Hi Tim. This forum is accessible to the public. You’re welcome to share whatever you’re comfortable with, at least within the standing rules and policies like the code of conduct.
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This new code of conduct is contradictory and often crosses the line into the absurd. You’ve gone beyond anti-harassment and into ultra leftist authoritarian nonsense, particularly with the “MakeICT prioritizes marginalized people’s safety over people’s comfort. The Board of Directors reserves the right not to act on complaints regarding…” garbage that essentially gives your organization a blank check to discriminate against anyone it deems “privileged,” i.e. white and male, which is a direct contradiction to the "Harassment includes, but is not limited to… Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, religion, or genetic information"* bit at the beginning, rendering it completely toothless, poorly constructed, and idiotic, which is a common trademark of leftist activist thinking.
You might want to look into the legality of discrimination as it pertains to US law, particularly regarding non-profit organizations such as MakeICT, as this new “anti-harassment” policy is, at the very least, opening you up to future lawsuits. And for examples of what happens when you allow such identity-politics driven ultra leftist rhetoric to permeate an organization, the internet is your friend. Spoilers: they don’t last very long.
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I guess that makes the Code of Conduct of all those Fortune 500 Corporations, who have lots of high-power, highly trained lawyers, “completely toothless, poorly constructed, and idiotic, which is a common trademark of leftist activist thinking” then. Many, if not all of them have very similar things in their Codes of Conduct that you mention, such as " Harassment includes, but is not limited to… Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, religion, or genetic information".
I was employed by one of those corporations, which by the way, has been around for well over 100 years. They don’t last long? Really?
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I worked for one of those companies too and was harrassed my another employee. You know what didn’t end up lasting long? That guys employment. The company is doing just fine without him too. Also saying “you shouldnt harass people” is a leftist take says a lot about how you see your own party…
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Hello friends and those of you who I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting. I am Jeff Eck, a struggling small business owner and fellow maker. I have been a member of Makeict since our numbers were in the tens of members. I transported the majority of our stuff from the Delano District to our last building on 1500 E Douglas, in my box trailer, when we moved down there. I spent many many nights working long hours with Mike Hutton to build out the wood shop and once completed I started working on the metal shop with its first lead. I continued to work in the metal shop with the next two leads and stepped back when my health started to be more of an issue. I have never asked for any special treatment or acknowledgment for all of my hard work to help make MakeICT a reality as I preferred to work in the background unseen. It was never about me, I was happy to work and contribute to the cause. I am not rich, I have very little if any spare cash, so I contributed what I did have, an ability to work. Some time back I was trying to be more active with the makerspace and I was running to be on the board. Not long after I shared my intention to be more involved, I was attacked by one of our members with false claims of racism. There is no defense for false claims like this. What can I do, point out my black friends, my black family, my asian family? There is no defense. I was shocked, but it made me choose to not even vote for myself. I didn’t want to be in leadership of an organization that would allow one member to make baseless claims with no penalty.
I have continued to pay my dues, having only used the equipment once or twice for personal projects, as I have wanted to help make the makerspace a reality so that EVERYONE can have an idea and have the tools to make that idea a reality. I have contributed to the idea that we were building a community of makers who come together in our shared space to create together, sharing our knowledge and experience for the betterment of all. I have never even for a moment thought anyone should be told they are not welcome to make at MakeICT. Each person is unique, with ideas, with dreams, with personality that help to make our world more beautiful for ALL of us. I will continue to cherish our differences, I will continue to hope that we can overcome hate and division.
Recently the board approved a code of conduct that is racist, sexist, and divides us into groups of privileged and protected classes. Yes I know they removed the word ‘Privileged’ but did not change what is clearly an agenda driven code that prioritizes some over others.
