Standard Change: Proposal to create a private channel for staff members

[stephenscapelliti]

Description

This is a proposal to create a private channel for staff members, moderators, and the directors (technically, all are considered "staff") to communicate, organize and discuss coordination of operations responsibilities and duties.

Several staff members have suggested that a private channel be set up for use by operations members to organize and discuss the coordination of responsibilities and duties.

All channels in the ProgCode Slack - other than the channel in which member registrations are accessed by the directors - are public channels, accessible by all. Transparency has been a cornerstone of this community. Any discussions which affect the interests of the ProgCode community are open to the entire community. Private channels should be used for operations in limited instances where they are required to protect the confidentiality of individual members.

Problem

Currently, staff members communicate and coordinate their activities through direct messages. The DM process is inefficient and limiting: occasionally - and unintentionally - it excludes staff members whose work could be impacted. Although it is possible to use a public channel, these discussions may reference personal matters which some staff members are uncomfortable sharing with the entire community.

Additionally, individual ProgCode members raise issues to staff through direct messages which are not intended for viewing by the general community. Creating a private channel for staff discussions will facilitate the staff addressing the concerns of individual members in an effective manner which sustains ProgCode culture and community norms.

Benefit

Creating a private channel for staff members allows the ProgCode staff to communicate more effectively and to complete operation tasks efficiently.

Staff membership is open to all members, with the only requirement being participation and accepting responsibility for a volunteer staff function and performing that function with regularity. Accordingly, even a private staff channel would be open to any member who wants to accept responsibility for a staff function. Active engagement in an operations function would be determined in the discretion of the Directors, who will be authorized to remove inactive staff members from the staff channel.

Plan

• [x] Post notice of this initiative in the #team-announcements for a community discussion of all elements of this proposal at the Community Operations Meeting scheduled for Monday, April 18, 2022, at 5pm PT | 6pm MT | 7pm CT | 8pm ET | 1am Tuesday BST/GMT.
• [x] Request community consent to implement the proposal, following discussions at the community operations meeting.
• [x] Notify the community of the vote taken and sharing the video URL in the #team-announcements channel following the vote for consent to implement, in accordance with ProgCode procedures, and allow additional votes & feedback during the standard 72-hour waiting period before ratifying the vote.
• [x] If the vote to implement passes, un-archive the private channel entitled "#staff" and add all current staff, moderators, and directors as members of the channel. Any member may volunteer to be a staff member and/or moderator in the #operations channel or by contacting a staff member by direct message. Directors are authorized to remove inactive staff members from the #staff channel
• [x] Retain this issue as an open issue for possible amendment or termination
• [ ] If deemed necessary by the community, initiate discussions to create and adopt protocols for the use of and access to the #staff channel

Decision Making

Consent to implement a standard change per the Change Process

Reference link(s)

• Change Process

[noahsbwilliams]

This sounds sensible! My one comment on this (GitHub) issue is that that I think we can close it after approval. Leaving something open implies there is work to be done, and we can always reopen it later with the comments preserved.

[stephenscapelliti]

For reasons discussed during the 2022.04.18 community operations meeting, a vote on this proposal has been adjourned to a later community operations meeting. An announcement of the meeting will be provided in the Slack #team-announcements channel. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and suggestions on this matter.