DPF Core Principles and Community Guidelines

Lauren Tompkins obo the DPF Ethics Task Force

Core Principles and Community Guidelines Document

Accountability Document

Outline

• Why have a set of Core Principles and Community Guidelines?
• Who wrote the first draft?
• A tour through the CP&CG
• What is the scope?
• How is it enforced?
• Reporting

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Why have a set of Core Principles and Community Guidelines?

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• DPF community is broad and diverse. Snowmass brings us into a period of intense collaboration.
• Need to make sure all community members can participate freely.
• Need a mechanism for correcting behaviors which lead to unhealthy collaboration
• Emphasis first on early intervention and second on community education

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• Choose to frame as
• Core Principles: the most important responsibilities of our community members
• Community Guidelines: set expectations for participation in in-person events and virtual communication

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Initial Authors: DPF Ethics Task Force

Charge & Scope: This ad hoc committee is asked to provide recommendations to the DPF ExComm and Membership on ethical and inclusive processes and structures covering:

• Snowmass slack workspace, Snowmass2021 wiki, virtual and in-person meetings
• DPF meetings (including APS April, Biannual DPF, and CPAD)
• DPF business

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Note -- it is not a standing committee! Have made recommendation to form a standing committee (see later)

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Current membership:

• DPF ExComm members: Prisca Cushman, Andre de Gouvea, Young-Kee Kim (ex-officio), Sara Simon, Lauren Tompkins (chair), Elizabeth Worcester
• Snowmass Community Engagement Convenor: Kétévi Assamagan
• Snowmass D&I subconvenors: Mu-Chun Chen, Sam Meehan, Carla Bonifazi

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Acknowledgements: The core principles and guidelines were specifically inspired by the Princeton physics department code of conduct and the github community guidelines, among others. They also reflect the labor of many individuals, particularly those from marginalized groups, to educate and better the community.

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Broadening Input

• CP&CG were circulated to DPF Executive Committee and Snowmass Advisory Committee for comment at the end of May
• Opened to community feedback on June 1. Accept comments via:
• Comment function in google doc
• Google form
• Slack discussion
• Email to any TF member
• We consider the CP&CG a living document which will evolve to meet our community’s needs

CP&CG Tour

Scope and purpose

CP&CG Tour

• Respect and support community members
• Commit to constructive dialog and take initiative

CP&CG Tour

General good behavior

CP&CG Tour

Guidelines for interacting in a virtual space

CP&CG Tour

Behaviors that warrant specific prohibition

CP&CG Tour

We’ll get to these next

CP&CG Scope

• Slack workspace
• Snowmass related virtual & in-person meetings
• Other DPF events (e.g. annual meeting, April meeting)

Enforcement

• Accountability process outlined here
• Upon violation, recommended first point of contact is:
• Slack moderators
• Meeting host
• Code of Conduct Committee
• Subset of to be formed DPF Ethics committee
• In interim, Ethics TF will fulfill this role
• Can always skip straight to code of conduct committee
• Intend to have an Ally program à la AAS or DNP to be points of contact for in person meetings as well

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Enforcement Action Steps (verbatim)

1. If the violation is in progress, the moderator/host/code of conduct committee member will publicly address the violation by stating that the words or actions are not consistent with the CP&CG.
2. If the violation is reported after the fact, the moderator/host/code of conduct committee member should determine if there would be value in terms of community education in publicly addressing the incident, e.g. at the next meeting of the group in which the violation occurred.
3. In the event that the violation involves harm to specific individuals, those individuals should be asked if they would like to undergo a process of dialog with the person who violated the CP&CG. The dialog would be facilitated by the code of conduct committee. As appropriate the individual(s) who were harmed, the person who violated, and any ancillary people, e.g. the host, bystanders, are invited to participate if so desired by the individual(s) who were harmed.
4. In the case that the Code of Conduct committee determines that the offense was egregious, or if the offense was repeated, they may contact the institution and/or experiment of the offending person. They may also be asked to leave the community.
5. All violations of the CP&CG which are reported will be tracked by the code of conduct committee and an anonymized summary will be made publicly available on the Snowmass wiki and the #codeofconduct slack channel.

Moderation -- Slack workspace

Slack doesn’t have moderator function, so we have an ad-hoc solution:

• If you believe a post violates the CP&CG you can:
• Post a message to the #moderation channel
• Send a private message to one of the moderators by any means (names pinned to the #moderation channel)
• Moderators will follow the enforcement steps outlined above. They may, in certain cases, request that the Slack administrator remove the offending posts

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Conclusions

The CP & CG and associated accountability mechanisms are considered a work in progress

• Give us your feedback!

The standing ethics committee is being set up currently by DPF Excomm. Look for information about mandate and composition in the near future!