Good and thank you. Judy
On 2021-02-28 14:05, Teresa Hertzel wrote:
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.
