Girl Develop It Changelog

Girl Develop It’s mission is to create welcoming, supportive opportunities for women and non-binary adults to learn software development skills.

The goal of this Changelog is to show the steps GDI’s HQ Team is taking to create a safer, more inclusive community for all of our members.

Comments and feedback welcomed in GDI Slack channel #changelog

01/11/2019

• Board of Directors host two open virtual Town Hall meetings on RingCentral https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HCpOgPEAzlM0bOMUEGJEYr_Awg4szR5g-UWrHpHMT9w/edit (notes taken by Rachel)

01/10/2019

• Board engages independent investigator to perform investigation into allegations made by former HQ employees; investigation is initiated

01/09/2019

• Board of Directors check-in to discuss upcoming Town Hall events (attendees: Brenda, Corinne, Erica and Janelle)
• At Board’s request, Corinne sets up tool for community to submit questions in advance of Town Hall discussions

01/07/2019:

• Corinne & Bindu review and approve updated equitable sourcing, recruiting and hiring plan proposal shared by HR consultant (pending approval by Board) as well as employee conflict resolution policy (pending approval by Board)

12/12/2018:

• Board, with help from HQ Team, publish blog post on GDI’s Medium: Commitment to Moving Forward, outlining actions being taken [https://medium.com/@girldevelopit/commitment-to-moving-forward-f0fadadd783e]

12/11/2018:

• Corinne and Bindu meet with Restorative Justice consultants to discuss next steps in process

12/10/2018:

• Board of Directors hold Emergency Board Meeting (attendees include Brenda, Corinne, Erica and Janelle)
• Erica shares Board’s response to Open Letter to CLs on internal GDI Slack
• Erica creates #boardfeedback channel on internal GDI Slack to provide greater avenue for direct contact between Board and CLs

12/07/2018 - 12/09/2018:

• Board members meet to discuss and write response to Open Letter (penned by group of former and current CLs); HQ Leadership Team submits information and supporting documentation to Board and answers questions

12/08/2018

• Rachel attends The Start: An Anti-Racism Workshop in NYC with Rachel Cargle [https://www.rachelcargle.com/] an intimate and intensive conversation exploring race, white supremacy, feminism and the work we must all do to be a part of the solution.

12/07/2018:

• Corinne, Brenda, Erica, and Bindu participate in Open CL Forum #2 with ~30 CLs and former CLs

12/06/2018:

• Members of the Board of Directors (Brenda Jin, Erica Baker and Janelle Jolley) and Corinne write press release in response to former employee airing grievances about working at GDI on a podcast.
• Board of Directors commit to hosting Town Hall Discussions open to the community, and schedule them for January 11, 2019.
• Corinne shares press release on GDI Twitter [https://twitter.com/girldevelopit/status/1070814978452660226], re-affirming GDI’s commitment to “building an inclusive, diverse, and equitable culture, and ensuring that our actions and those of all community members are aligned with those values.”

12/05/2018:

• Corinne schedules two open discussion forums for CLs to discuss former GDI employee airing grievances about working at GDI on a podcast
• Corinne, Bindu and Brenda attend Open CL Forum #1 along with ~15 CLs

11/18/2018:

• LeeAnn attends The Start: An Anti-Racism Workshop in Philadelphia with Rachel Cargle [https://www.rachelcargle.com/] an intimate and intensive conversation exploring race, white supremacy, feminism and the work we must all do to be a part of the solution.

11/17/2018:

• LeeAnn attends Unpacking White Feminism a lecture exploring the history of feminism through the lens of race. Uncovering layers of unlearned details, revealing the problematic effects that white centered activism has had on the past and present of the feminist movement and action items that can be taken to be more intentional and inclusive.

11/16/2018

• Bindu and Corinne meet with Chrysta Wilson and Associates to develop plan for next phase of work

11/14/2018:

• Bindu meets with HR consultant to discuss updates to HR policies, including policies on employee conflict resolution, recruitment and hiring, performance review process, anti-harassment and more.

11/09/2018

• Bindu and Corinne meet with Chrysta Wilson and Associates to discuss next phase of work and logistics

11/08/2018

• Corinne, LeeAnn and Rachel attend Leeway Foundation launch event for TransForming Inclusion: An Organizational Guide to learn best practices, and hear from leading experts on building tools for inclusion and affirmation of trans and gender nonconforming people
• Bindu (Director of Operations) engages independent investigator to investigate allegations made by an HQ employee of racist comments and microaggressions

11/06/2018

• Chrysta Wilson and Associates complete and share proposal for next steps in restorative process with Bindu and Corinne

10/25/2018

• HQ Team completes discovery phase interviews with Chrysta Wilson and Associates

10/22/2018

• Bindu and Corinne meet with HR consultant, Cherizza Lundy, to support contract work regarding HR-related policies, including updates to employee handbook

