Re: Meritocracy, diversity, and leaning on the people you know

On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Moriarty, Kathleen
<kathleen(_dot_)moriarty(_at_)emc(_dot_)com> wrote:
> Being a scribe can be a good way for people to know who you are (the
> scribe).  From reading the thread on this, when you ask someone who is new,
> how about having them sit next to someone who is more familiar with the
> attendees to help with names?   Maybe for those which English is not a first
> language, they could monitor the jabber list for questions.  They may be
> more comfortable with certain aspects of volunteering during a session or
> reading drafts on their own time.
>
>
>
> It would be good to get the message out to newcomers that volunteering is
> important.  You help others and they help you, it is basic networking skills
> and does work in the IETF.
I support this.  Maybe some encouragement from the chair could help
the newcomers in winning their natural "shyness."  I talk by personal
experience here: maybe my shyness is a bit above average, but I think
that when it is your first time in a new environment, it is only
natural to be a little afraid of doing something wrong, even in
something like IETF that I, as newcomer, found quite "welcoming."
Adding the "pseudo-mentor" to the scribe could also help and maybe
also having two newcomer-scribes in parallel, so that each one knows
that if s/he misses something or gets something wrong, the redundant
scribe can be used to recover from the error.

> Thanks,
>
> Kathleen
>
>
>
> From: ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org 
> [mailto:ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] On Behalf Of
> Stewart Bryant
> Sent: Monday, April 22, 2013 6:05 AM
> To: Ted Hardie
> Cc: IETF
> Subject: Re: Meritocracy, diversity, and leaning on the people you know
>
>
>
> On 19/04/2013 19:13, Ted Hardie wrote:
>
> As a working group chair, when I stare out at a sea of faces looking for a
> scribe, the chances of my asking someone I know produces good minutes is
> much higher than my asking someone whose work I don't know.
>
> Think about how this often works in WGs without a
> secretary or regular scribe.
>
> Chair says we need a volunteer for a scribe.
>
> Everyone looks away and sits on their hands.
>
> Chair says no scribe, no meeting.
>
> Everyone looks away and hangs their head even lower melting into the floor.
>
> Chair pleads a bit more.
>
> Silence.
>
> Chair asks someone they know since they are less likely to refuse.
>
> There maybe a refusal or two by people who expect to be at the
> mic a lot, or need to leave early, or are only there to catch up
> with their email.
>
> Eventually someone committed to the WG, and usually well known to the
> chairs, frequently a name called by the chair, offers to scribe in order
> to the meeting started.
>
> The strong temptation is to just ask one of the well known good
> scribes before the meeting in order not to waste time in a tight agenda.
>
> Stewart