You Know What They Say About Rules

written by Kantbe Thursday

Recently a disciplinary action involving the SLSA Group chat was brought to my attention. I was told that there was likely going to be some stuff hitting the proverbial fan. Over the past several days, I've been interviewing people to try to get as many facts straight as I could and try to get the timelines down.

At an early stage, there were claims of SLSA rules not being followed and possibly even some abuse of power. A director had ejected a member from SLSA Group chat due to what that Director felt was becoming inappropriate behavior for the group. As one Director put it to me, "abuse of any kind in the group isn't going to be accepted. It should be a relaxed friendly place for people to be." Initially I felt this might be a case of not following the SLSA governing rules and procedures. However, what I have found is quite the contrary. No actions nor processes that have been developed by the SLSA Board and in practice for the past couple of years were violated. Bear in mind that these processes precede any of the current Board holding office.

The practice is one that extends the Code of Conduct and part of the Constitution to include every aspect of SLSA activities, not solely competitions. Yes, this includes SLSA Group chat. In the event a Board member observes what they consider to be inappropriate behavior in open chat during non-competition SLSA events or in Group chat, they are empowered to take immediate action to “diffuse a problem”. Review and discussion by the rest of the Board takes place after the fact, so there is accountability.

All of this is well and good. But I personally have one problem with it. Documentation of this practice is hard to find and probably would be missed even by members who make a point to read all of the published rules that define how the SLSA will operate.

As a former Director, I know that the Board has a lot more to do with their time than most members realize. I hope that the Board will find the time to update the published rules to reflect this practice that has been in place by the Board for at least the past couple of years. Since there are ramifications on what a member can and cannot do while in an ejected state, I also hope that this expanded process would provide guidelines on what kind of behavior is inappropriate and specific timelines for when the Board will review and resolve the issue.

During the course of working on this incident, the SLSA Board has issued the following statement:
"We the board of the SLSA have recognized and will be continuously working on updating both the website and the rules that govern the SLSA. Many of you are past directors and realize the incredible amount of time it takes to run a successful season. We have a working list of things that will and need to be done. Keeping the membership apprised of the rules is at the top of that list. 99.9% of the membership have never and will never need rules for group chat because we have a community of the best and the brightest. There will always be those that will cross those lines and we will be documenting on the site how we and future boards will address those issues."

[Editors Note: This is an opinion piece and represents the views of the author.]

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