Dear members of our community,
I owe you all an apology. We know that there have been a number of outstanding conduct issues, some of which dated all the way back to late 2019, that we have only just resolved this summer. This delay resulted in a lot of hurt feelings and confusion, as well as a deterioration of trust in our committee. This is fair and while we now have systems in place to make sure we handle complaints in a timely manner, I understand it may take awhile to rebuild that trust.
There are many reasons for this delay: 2020 as a whole, deaths in our families and friend groups, and also bureaucratic delays, like a need to examine our stated policies and come up with better solutions than simply a “three strikes you’re out” rule that is unnecessarily punitive and serves no one. We will be passing along further suggested revisions to the Board at its next scheduled meeting on September 11th.
While I hope you will understand how these complications constrained us, the delays still hurt people. When I became Interim Chair in October '21, I promised to uphold the Conduct Committee’s responsibilities. I did not. I am deeply sorry for falling short, and offer no excuses. Our community deserves both timeliness and rigor from this committee. We will not let things get stuck in the cracks again.
Again, I offer my apologies, especially to those who filed complaints with us, who were directly harmed by our inaction. I cannot apologize for the delays caused by our decision to revisit and revise the rules to offer more appropriate actions and bring them more in line with RFR values, but I absolutely do apologize for not being more communicative and transparent during that process, leaving you in a state of limbo while we deliberated.
Thank you to the PK staff for allowing me to co-opt their Announcements channel.
Sincerely yours,
Nuance Bryant
Interim Conduct Committee Chair