BOOers,
I'm thinking that this topic has run its course. We have several
suggestions to implement.
1) If you perceive a post to have been unwelcoming, rude, insulting,
misogynistic, bullying, or inappropriate in any way, forward the offending
post to me ASAP. If I receive five or more forwards regarding the same
post, I'll immediately put the offender on Moderated Post and write him/her
a private message.
2) If you perceive a post to have been unwelcoming, rude, insulting,
misogynistic, bullying, or inappropriate in any way, go ahead and respond
-- publicly, on OBOL -- as soon as you can, showing support and
encouragement to the one the post was directed at. Be careful not to be
rude or insulting to the offender, don't even mention him/her by name; keep
your post to support and encouragement for the hurt one.
3) I will post a guideline, or the whole set of guidelines, once a month.
4) Feel free to post a "newbie-friendly" question once a month to stimulate
conversations inclusive to new and intermediate birders.
Our goal is to be friendly, welcoming, kind, and inclusive, and to begin
the process of changing the intimidating reputation that OBOL has formed,
so well articulated by Scott Carpenter.
The Board will be discussing *OBOL policy* at their upcoming meeting.
Sound okay? Did I forget anything? Have any more ideas?
On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 10:42 PM Karen Saxton <kcsaxton@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thank you, Amy and Linda!
I can't wait to be able to teach in person again. We often role play this
very scenario and the kids love it - the feeling of empowerment when they
rescue someone.
On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 6:52 PM linda phelan thompson <
lindaphelanlmt@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Wooo-Hoooo Karen. That is awesome!!!!
Congratulations, Linda Lee
On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 6:03 PM Karen Saxton <kcsaxton@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"if we all participate when someone insults another"
Yes. One of the best things we can do is comment publically to the
comment and ignore the person making the bullying comments, while
bolstering the newcomer eg "I can see why you thought this might be a XX.
The key to telling it apart from YY is thus..." It is what I teach my kids
to do, but in a slightly different form when they see bullying at school:
they are to invite the bullied kid to sit or play with them, which simply
takes the wind out from under the bully's wings(to use a birdy metaphor).
One of my 8 year old students did this with a kid who was older and being
bullied by his peers. According to adults who watched it happen, the
bullies just stood there with their mouths agape, when this little blonde
girl said, you don't have to listen to them, come wait for your mom with
me! She won Miss Congeniality at the Miss Oregon pageant a couple years
back and is a force to be reckoned with (and studying natural resource
management).
On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 7:47 AM Teresa Hertzel <teresa.hertzel@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Yes, if we all participate when someone insults another, then at least
one of us can get to the newbie very quickly and stand up for them.
On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 9:46 AM <jmeredit@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Nice work Teresa. What a great way to resolve things and I like your
idea that it is on all of us to speak up if we see a problem. Judy in Bend
Jmeredit@xxxxxxxxxxx
On 2021-02-27 11:58, Teresa Hertzel 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.
--
*Linda Lee*
