The CNCF has recently unveiled new and updated guidelines for volunteers at CNCF events. These guidelines are designed to create and sustain a collaborative, professional, courteous and kind environment leading up to, at, and following CNCF events.  We’re excited to roll these guidelines out and look forward to continued engagement and discussion within the community at these events.  

The new guidelines document, released this week, is intended to primarily provide clarity on what is acceptable behavior but also to set some goals that all of us can strive towards. If you are a past or present volunteer that has helped us with the planning, organization, or production of a CNCF event, this will be an important document for you, particularly as the vast majority of volunteers are seen as representatives of the CNCF community.  

As a community representative, your actions can meaningfully impact participants’ experience and perception of the event. So in the interest of fostering an open, positive, and welcoming environment for our community, we have detailed a standard of professional conduct to which anyone representing the cloud native community as a volunteer program committee or event volunteer is expected to adhere to. 

It should be noted it’s rare that we have had any serious issues with our robust volunteer base. However, in the interests of both clarity and accountability, we felt as an organization, it would be prudent to codify best practices in this set of guidelines, so there is no confusion as to what is and what is not acceptable. 

The detailed guidelines can be reviewed here, but in brief, we expect volunteers to be … 

  1. Professional, courteous, and kind
  2. Express feedback constructively 
  3. Be considerate of the communications channels they choose 

The event organizers may update these guidelines from time to time and will notify volunteers by email and via the CNCF Slack channels designated for event volunteers. Please take some time to review this document carefully, and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions and/or feedback. We look forward to hearing from you.