OIF bylaws text changes for gender neutrality
Hi all, In the March OIF board meeting, the Diversity & Inclusion working group proposed some minor changes to the bylaws to use more gender-neutral language. We've completed legal review on the changes, so we're ready for broader community review and feedback now, and then will plan for the OIF board to vote on the changes in the next board meeting in December. I've attached a PDF with a redline markup of the changes, all comments are welcome. The changes are relatively simple: a) "Chairman" changes to "Chair" throughout the document. b) Consistently uses they/their as the gender-neutral 3rd person singular pronoun. This replaces all instances of he/his, and all cases where we previously had incomplete gender neutrality with "his or hers", "he or she", and other variations that explicitly listed two genders. While this use of they/their as 3rd person singular isn't universal, it is very common in modern usage. And, the bylaws already have an explicit statement that any pronouns should be read as singular/plural as needed: "6.7 _Pronouns._ All pronouns used in these Bylaws shall be deemed to refer to the masculine, feminine or neuter, singular or plural, as the identity of the person or persons may require." The updates change a few words in protected sections of the bylaws, so after the board vote, we'll need independent votes from the OpenStack Technical Committee and Platinum Members, and will include these changes in the annual Gold Member and Individual Member votes (for Gold and Individual Directors). So, it'll probably be mid- to late-January before the changes are fully reviewed and approved. Thanks, Allison
Thank you Allison, this looks great. Glad to see this moving forward. Sean On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 12:16 PM Allison Randal <allison@lohutok.net> wrote:
Hi all,
In the March OIF board meeting, the Diversity & Inclusion working group proposed some minor changes to the bylaws to use more gender-neutral language. We've completed legal review on the changes, so we're ready for broader community review and feedback now, and then will plan for the OIF board to vote on the changes in the next board meeting in December.
I've attached a PDF with a redline markup of the changes, all comments are welcome. The changes are relatively simple:
a) "Chairman" changes to "Chair" throughout the document.
b) Consistently uses they/their as the gender-neutral 3rd person singular pronoun. This replaces all instances of he/his, and all cases where we previously had incomplete gender neutrality with "his or hers", "he or she", and other variations that explicitly listed two genders.
While this use of they/their as 3rd person singular isn't universal, it is very common in modern usage. And, the bylaws already have an explicit statement that any pronouns should be read as singular/plural as needed: "6.7 _Pronouns._ All pronouns used in these Bylaws shall be deemed to refer to the masculine, feminine or neuter, singular or plural, as the identity of the person or persons may require."
The updates change a few words in protected sections of the bylaws, so after the board vote, we'll need independent votes from the OpenStack Technical Committee and Platinum Members, and will include these changes in the annual Gold Member and Individual Member votes (for Gold and Individual Directors). So, it'll probably be mid- to late-January before the changes are fully reviewed and approved.
Thanks, Allison _______________________________________________ Foundation-board mailing list Foundation-board@lists.openstack.org http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/foundation-board
Hi: It looks good, but as I was going through it, I noticed that it still listed Lauren Sell as a foundation contact for code of conduct reports. Perhaps we can slip in a replacement at the same time? Thanks, MOhammed On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 1:32 PM Sean McGinnis <sean.mcginnis@gmail.com> wrote:
Thank you Allison, this looks great. Glad to see this moving forward.
Sean
On Wed, Oct 27, 2021 at 12:16 PM Allison Randal <allison@lohutok.net> wrote:
Hi all,
In the March OIF board meeting, the Diversity & Inclusion working group proposed some minor changes to the bylaws to use more gender-neutral language. We've completed legal review on the changes, so we're ready for broader community review and feedback now, and then will plan for the OIF board to vote on the changes in the next board meeting in December.
I've attached a PDF with a redline markup of the changes, all comments are welcome. The changes are relatively simple:
a) "Chairman" changes to "Chair" throughout the document.
b) Consistently uses they/their as the gender-neutral 3rd person singular pronoun. This replaces all instances of he/his, and all cases where we previously had incomplete gender neutrality with "his or hers", "he or she", and other variations that explicitly listed two genders.
While this use of they/their as 3rd person singular isn't universal, it is very common in modern usage. And, the bylaws already have an explicit statement that any pronouns should be read as singular/plural as needed: "6.7 _Pronouns._ All pronouns used in these Bylaws shall be deemed to refer to the masculine, feminine or neuter, singular or plural, as the identity of the person or persons may require."
The updates change a few words in protected sections of the bylaws, so after the board vote, we'll need independent votes from the OpenStack Technical Committee and Platinum Members, and will include these changes in the annual Gold Member and Individual Member votes (for Gold and Individual Directors). So, it'll probably be mid- to late-January before the changes are fully reviewed and approved.
Thanks, Allison _______________________________________________ Foundation-board mailing list Foundation-board@lists.openstack.org http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/foundation-board
_______________________________________________ Foundation-board mailing list Foundation-board@lists.openstack.org http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/foundation-board
-- Mohammed Naser VEXXHOST, Inc.
participants (3)
-
Allison Randal
-
Mohammed Naser
-
Sean McGinnis