Dear YUFA members – Some comments were made at the Fall General Membership Meeting on November 19, during the discussion of the Scholasticide motion, which in my view were unfortunately not consistent with a respectful and collegial consideration of the motion. I and other Executive members have received comments from colleagues expressing their disappointment with the discussion at the meeting and with YUFA’s procedures for the exchange of ideas, especially when colleagues may have quite different perspectives.
The Executive has discussed this matter, and decided to take the following actions:
- At all future Membership Meetings held online or in hybrid format, the Chair will post a link to YUFA’s Code for Equity and Inclusion (By-law 21, https://www.yufa.ca/bylaws) in the chat at the start of the meeting, and state our union’s expectation that all messages, whether spoken during the meeting or expressed in written form in the chat, will show respect for other speakers and focus on the topic under discussion, avoiding assumptions about other members and addressing arguments considerately.
- Two Executive members will monitor the chat and intervene either publicly or in direct chat messages when members post messages which are disrespectful, uncollegial, and/or do not contribute to advancing the reasoned discussion of the business at hand in the meeting.
- The Executive will convene a group of members to draft and propose updates to By-Law 21, for consideration at the AGM in May 2025.
- The first YUFA members’ drop-in meeting in January 2025 will focus on the Code for Equity and Inclusion and how it can be updated to better address our union’s needs, especially in the age of online meetings.
I hope that these measures will help to support constructive dialogue in our meetings.
Showing 1 reaction