Hi chix & rainbows,
Last week I wrote a blog post (http://drnikki.org/node/9), that I won't paste here for the sake of brevity. tl;dr: my local drupal meetup is too homogenous and it sucks so I want to fix it.
The post got a lot of hits but not a lot came of it. The next step for me is to create a survey to ask the underrepresented people in the NYC community why they don't participate in the meetups.
As we've seen a bunch of times, the content and wording of the survey itself is important and if mishandled can undermine the quality of the results. I'm wondering if any of you have seen surveys that you thought were particularly well crafted that I can use as reference. I took a few qualitative research classes in graduate school, but that was a long time ago. I don't want to create more drama in the NYC group (Lord knows we have plenty) by distributing a biased survey.
Also would love to hear any ideas or best practices for making the creation and distribution of the survey as transparent and collaborative as possible.
Thanks!!
Nikki
(x-posted to drupalchix and drupal rainbow)
Comments
In the Twin Cities
We've got a pretty solid and well-balanced group in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis / St. Paul MN). It's not 50/50, but anecdotally it's closer to 30:70.
Like most groups, our biggest challenge has been diversity of skills and content. Many advanced people don't want to show up for meetings that are "beneath them", and vice-versa. I was worried about this because I'm all too familiar with user group bankruptcy, which occurs when you have a steady influx of new users and only a few old-timers are willing stick it out and become a free help desk. We have tried to address this by reaching out to different speakers and soliciting topics for all skill ranges.
Another thing that has helped is opening up different formats. Some people just don't want to spend their evenings sitting in a lecture, so 3 separate events have emerged. We have a social happy hour, a monthly meeting format, and a code meet up. Some people only appear at one format, but there's also an opportunity for cross-pollination.
In short, we haven't been actively seeking to increase participation by women. But by focusing on increasing avenues of participation for everyone across skill levels and formats, gender diversity has been a happy side effect.
I personally don't think that a survey would be all that helpful. As you suggest, the survey itself can become a bikeshed, and more importantly it won't reach the people who aren't participating. My suggestion would be to try out different topics, formats, and special events and focus on nurturing the events and formats that work out the best.
I don't think a survey would
I don't think a survey would help, you should just ask people their reasoning.
Since this post was tweeted to me, and I feel as if my input is wanted, here's my opinion:
The amount of women at any Drupal meet up is completely inconsequential to me. I completely disagree with the idea that by not going I'm doing a disservice to women in the tech world. I don't go to the meetups because its a pain in the fucking ass to get downtown. The meet ups also happen on Wednesday and I train on Wednesdays. Thats it..
time and place
I really enjoyed our local meetups (Ottawa) when they they were convenient for me to attend. But apparently more people have been going to the new meetup downtown (or at least were, I haven't been paying attention) so while I might join remotely, I won't go and park in a place I don't like, at a less convenient time, unless there's a really compelling speaker or topic.
This makes a great case for
This makes a great case for remote access to meetups. It is pretty easy to achieve, as long as one person at the physical location has internet connection and audio capability (at least).
Personally, I've been seeking out remote meetups b/c I am in a geographical area without meetups. I'd love to network and be part of a Drupal micro-community (or two). But, without remote participation, that is not an option for me. I'd love to be part of your meetups!
Certainly must be others in similar boat. And, then there are people with families that require their home presence.
Great Post
I really liked your post Nikki. While I can't speak for others, I can say that I'm much more open to a co-working day than attending meetups in evenings. I made it to a co-working day at Rayogram's office in NYC and thought it was a great use of time, even if to see what other people are doing (the focus was on using CiviCRM).
My name is Liza, I've been a
My name is Liza, I've been a member of the Drupal community for more than six years, I've done a lot of work on growing the business of Drupal, spoken at many DrupalCons, and for many years, I used to run Lullabot. (http://drupal.org/user/59115)
I do not attend the NYC Drupal events. The first one I went to, with Webchick, we took the train up from Providence where we were giving a workshop, walked into the event, and the guy presenting was talking about porn. We walked out. Trip wasted.
Years later, once I moved here to NYC, I went to a Drupal happy hour with some guys who worked for me and were regulars. I was making idle chit chat, and I asked the guy next to me what he did. He literally looked me up and down, said, "Drupal, honey." and turned away. A few minutes later, when he realized who I was, he came running back over and wanted to tell me about his ideas "so I could take them back to someone at Lullabot". (I was managing partner at the time.)
And then a few years ago, Jen Simmons and I tried to organize a DrupalChix NYC event and we had to get the intervention of the DA to get the event posted on the NYC Drupal group page. (The guys running it didn't want to be "divisive.") There were threats involved, and we kept the location of the event secret because we were genuinely scared of them interrupting it.
Friends - this is ridiculous. And the sexism that I have felt in Drupal - specifically here in NYC - is part of the reason that I decided to go follow my happy trails somewhere else. I have no interest in being a trailblazer... in 2012. I would NOT encourage my daughter to go into Open Source (and she grew up going to DrupalCons).