10/19/2018

• Corinne sends public statement to GDI Community members via Meetup.com

10/17/2018

• GDI HQ hosts CL listening hour; responds to questions and listens to concerns from CLs. Call is recorded for CLs who aren’t able to attend, and Marisa takes notes of conversation for review.
• LeeAnn shares link to recording for CLs
• Corinne shares public statement with five CLs and requests feedback

10/16/2018

• Corinne shares updated public statement with Board for review and feedback
• Corinne shares public statement with HQ Team for review and feedback
• Restorative Justice consultants (Chrysta Wilson and Associates) begin discovery phase with HQ Team
• Programs teams closes Summit 2018 feedback form, shares responses with team for review

10/15/2018

• Corinne signs contract to engage Chrysta Wilson and Associates, including Danielle Nava-Mijares for short and long-term support including a listening tour and restorative circle facilitation
• HQ Team members schedule initial meetings with Chrysta Wilson and Associates
• Mojdeh Stoakley shares consolidated feedback for leadership from Summit POC affinity group

10/11/2018

• Brenda connects Corinne with communications consultant, Ariella Steinhorn, to give pro bono feedback on public statement; Ariella asks Corinne to clarify who the audience for statement is, and recommends based on the answer (the GDI community) that the statement go directly in an email to all community members vs a Medium post
• Corinne seeks feedback from Board on guidance from Ariella

10/10/2018

• Corinne discusses public statement and SOW proposal with Board for feedback in Board meeting
• Board determines scope of public statement needs to be more expansive; plans new timeline for edits and feedback
• Board asks if crisis communications consultants have been engaged; Brenda and Erica offer to make connections to Corinne
• RJ Committee (Bindu & Marisa only) meets with Chrysta Wilson and Danielle Nava-Mijares to discuss SOW
• RJ Committee reviews HQ team survey feedback on RJ SOWs

10/04/2018:

• Corinne sends public statement for Medium to review by Board of Directors
• RJ Committee meets to evaluate two Scope of Work (SOW) proposals
• Marisa creates and sends feedback survey on RJ SOWs to HQ Team for feedback
• LeeAnn completes Incident reporting form
• Marisa & Rachel shares changelog, incident reporting form in October CL newsletter

10/03/2018:

• Corinne drafts public statement addressing Minneapolis and outlining action steps for Medium

10/02/2018:

• HQ Team meets to begin updates to Code of Conduct policy

09/28/2018 - 09/30/2018:

• Corinne attends anti-racism workshop, hosted by Training for Change; evaluates Training for Change for future DE&I workshops for HQ Team

09/26/2018:

• HQ Team meets to devise plan of action/next steps for rewriting GDI’s Code of Conduct, redesigning GDI’s Harassment Policy, and establishing an Incident Reporting process

09/25/2018:

• Restorative Justice (RJ) Committee meets with Restoratvie Justice practitioner candidates

09/24/2018:

• HQ Team meets with Maureen Benson and Mojdeh Stoakley (Leadership Summit facilitators)
• HQ Team creates a committee comprised of Bindu, Marisa, Corinne, to research and interview Restorative Justice practitioners to address rebuilding team/org trust, increasing team/org transparency, and improving team/org communication
• Restoratvie Justice Committee reviews recommended RJ practitioners

09/21/2018:

• Corinne seeks recommendations from CL Board Rep Brenda for post-mortem facilitators to conduct two post-mortems with the HQ Team on Minneapolis and Leadership Summit

09/20/2018:

• LeeAnn creates the #next-steps Slack Channel

09/12/2018:

• HQ Team meets with Maureen Benson

09/04/2018:

• LeeAnn creates an “incidents” Slack channel for HQ members to report any violations of GDI’s Code of Conduct
• HQ Team meets with Maureen Benson
• Programs Team, comprised of Shanise, Rachel, and LeeAnn, creates Summit Incident process outlining action steps to address violations of Code of Conduct during Summit

08/21/2018:

• HQ Team meets to revise new Code of Conduct
• HQ Team shares Race, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Intersectionality readings and resources list with CLs in preparation for Summit

08/20/2018:

• Corinne plans and confirms scope of work with Maureen Benson for Summit engagement

07/30/2018:

• Corinne engages Maureen Benson, a consultant who specializes in Race, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion work at organizations to support the HQ Team in creating intersectional programming for Summit

06/12/2018:

• Vanessa attends “Race, Equity, and Your Organization” workshop for Board members by Dialectix Consulting, shares resources and takeaways from session in 6/13 Board meeting

04/26/2018:

• Corinne and Programs Team choose Intersectionality as the theme of Summit 2018

Inspired by https://zapier.com/jobs/working-on-diversity-and-inclusivity/ (h/t Shanise)