Universal Code of Conduct/U4C Building Committee/Meeting summaries

This page contains meeting summaries for the U4C Building Committee.

Session 1 - 16 June 2023

The U4C building committee met for their first meeting of the year. Committee members reviewed presentations by staff liaisons on the purpose and scope of the U4C based on the final recommendation text from the UCoC process, which were accepted in principle pending more discussions. The committee identified some potential contradictions between what the U4C and local structures should be handling, and will work to address during the work of building the U4C. Committee members were allocated into working pairs, in preparation for synchronous and asynchronous work going forward.

Session 2 - 23 June 2023

The committee met for the second session and shared how they came into the wikimedia movement. This was designed as a working session for pairs. Staff liaisons supported pairwork and provided clarification and time keeping. During the reflection session, committee members found the pair work productively, and hope to get an opportunity to discuss divergent ideas with the whole committee when they arise.

Session 3 - 30 June 2023

The third working session consisted of two parts: pair work followed by sharing current progress with the group. After spending the first half of the session working in breakout groups as with the previous week, the group spent five minutes per pair updating the status of each section, identifying points for larger group decisions, places where input and discussion would be helpful, as well as identifying work that is complete and ready for review. Part of the next session will be spent working on the group items.

Session 4 - 7 July 2023

The fourth session started with pair work session and was followed by a group discussion and reflection session on the Purpose and Scope statements. The group discussed the need for a revised purpose statement over and above the original approved text of the UCoC, and agreed to review the text of the statement to ensure that no contradictions are re-introduced, especially when it comes to the issue of the authority of the U4C vs Co-Equal local bodies. For the scope statement, the committee agreed in general with the text, however, the issue of mandate of the U4CBC when it comes to specifying details such as actual subcommittees of the U4C, was raised and included in the agenda for the next call. The next session will begin the process of bringing pair work drafts into the central drafting space.

Session 5 - 14 July 2023

Session five began with a short period for pairs to review their work, move completed draft sections to the main document, and outline any outstanding points for group discussion. The BC then convened as a whole and each pair presented their sections and outlined the remaining work. With the remaining time, the group began discussing outstanding questions. The BC is working through group discussions around composition, terms, elections, and enforcement processes. The goal is to wrap up these points in session six and review the final draft as a whole.

Session 6 - 21 July 2023

The focus for the sixth session was gathering completed draft sections into a main draft document for group review, organizing questions and concerns around sections, and beginning the process of working through the entire document as a group. First was a presentation for agreement on how the Committee would approve sections of the Charter. Following that, the committee went into one last block of pair work to finalize each pair's sections and move their sections to the main drafting space. The group then began the process of discussing each section, identifying any points of contention or disagreement to workshop together. The committee made progress beginning this task, but there was too much to work through in this meeting to complete the document. The committee scheduled one more meeting to complete the Charter text.

Session 7 - 28 July 2023 (Final session)

This was the final scheduled meeting of the U4CBC. The purpose of this meeting was to review the collective text of the draft, work out remaining details and address concerns, and discuss any remaining points of contention. The group has agreed to rules around passing sections of the Charter, beginning with a gradient scale of support for each section to generate collaborative consensus, and a backup plan for supermajority voting as a democratic option to resolve disagreements. The Building Committee made progress approving sections in person and working out some fine details remaining, and agreed to a process to discuss and approve remaining sections of the draft without another virtual in-person meeting. The Committee will discuss whether it would like to host one more virtual meeting, or finish the work completely in the document.

Session 8 - 4 August 2023 (Extra session)

The Committee decided to convene again to discuss points needing resolution and pass completed sections. Through a two-hour session, the group made progress in these goals and finished up the meeting with four sections remaining for discussion. The Committee made plans for in-person work with virtual attendance available at Wikimania, with the goal of completing the document at this time.