(Sorry for breaking thread; my Undigestify plugin tells me "no preamble
separator" which I shall have to investigate realsoonnow.)
Thanks to everyone who takes the time to address this important topic.
It's also often the case that it
takes just one or two toxic people to make groups toxic, and sometimes the
only way to make a healthy group is to rout them out. Yes, you want to be
inclusive, but that doesn't mean you should allow inappropriate behavior,
because that ultimately kills a group. I've seen it happen too many times.
My recommendation, based on my experience, is to confront the offenders and
if necessary, give them the choice of behaving appropriately or leaving.
Set and enforce boundaries; if they refuse, kick them out of the group.
This is necessary if you want your meetings to be safe places for
everyone, men and women.
Christine
User:Figureskatingfan
I concur. If you need a policy for a local chapter to grab and re-use,
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Friendly_space_policy may help. But
of course the actual event organizers have to *actually enforce that
policy*, which includes sometimes telling a longtime community member,
"that's not cool, and you're going to have to leave now." If you need
to practice that on someone, so that it feels more do-able at that ugly
moment when you have to do it for real, then maybe I can do a phone call
with you, or step aside for a rehearsal at Wikimania. :)
--
Sumana Harihareswara
Engineering Community Manager
Wikimedia Foundation