I am a working, single mother; an entrepreneur with a rich personal life and people that I mentor - my time and contributions are valued by people. That time, I decided, was best spent outside of Drupal. (Plus, I wanted to go back to working in fashion... not a lot of room for that there. ;-) I love a lot of the people in Drupal, I miss my friends, and I think that the community is mostly good. But for whatever reason, the Drupal community here in NYC does not seem to be able to shake this shit.
I was having dinner last night with a close friend who is very successful in technology and has done work in Drupal. She said that she feels like this problem is getting worse in tech in general - that it is palpably worse than it was 20 years ago. And she has never seen it worse than in Drupal. This makes my heart ache.
These were my experiences. These were my choices. No one else will have the same experiences, and I am not recommending that anyone else make the same choices. But, maybe it will help the dialogue. More power to anyone that has the energy to try to tackle this endemic problem.
Anyone that wants to reach me can find me at lizakindred (at) gmail (dot) com. Cross posting to http://drnikki.org/node/9.
I'd like to join Team Liza!
Okay, I'm sold. Cancel my interest in joining Drupal NYC meetups (now that I know backstory) ....I'd like to join Team Liza! Where do I sign up?
(Seriously, if you ever want to mentor a Drupalchick...)
Team Liza 2
Well she would have a small following she would have to mentor.. because I would love to learn more too!
I live on the opposite coast,
I live on the opposite coast, so I've never attended a NYC meetup, but I consider a few of the women in NYC good (Drupal) friends and have over the years heard horrible things about what goes on in the group there. My heart goes out to you all as it's been some of THE WORST stories I've heard from within the Drupal community. To show how long this has been going on see http://groups.drupal.org/node/73223 and spinoff threads.
I feel so lucky that in the Pacific Northwest (Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver where I am) we have really had to deal with this stuff so little - the community here is super inclusive and supportive.
I can fully understand why the attendance in the NYC group has dwindled - the sexist, boys club, and even threatening environment that has come to be there is a horrible disgrace to the entire community. A couple years ago when things got really heated, I tried to help bring the issues up with some of the senior members of the community, and it still never got dealt with. Obviously the vile atmosphere continues to exist to this day.
Like Liza, I'm starting to phase out of the Drupal era of my career life (at least temporarily, maybe permanently). It's not specifically because of these issues, but there have been some times in the community over the last couple years where problems have really been silenced and diffused rather than dealt with. The longer things like this go un-dealt with, the longer it will grate on people and alienate them, and push them (usually quietly) out of the community.
So if this is really still as bad as it is, I really beg the NYC community to bring this up with more senior community members (ie. webchick, Dries, the DA board, g.d.o admins, etc.) and make sure it gets dealt with once and for all. It's shameful allowing such hate-filled and sexist people continue to exist in positions of power in the local communities or even to participate in the meetups if they are not able to act respectfully towards the other attendees.
To all local groups: if you have these problems, push to adopt a code of conduct like http://groups.drupal.org/node/235308 for your official user group meetups, and then get help from more senior community members to enforce it. This needs to stop.
(Note: This comment was
(Note: This comment was originally posted here, but putting it both places to facilitate conversation: http://drnikki.org/comment/5#comment-5)
When I first moved to NYC, I was a lot more regular about attending both the regular meetup and the happy hour. My main motivation was for social reasons. When I first moved here, everyone I knew in the city was somehow involved with Drupal. It was a good space for me to make friends, plus it was easy to be motivated to go when I was surrounded by coworkers who were also going.
I never much cared for the regular meetup, to be honest. I have the attention span of a gnat on crack, so sitting and listening to a lecture irregardless of whether or not the talk was going to be of interest to me (and generally the answer to that was no) is not my idea of a fun and relaxing evening. I'm also not a very patient teacher so sitting and helping the newbies isn't exactly my cup of tea either. I was pretty much going because I felt some sense of community obligation to be there... in part driven by the fact that I'm female and the ladies ought to represent... and the fact that there was the opportunity to go out for beers with friends afterwards. I stopped going when I started re-evaluating how I spent my time and cut out things that I didn't enjoy doing. Pretty much the only thing that can lure me out to a regular meetup is someone from out of town messaging me and asking me to come with them, and even then I'm probably going to tell them that I'll meet up for beers afterwards. Life's too short to be bored.
I've always enjoyed the Happy Hour meetups more because I'm a social person. I attend it far less than I used to, though. I only come every couple of months. There are a couple reasons for this... One, financial. I made some choices to pursue artistic endeavors over the past year which has meant working less and money has been much tighter. I've largely stopped going out to eat and drinking at bars. Two, I'm making an effort not to drink to excess and Happy Hour was one of the events in my life where I was more likely to backslide into doing that.
If I were to sum all of it up... I'd say this... I don't go out to the Drupal events much anymore because Drupal is less of a priority in my life than it once was.
Motivating Your Yes, No’s and Maybe’s
I came across a relevant analysis of the commitment issue:
I get it. We live in a world of many choices. People are often hesitant to “commit” when they aren’t sure what’s in it for them.
http://www.thesocialworkplace.com/2012/06/14/motivating-your-yes-nos-and...
¿ are you netsperienced ?
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