[diversity] Increase in diversity at NLNOG meetings, and other good news

Hi,

few weeks ago there was an event in Amsterdam, that had many
participants & topics that overlap with the RIPE community.

I wrote about my personal impressions; some of them are relevant for
the diversity-task force, so I'm pointing you to the RIPE Labs article:

https://labs.ripe.net/Members/becha/experiences-from-nlnog-day-2017

> NLNOG keeps improving year after year ...

> NLNOG has just introduced the Code of Conduct, summarised by Job
> Snijders during the opening speech. (video). NLNOG also appointed two
> "trusted persons" for during and after the event. These are people
> that are instructed on how to deal with undesired behaviour and
> report back to the organisation.
> 
> Having a Code of Conduct for events is one of the items on the
> elusive checklist for increasing gender diversity, as pointed out
> here.
> 
> In my opinion, gender diversity is lacking at NLNOG: out of ten
> presenters there were ZERO female presenters, and out of ~150
> participants, there were about 10-15 women. I had a talk and a
> brainstorm with some attendees on what can we do to make the next
> event more interesting (or more safe) for our female colleagues.
> There were a lot of ideas: reach out to university students, invite
> female speakers in order to provide role models, provide contact for
> babysitters during evening activities, open fellowship for women on
> parental leave, etc,.  But what's key to remember is that actions
> take time and effort and energy, and it again places the burden on
> the minority to try to improve the situation.

Now, several weeks later, and after visiting / hearing about other
events, I realize that this is a very long process, and the improvements
will be small & far apart -- and we need to be grateful for small
victories (like, 10-15 women this year at NLNOG was actually an increase!)

Do you have some more encouraging news to share?


Thanks,
Vesna