I like the ideas. It sounds like it may be a lot more work for you, however,
although recent events have been time consuming for many (even if we’re not
posting, some of us are thinking about it), so maybe this will help avoid big
blowups moving forward.
Thank you for serving as moderator, Teresa! I appreciate you!
Jill
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 27, 2021, at 3:58 AM, Teresa Hertzel <teresa.hertzel@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I have sent a message to the OBA Board, suggesting that they start an email
listserv (or a Whatsapp or whatever format suits them best) for their own OBA
members. They can use it to communicate to their members about upcoming
events, field trips, policies, and anything else they wish to share with
their members. A Board meeting is scheduled for next week and I hope they
will consider this.
Meanwhile, Jeff Gilligan and Linda Fink have been friends for a long time and
have discovered that there was a misinterpretation and misunderstanding
between them, based on Linda's not knowing that Jeff was the person who was
being accused of bullying because she had not been reading OBOL for awhile. I
hope both of them will post here and explain it. Jeff's knee-jerk reaction to
the perceived betrayal by a friend was inappropriate and I'm sure he will
acknowledge that.
Here is an idea I had last night for helping control any future problems on
OBOL (which of course will never happen, right?):
If YOU perceive someone being unwelcoming or condescending to a newbie, or if
you perceive someone bullying someone else, or behaving in a degrading way to
another member, immediately forward that message to me with your thoughts,
even just one sentence about what you see. This should only take you a few
seconds, so it's not labor intensive for you. If at least 10 (? not sure of
the threshhold) people forward such a message to me, I will immediately put
that poster on Moderated Post and send him or her a private message, and also
write to the bullied one. That way, we have a more democratic process, with
everyone getting heard instead of just unsubscribing in disgust. That way,
all members also have more control and don't have to feel helpless. I believe
over time we can make newbies feel more welcome and control the bullying and
misogyny. This is just an idea, but thought I'd put it out there for comment.
