[FOSS4G-Oceania] Motion: extended, targeted call for papers if needed

[Sarah Goodwin]

Hi,

Okay my two cents worth, but I think it is similar to other people..

We do need to be mindful that it is a minority group of the community we
are talking about so of course we have fewer submissions from women, than
expected or hoped for. That said, if we have a specifically targeted call*
then this might work to invite more submissions and I think it is a good
idea as it shows we are at least trying hard to increase diversity and
encourage submissions.  We should however, emphasis that these will be
voted on by the community and reviewed by the program committee in the same
way as the first round, but that we are specifically trying to increase
our intake and diversify our pool of speakers.

Perhaps we can go further and actually work out how many talks we actually
want, and think about how many slots we might like to retain for this
second round - perhaps 5(? not sure how many we we are expecting so not
sure what to suggest!) and potentially state in the call that we have a few
slots held for round two, as we would really like to encourage a wider
diversity of speakers. That way, there is still competition for places and
it is still a fair process, but we have allocated a set number to this
second call?

At this 2nd round of voting, we could also show the results of the first
round just for transparency and so people can keep that in mind when they
vote again, as it will be pretty clear which talks are likely to be in the
conference by then? (perhaps)

*... it is a bit like a job advert seeking women only... I see how both men
and women feel excluded or singled out by these, but I think actively
specifying this from the start in the process is a positive thing. I much
prefer that to seeing statements like 'female applicants are highly
encouraged' as this implies that you will have more of a chance of success
if you are female - whether for a job or for a conference, a specifically
targeted call / request removes any question of bias during the actual
hiring / selection process for that particular job or subset of talk slots.

And yes I really do think we a panel session is needed and am keen to hear
from the community about this (during the actual conference - see other
email response)

Sarah

On Wed, 5 Sep 2018 at 06:44, adam steer <adam.d.steer at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all
>
> Sure, continue the community vote and see how it goes.
>
> As it stands, we can accept all of the talks submitted by women and still
> not even meet our Twitter audience on gender lines (which is also pretty
> skewed one way). We have talked about curating the talks for diversity
> after the vote (it's ok, the vote is not binding), and need enough talks
> from different cohorts to do this!
>
> With this in mind, i still vote to extend a CFP for specific cohorts -
> with perhaps a second community vote (if it isn't to hard to set up).
>
> Happy to craft all the required media parts and help with an extra voting
> round. It's important!
>
> I think it isn't time to throw our hands up or make jokes, we can do
> better. I'm personally disappointed that my own efforts don't seem to be
> effective, and need to reflect on my communication and how I can reach into
> other communities.
>
> Thnx, and let's keep rallying! Again, super keen to hear from the women on
> the list (thanks Tricia for your considered input!)
>
> Adam
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