Meeting Minute: RCM coworking

:::info

Attendees: Emma, Sophia, Gabin, Malvika

Notes

Where in our role should we be managing conflict?
What can we as RCM do in situations where conflicts occur in community spaces?
Specific examples from Health project coule be
- Power dynamics in PPIE projects - researchers, clinicians and patients and members of the public
  - Point of tension between patients and clinicians - such as talking over or not being a good listener: This can get bigger really quickly if not addressed.
  - Another point: co-author, co-applicants, experts by experience but are treated as less knowlegeable than senior researchers.
  - Alot of researchers have asked for help on how to do research better, patients say listen to us but not get listened to.

CoC, Contribution Guideline, Vision-mission statements, a reporting person (RCM)
- PPIE can be different from research community management where we have researchers AND public involved and may have different power dynamics (difference in time, knowledge, confidence about research vs lived experience)
CoC is needed - need to help with reporting, guide through process.
- say how can I help you to report this issue.
Community participation guideline vs CoC
- CoC can be offputting as it is perceived as a thing for serious incidents, and not for things where they want to raise an issue that can be solved by simple actions such as aknowledging the hurt or apologising.
- Sometimes rather than empowering, it can disempower people in identifying themselves as victims
- CoC is not legal infrastructure. It is a norm-setting process instead.
- CoC has a standard enforcement manual which is empowering for enforcers who go through a standard process when handling an incident including conflict.
- CoC is not for legal crimes, we need to understand the boundary and know when to escalate to senior members who should help escalate situations to stakeholders outside.
Project vs institutional CoC, such as Turing events CoC
Community Participation Guidelines (CPG) could be an alternative terminology to use if a CoC is not endorsed! keep it simple, make it easy to both report and enfoce.