By the Co-Chairs of the CNCF Code of Conduct Working Groups
We’re excited to announce a new system for resolving Code of Conduct (CoC) incidents in our community that is designed to enhance trust and develop a culture of inclusion, kindness, and respect. About a year ago, the CNCF Code of Conduct Working Group was launched. We sought to modernize CoC practices in CNCF and bring them into stronger alignment with the spirit and culture of open source, providing opportunities to learn and improve community engagement through restorative resolution practices. After many months of community effort and collaboration, we developed a new system that combines the benefits of community representation, foundation oversight, and professional support.
Until last year, CoC incidents in our community were handled solely by foundation staff or by project level Code of Conduct bodies. In June 2022, the Interim Code of Conduct Committee was launched to resolve CoC incidents while the working group developed a more permanent system for the Governing Board and TOC to review and approve.
Under the new system, most incidents in our community will be handled by a CNCF Code of Conduct Committee consisting of both elected community members and foundation staff. Projects that have their own Code of Conduct response teams will continue to resolve incidents that occur entirely in that project, and foundation staff will continue to resolve incidents that occur at events.
Some unique features of the new system include:
- A policy for involving alternates when regular members of the committee have conflicts of interest and have to recuse themselves from decision-making for a particular incident.
- Ability to delegate to independent professional service providers to help with intake, conflict resolution recommendations, and investigatory work to minimize time commitment for committee members and ensure that incidents that are high risk are handled by impartial experienced professionals.
- Jurisdictional rules that allocate responsibility for resolving incidents in alignment with CNCF values and TOC principles among leadership of individual projects within CNCF, the CNCF Code of Conduct Committee, and foundation staff.
- Procedures for engaging legal counsel for support when certain risk factors are present.
The new system is detailed in the following policies, procedures, and documentation:
- A new CNCF Code of Conduct Committee Charter
- Improvements to the CNCF Code of Conduct
- Detailed Incident Resolution Procedures
- A Jurisdiction Policy that explains which incidents are resolved by Linux Foundation events staff, which are resolved by project-level responders, and which are resolved by the CNCF Code of Conduct Committee
We’re thankful to everyone who provided feedback and input, whether by showing up at our in person sessions at KubeCon + CloudNativeCons, commenting in our working group’s GitHub repository, or by in one-on-one conversations with us. The diversity of viewpoints and opinions that were shared with us greatly enhanced the end result. We’re proud of the community coming together to develop a system that enhances trust and accountability and supports us in maintaining a respectful and welcoming environment for continued collaboration on advancing cloud native technologies.