Community Discussions

Open conversation is essential to the wellbeing of any community. It is especially important now, as we collaboratively determine how to evolve our governance. To help the community come together and share in a safe and respectful environment, we are offering virtual community discussions.

Join fellow community members to discuss recent community issues and governance improvements. Sessions will be facilitated by Whitney Hess to ensure that all voices are heard and understood.

We will post meeting minutes taken by independent notetakers at each session by the end of each day to provide transparency and allow community members to contribute to the discussion online. Names and identifying information will not be noted.

Before selecting a session to attend:

Each session accommodates 45 attendees and adheres to the ground rules provided by our mediator, Whitney Hess.

You must sign up online for a session to reserve your spot in the session.

Tuesday, May 9th

Group H - 4pm EDT 1pm PDT / 9pm BST / 10pm CEST / 6am +1 AEST

Wednesday, May 10th

Group I - 8am EDT 1pm BST / 2pm CEST / 5:30pm IST / 10pm AEST

Thursday, May 11th

Group J - 9:30am EDT 2:30pm BST / 3:30pm CEST / 7pm IST / 11:30pm AEST

Friday, May 12th

Group K - 2pm EDT 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST / 11:30pm IST

Tuesday, May 16th

Group L - 8pm EDT 5pm PDT / 10am AEST

Wednesday, May 17th

Group M - 12pm EDT 9am PDT / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST / 9:30pm IST

Thursday, May 18th

Group N - 3pm EDT 12pm PDT / 8pm BST / 9pm CEST

Ground Rules for Community Discussions

Key Principles of Nonviolent Communication

  • Responsibility for Our Feelings: We aim to move away from blame, shame, judgment, and criticism by connecting our feelings to our own needs. This recognition empowers us to take action to meet our needs instead of waiting for others to change.

  • Responsibility for Our Actions: We aim to recognize our choice in each moment, and take action based on seeing how it would meet our needs to do so; we aim to move away from taking action based on fear, guilt, shame, the desire for reward, or any “should” or “have to.”

  • Prioritizing Connection: We aim to focus on connection instead of immediate solutions, and to trust that connecting with our own and others’ needs is more likely to lead to creating solutions that meet everyone’s needs.

  • Equal Care for Everyone’s Needs: We aim to make requests and not demands; when hearing disagreement with our request, or when disagreeing with another’s request, we aim to work towards solutions that meet everyone’s needs, not just our own, and not just the other person’s.

  • Self-Expression: When expressing ourselves, we aim to speak from the heart, expressing our feelings and needs, and making specific, doable requests rather than demands.

  • Empathic Hearing: When we hear others, we aim to hear the feelings and needs behind the expressions, even when they express judgments or demands.

  • Protective Use of Force: We aim to use force only to protect, not to punish others or get our way without the other’s agreement, and only in situations where the principles above were not sufficient to meet immediate needs for safety. We aim to return to dialogue as soon as safety is re-established.

How These Ground Rules Work

  • Ground rules will be stated at the beginning of each session.

  • If you are not in agreement with the ground rules, please do not participate in the session.

  • If a participant is repeatedly disruptive of respectful, productive discussion, they will be asked to leave; if they do not leave, the session will be terminated immediately.

Cancelling your Registration for a Community Discussion

If you are not able to attend one of the community discussion sessions, we ask that you please release your slot so that another user can register. To do so, you simply need to delete your webform submission.

  1. Make sure you're logged in on drupal.org
  2. Go to the page of the session you registered for
  3. At the top of the screen you'll find a message which says "You have already submitted this form. View your Previous Submissions"
  4. Click "View your previous submissions"
  5. Click "Delete" next to your submission.