeling. Such is never my intention. Because of my bad hearing
I might also stand closer to people.
I am pretty sensitive myself to this as well, and I always try to respect
the personal space of others as I would love anyone at the conference to
feel well.
About two years ago I was the subject of harassment myself, resulting in
that I felt horrible for two weeks and couldn't do anything in the
movement. Having it experienced myself, I am feeling horrible that I
brought others in the situation that made them feel terrible.
It feels for me really bad with helping someone that it results in the
other having an uncomfortable feeling.
Also during the day I walked in a room during a session to hand out, on
request, something to the someone in the room, and left almost immediately.
Some hours later I heard that one of the presenters in the room got
stressed by my short presence in the room. I feel sorry if I may have
disturbed this session in some way, and hope that the presenter will not
hold a grudge. I am open for a conversation if needed.
Either way, this resulted in an official complaint on my address.
Because of these complaints, it was demanded to step down as a volunteer
organiser for this year's Wikimania.
I am very sorry that it has influence on my support of this conference, but
I will be around.
Kind regards,
Romaine