This new code of conduct codifies that into the rules. Now when I am labeled a bigot with no proof, at best a he said she said, I will be told that I am not welcome to make with my friends as I have been labeled a bigot who is not welcome at the makerspace. But this code is worse than that. The board reserves the right to support racism. The board reserves the right to be sexist. The board reserves the right to support the attack against a straight man because he isn’t in the lgbt(I don’t even know all the letters) community. This is so far past reasonable I fear it might endanger our 501c3 tax exemption.
I do not support the mistreatment of anyone for any reason outside of crime and its legal punishment. I do not want anyone to feel unwelcome, disliked, or hated. I hope for anyone who wishes to become a member to feel desired and part of the community. We must welcome all as they are, not asking anyone to be different than they are, to be worthy to join us. We need differences, we need ideas that do not line up with our own to allow each of us to grow as people and it adds beauty to the world we all share.
Equality breeds peace. The goal of any rule or code of conduct should be to be a level, fair playing field that treats each individual as an equal to the next with no tilting of the balance of justice. This is why Lady Justice is always blindfolded when she holds the scales of justice. When everyone is on an even playing field, each person will not be pushed into either the far right or far left direction. However, when you group people, when you give some more rights or privileges than another you breed discontent. This discontent will push people to extremes and make conflict inevitable. Hate and isms are grown out of ideas like privilege, and perceived inequality in treatment of people often based on characteristics that hold no merit. Consider the division of people based on eye, hair, or skin color. A division of people based on characteristics they cannot permanently change makes no sense as none of those characteristics have any effect on the quality of the person, their character, their personality, their worth or value. This will only cause anger, hate, isms allowing any grouping of the kind. Likewise, divisions based on things that can be changed, even when it requires a third party to surgically make the changes, will lead to the same outcome as divisions based on unchangeable characteristics.
Personally, as a Christian, my faith dictates that I cannot even feel that I am better than anyone else. Much worse to actually have an ism where I think I am more important, more valuable, etc. Please consider what I have shared, please consider what this new code does, please consider all things to find the truth of the matter. I wish you all well, but for now, I am going to step back and cancel my membership as I have little hope the board will see the wisdom of my words.
To whom it may concern, please close my Jeff@makeict.org email address. No badge to turn off as I had not yet made it to an orientation class.
Rustin, please bring me the sheer to repair as my last contribution to the makerspace.
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@jeff You see to have a lot to say but nothing you’ve said is sharing anything in the Anti-Discrimination Code of Conduct. Are you sure you read the same thing I did?
I think an excellent review would be to see equality vs. equity. Not everyone has the same opportunities in life, and the Code of Conduct is literally just saying “Don’t be a bad person, if you do you’ll get warned. If you continue, your membership might be revoked.”
I’m happy you’ve helped MakeICT so much and you do seem to have a lot of value here. I’m not sure why you think having rules on how to interact with others is a bad thing. Please also review: Equality vs Equity - Difference and Comparison | Diffen so you may learn more about people of diverse backgrounds and how equality doesn’t help, but equity does.
Please have a day.
@DanS You’ve been such a resource in chat, I hope people here realize and value you. Thank you for your responses. My friends and I have been reading chat and you’re the reason why we are still going to be here.
Others that think this is some political woo-ing, it’s really not. The rules are simple. Just don’t be a douche. Cool thanks 
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There a meeting tonight where all are invited to come and contribute to a Code of Conduct that improves on the one we are currently working under.
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@Tyra WOW! Thank you so much for your kind words. I wasn’t expecting that but I very much appreciate you saying it.
I’m certainly not writing those comments in order to get any recognition at all. I don’t care about that. I just want to be a voice to try to help find equality here.
The Code does provide equality whether others choose to see it or not. As I’ve pointed out several times, it does say “We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form.”. That means that there is no tolerance for anyone to harass or discriminate against anyone for any reason. As you said Tyra, it isn’t political at all, it’s just trying to create equality for EVERYONE. Some people try to make it political. They’re just grasping at straws, trying to find something to whine and fight about.
