[44net] a communication about communications

Dear 44Net community, I think it’s safe to say that the past few months on this mailing list have been, well, a lot. ARDC launched a new portal, which, we learned post-launch, definitely had some major issues. Much of the frustration around this rollout is more than reasonable. Unfortunately, communications from a very vocal minority crossed a threshold from expressing warranted and reasonable frustration and shifted to hostility, flaming, and trolling. Harassment of some of our employees occurred off-list. It was at this point that ARDC’s Code of Conduct committee was brought into the discussion. The Committee’s purpose is to confirm whether, in fact, a dispute is simply a disagreement, or whether it is harassment, trolling, or similar. Necessarily, the Committee must not include people directly impacted by the dispute, so that they can, to the best of their ability, respond impartially. At an even higher level, their job is to uphold ARDC’s values – notably of respect, accountability, and fairness. https://www.ardc.net/about/values/ In the case of this dispute – as a previous mail forwarded to these lists described – the committee’s decision was to temporarily suspend the accounts of one or more mailing list members. Some mailing list members may not like this decision. Other mailing list members have applauded it. Some mailing list members are so frustrated by the entire situation that they are unsubscribing and/or relinquishing their posts (which, to me, is disheartening but understandable). In our decisions, we are not going to make everyone happy. It is the nature of making decisions in an environment with a variety of opinions. To maintain room for diversity of thought, our commitment must be, first and foremost, to keeping healthy, supportive spaces for dialogue, discussion, and learning. This means, at times, (ideally temporary) removal of people whose behaviors significantly detract from those goals. In the breathing room that has been created from the temporary suspension, I hope that we may all get back to solving technical and policy problems, and to engaging in open and respectful dialogue. Thank you for your attention. 73, Rosy -- Rosy Schechter - KJ7RYV Executive Director Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) ardc.net