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We live in a world where the are repercussions of calling out people for sexual harassment. Not to put too fine a point on it, we live in a world where people were recently sued for doing just that. So I think it's completely necessary to have an anonymous method of raising concerns, if you really want people to raise concerns with the conference organizers. -Esmé > On Feb 24, 2016, at 6:12 PM, Kyle Banerjee <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> Feedback about proposed duty officers can be emailed to directly to me, >> [log in to unmask], or submitted via this anonymous form >> <http://goo.gl/forms/YKfWRwyiOr>. >> > > > It's unfortunate people feel a need to move discussions offline -- I > interpret this as meaning some people are afraid of repercussions for > respectfully sharing thoughts on an issue that affects everyone. > > I believe we agree as a community we cannot be our best if the ideas and > talents of any group are excluded. I believe we agree specific measures are > needed to overcome structural barriers and provide opportunities to broad > groups of people who still can't participate in the technology community on > an equal basis. > > To be direct, I have concerns about the duty officer idea. I support the > motivation behind the concept 100%. I have great respect for the people who > have stepped up on this issue, both as technologists and as people in > general. > > Being a self selected group, c4l has problems found in society at large. If > the conference is at least as safe as other environments attendees > encounter such as airports, streets, bars, and restaurants, I would hope > the conference organizers could address issues when self policing (i.e. > people looking out for each other) proved inadequate. > > My concern is that while harassment and assault are real issues, they have > taken a life of their own and divert too much focus from helping people and > improving everyone's skills to protecting people from attack. I fear these > well meaning measures do not improve safety and possibly harden the few > miscreants they're intended to mitigate. > > I hope my words will be perceived in the spirit intended. > > kyle