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It is wild to me that people are taking this as a political statement when I’m willing to bet their workplaces have a similar policy in place. I didnt figure an anti-harassment code of conduct would be this controversial since they are basically in every workplace, at least all of the companies that I have worked for.
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I flagged your post because there is no need to give a dramatic sob story and announce your departure over a policy that is in place to protect people. Politics and religion were also brought up which have nothing to do with this code of conduct. Nothing productive was contibuted to this conversation by making this post.
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@Grandex and @jeff, please read my comment above.
You know what the opposite of being privileged is? Marginalized.
That means that insofar as there is prejudice against a trait you have in society, you are actually marginalized by virtue of facing obstacles that people without that trait don’t encounter.
So, if someone makes fun of your handicap? They’re violating the code by harassing someone who is marginalized.
If someone makes fun of you for being white? They’re also violating the code, even though that’s actually a mark of privilege.
If the board reserves the right not to act on claims of “reverse racism,” for example, that means they reserve the right not to take action against someone simply for taking umbrage at your expressed racism-- not that it’s impossible to legitimately claim you were harassed by a person of color.
(Anybody on the board, please correct me if I’m wrong about this.)
Believe it or not, a ton of people think it’s racist against white people to even talk about racism against black people-- that’s what this ridiculous uproar over “CRT” is about. So there’s a legitimate concern there about maintaining consistency in applying the rules while also refusing to take claims like that seriously.
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Well, I sure missed it. Can you quote him saying that, please?
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Japanese American internment, WWII.
Native reservations. Trail of Tears. Events too numerous to list here.
Dred Scott.
The manipulation of laws to essentially, legally, re enslave Black men in the South post Civil War.
15th, 19th, 24th, 26th Amendments.
Eisenstadt vs Baird.
Roe v Wade.
The Fair Credit Opportunity Act, which is only as old as I am.
Dobbs.
The USA has absolutely placed its citizens in internment camps. The USA may have a theory of equality, but an unfortunate history on actually proving it. Our existence in this nation does not automatically make us equal.
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Not to mention that many of us do have a reasonable fear of being put in prison tomorrow, or otherwise punished without due process, based on immutable and unchosen traits. Systemic bias absolutely exists, especially in the so-called justice system. There’s ample proof of that.
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I really don’t know why you are upset over this. Please consider the points actually listed in the discrimination policy and stop bringing up random things outside of Makerspace that have nothing to do with the topic.
You should already be following the basics of human decency within MakeICT. If not, that’s the only reason I can imagine why you may be upset, because you may have to change your behavior towards others.
Please consider what “Be Excellent to others” means, take a break from the forum, and come back after you’ve had a breather.
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I have chosen not to wade into this quagmire up to this point. As a member of a privileged cast, who has also had many occasions to fear for my life from a vocal majority. I believe I able see the objections from both sides.
I have see this in a few post and I was wondering about your statement:
So, I had to look up the policy for my employer, Sedgwick County. It is a 6 page document for a organization of over 2,500 employees. No where in this document does it state anything about “prioritizing” or have anything about “reserves the right not to act on complaints regarding:”
I would like to see one of the policies from any company that, you, or anyone works for includes these sections. Which appear to be the main points of contention in the whole policy.
I have attached the Sedgwick County policy if anyone want to read it.
4.506 Workplace Discrimination.pdf (241.6 KB)
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Scott, the section about prioritizing is prioritizing safety over comfort. I haven’t worked someplace in the past 30 years which doesn’t have a policy saying safety is their top priority. Personal protective equipment in every medical facility or any facility with dangerous substances, including MakeICT with sawdust, for example.
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A lot of you seem to focus in on the word “prioritize” in the statement about prioritizing SAFETY over COMFORT, which is so conveniently omitted on this forum. Who wouldnt want to prioritize safety over comfort?? Im sure its not comfortable to wear your PPE in the woodshop, but yall do it anyway because it’s safe.
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You beat me to it
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Touché!
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