Dear all,

Please notice that the concept of diversity is not about equal numbers/quota's. 
That has and will backfire as it misses the point and easily degrades 
individual achievements. 

It is essentially about 'inclusiveness'!

I am trying to be sensitive to the European way of approaching the matter 
versus the American way. 'Diversity' as a term carries different 
connotations/values/interpretations for different cultures.
Therefore I rather talk about 'inclusiveness' as everyone has felt left out at 
least once. So is able to relate to how that feels.

Are we inviting and welcoming everyone that adds value in some way or is 
genuinely interested in OSGeo?
Do we truly have the 'open' culture we pride ourselves on (e.g. past email 
treads attacking individuals could suggest differently)?
Please, lets work on that, keep each other sharp and avoid window dressing.

Kind regards,
Marc Vloemans


> Op 13 okt. 2017 om 08:23 heeft María Arias de Reyna <delawen+os...@gmail.com> 
> het volgende geschreven:
> 
> Hi Ger-Jan (and all),
> 
>> On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 6:00 PM, Gert-Jan van der Weijden - Stichting 
>> OSGeo.nl <gert-...@osgeo.nl> wrote:
>> Hi Board member candidates (and fellow voter members),
>> 
>> = And one to all of you:
>> 
>> Some of you talk about being an inclusive organization.
>> 
>> For the geographical and probably cultural aspect of inclusiveness, do you 
>> think the Board should have it's roots in as much continents / languages as 
>> possible, so preferably 1 Board member from every continent (not counting 
>> for Antarctica, ha!)
>> 
> 
>  
> I am no friend of quotas. At least everytime I have been offered things just 
> because I was a woman and they needed a female because [reason not related to 
> my real value] it made me feel really bad. Why would I want to be somewhere 
> (a board or whatever) where everyone knows I am there not because I deserve 
> it but because something I didn't even choose? If I accepted, no one was 
> going to hear my voice, I would have been unable to do anything for real. No, 
> thanks.
> 
> Said this, on an ideal world probably we would have in average one person for 
> each continent or language or culture or ethnicity or gender or whatever 
> criteria you want to split people into. 
> 
> Would we achieve this by forcing quotas? We could but, I rather prefer to get 
> more diverse people engage and enthusiast with OSGeo so in the end they will 
> become natural leaders. Making an effort to help diverse people more 
> comfortable in OSGeo and encourage them to participate more? Yes. Giving 
> visibility to diverse people that are doing great things inside OSGeo? Sure. 
> Making an effort to put someone in some position just because we have to fill 
> a quota? No, thanks.
> 
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